One of the worse things about being the parent of a child with a learning disability is the dreaded psych evaluation. Somewhere between birth and now, I’ve learned to mistrust the people who should be tender in the care of my kids’ brain development. Somewhere between the uncaring school psychologist my husband almost came to blows with, the aide who was really a psychologist and recommended medicating when she was only 3, and the disdain for improved dieting showed to me by the one doctor I did trust, I have misgivings about all psychologists.
Now, I’ve known ones that I really liked, and several who were just fine. But as this one spoke about various tests and testing, I felt very unsettled. My goal as a parent is to have people look beyond labels and scales to see Amelia and Zoe for who they are. My goal for teachers is to show them that my kids have intelligence and areas of passion, and that we need to tap into that to give them a good life. Sure, I’m wondering where Zoe falls on an intelligence scale, because my suspicion is she is smarter than seems. That totally could be a mommy thing. I know she has below-age skills in drawing and speech, and compliance…and that last one means testing is not a great idea.
We have an appointment for a week from Saturday. We’ll have to see how it goes, and I won’t hold my breath.
