Brilliant...with just a hint of Aspergers - Brief Update
Tue Nov 20, 2007 at 09:15:14 AM PDT
So, last night was the BIG MEETING for my husband and I with the psychologist we hired to evaluate Miles. I guess you can tell by the title of this diary that we learned a bit more about the relative composition of Miles's eccentricities.
First, I have to say that I am relieved. For 2 1/2 years I've been trying to convince Miles's school that he wasn't your ordinary gifted kid and to request more stimulating content for him. I mean, the kid started reading hardcore non-fiction science books when he was three. He flits through museum exhibitions seemingly paying attention to nothing, and then recounts the entire content of the show to us later that day. At the Darwin exhibition at the Museum of Natural History last year, he walked up to the diorama and began pointing out the specimins without looking at the text panels. "Look Mommy! A Sally Light-foot crab! Look at that Blue-Footed Booby! Marine Iguanas, cool!" The grown-ups peered at the labels and shook their heads in wonder.
I could tell you (and probably have) a thousand of these stories, but his school would always push back with anecdotes about his behavior (he doesn't listen, he doesn't work well in groups) or concerns about his handwriting.
The principal and I are barely on speaking terms at this point. The disdain with which she greeted my requests to have him tested was insulting. "We celebrate all of our students' many gifts," she'd say sweetly. When we finally told her we'd be having him independently evaluated, she remarked, "I'll be very interested to see the results," which sounded more like, "Oh, you'll find out he's not all that and a bag of chips you bragadocious pushy mother."
Well, guess what. His verbal scores are nearly off the charts-- 99.8 and 99.9 percentiles.
Yet the process of evaluation itself was fraught with difficulties, as Miles refused to take some tests and buckled under the pressure of timed testing. In some cases, the variance in his scores was more than 45 points -- a kid with a 155 in spelling but a 97 in processing speed raises all sorts of red flags. Further behavioral evaluations, including classroom observation, tended to reinforce concerns in the areas of "atypicality" and "withdrawal."
So, yes, he is "brilliant," according to the psychologist. But there is the reality that there are important things that Miles is only average in-- processing speed, pragmatic thinking. And then there are the below average areas -- social skills (the dreaded group work), transitions, breaks with routine.
So this diagnosis makes great sense and it is one my husband and I look to with hope and optimism. The psychologist said that the school's evaluation of him was less outside the norm than our own parental evaluation. She believes this to mean that he works hard to "keep it together" at school, and this, she said, is a Very Good Thing.
Next steps are a final Asperger's inventory by the school and then a meeting with the teacher and administration -- a meeting where I am going to savor the moment that the doctor says to the principal, "Miles is brilliant....(with a hint of Asperger's)"
UPDATE: Just had to share that Miles came home with two project rubrics today that were outstanding. First, he got full marks on his "character puppet" project, for which the children had to choose a literary character, make a puppet out of a paper towel roll and then answer questions about the book and the character which they had to affix to a piece of poster board. Then they had to present the puppet and poster to the class. Miles put his heart and soul into this project, choosing Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix for his book, and he got a perfect grade, and a "Super Job, Miles!" comment from his teacher. Second, he got a 95% on a project he had to do with a partner on glaciers. They lost 5 points on one of the questions, but otherwise again, full marks. Most significantly, his teacher wrote a comment on the page congratulating him for working well with his teammate.
So, that all made us very happy indeed! And he seemed very proud.
Finally: THANKS SO MUCH TO ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR SWEET AND SUPPORTIVE WORDS TODAY!!! This is the place I know I can come for friendship, support and great advice from some very amazing women.
