Pumpkin had his neuropsych evaluation last week; two morning sessions, one on Wednesday, and one on Friday.
Seeking to explain to the boys why Tigger was going to school the next day and Pumpkin wasn't I made what I intended to sound like an offhand comment about going to play some games and figure out how Pumpkin's brain works.
Pumpkin stopped what he was doing and said, clear as day, "there's nothing wrong with my brain."
I should say not.
I told him he was right, there was nothing wrong with his brain, that he had a very smart brain and we were going to figure out how he could best use it to learn lots of things.
I hesitated about this step for a long time, but now that's it's done, I am eager to see what it all might mean. I was in an outer room while the evaluation was being conducted but I could hear a lot of what was being asked, and I could tell by Pumpkin's responses that there were times that he clearly didn't understand what was being asked of him. On the other hand, when it came to puzzles and other visual assessments, he was doing things some 16 year olds find challenging. No surprise there.
I'm supposed to go back in mid-February for the rundown after she scores the assessments. Then we get to talk about strategies. I've gone from being apprehensive to being more excited.
We talked a little bit about visual learners and how it he might need things modeled for him if he was having trouble understanding the directions. I'm not concerned about him acquiring facts, but I am a little worried about him with regard to conceptual information. She mentioned a great deal of fidgeting during the testing, more the second day than the first. Rather than ADD that might be related to his sensory overload. We'll see how it all shakes out.
One thing I have noticed is that memorization (which is the way I was taught) seems to work for him, and come easily for him (as it did for me). The other day he was drawing a police car. He had the word "POLICE" written across the car, but spelled incorrectly. I told him the correct spelling, he wrote it down and went on to something else. In church a week later, he had a sheet full of hand-drawn police cars and one helicopter all with the word spelled correctly.
As I was writing this, Pumpkin came up to me from where he was drawing at the table. He wanted to show me some new windows he designed for a Volkwagon, a Honda, and a Toyota. Each window had the logo of the appropriate car drawn above it and each window opened a different way, including one that resembled an airlock on a spaceship. He showed me how it was supposed to work and I said "Oh, I get it." What he said next, and the tone in which he said it, surprised me enough to take it a some kind of sign from the Universe.
"Yes, Mom. You DO get it."
Let's hope so.



