Psychological Assessments

Last night I went through all the paperwork - forms, assessments, etc. that we have to fill out for various agencies and sat down for a good hour and filled them all out. It was sorta exhausting but obviously worth it. The 2 assessments that the school psychologist, Jessica, gave us I was calling "Mykaya's checklist". It was weird, it was like the questionnaires were made for her.

The first one was called the BRIEF assessment, which is a test of Executive Functioning. Apparently she must have quite a few deficits in that area :( You can read more about EF and what it is here. I felt a little weird because looking back at all the answers, I mostly answered with 'often a problem'. 68 times out of 86 questions, to be exact. 13 of them were 'sometimes a problem', which leaves 5 out of 86 answers being 'never a problem'. A few examples: "When given 3 things to do, remembers only the first or last" (Often-actually always, but that's not an option on this test), "Forgets to hand in homework, even when completed" (again, this is always. 'Often' gets the point across though), and "Needs help from an adult to stay on task" (Often). Now if that's not somebody taking the time to pay attention and using the appropriate assessments, I don't know what is. Yay Jessica! 

The other form was the Social Responsiveness Scale. This assessment was basically 65 questions about how Mykaya does in different settings. I had to choose between 4 different levels on this one: 1.Not True, 2.Sometimes True, 3.Often True and 4.Almost Always True. For example, "seems much more fidgety in social situations than when alone" (4) "has trouble making friends, even when trying her best" (4) or a huge one, "offers comfort to others when they are sad" (1). When someone is sad, Mykaya is clearly bothered and uncomfortable but is unsure what to do about it. She usually just walks away.

Honestly, some of this stuff probably pertains to a lot of kids, some of the time. But in Mykaya's case, this is our reality, all of the time. When her OT eval showed her to be 3 years behind, after I got past the initial shock, it was like yeah that's about right. It's like she was growing and changing up until about 3-4 years old, then just STOPPED. You look forward to that part of being a parent; watching your kids grow, mature and become more independent. Sure, she's grown, but she really hasn't matured at all since she was about 4 years old. To accurately describe my feelings, it's like my baby is trapped somewhere and can't find her way out, and I can't find her either.

Hopefully we are that much closer to the keys which will unlock her prison.

With love,
The Schulz's