Testing Testing, 123

The testing.... was a nightmare.

I had no idea what to expect, but I did at least figure they had experience with special children and would take that into account. Alas.

The first day of testing took forever - he wouldn't focus on any of the questions long enough to answer them, kept going off on tangents, then throwing fits when he couldn't stop the testing.

At the end of the day, they concluded that they couldn't make a decision because they couldn't get him to finish the tests.

Uh. DUH, isn't that why I brought him here??

Which of course meant another month long wait while they setup another testing time for him. That time, they did it with one person in the room, with bribes like M&M's, and were able to get most of the way done.

After all this they sat us down and finally concluded that he needed some help. I can't remember today what that first IEP entailed - I had no idea what they were talking about at the time and was absolutely lost!

Thus started Emerson's journey at Rainbows!

The Testing...

We had no idea what "screening" meant but contacted Rainbows United to get going with it. First thing they told us to do was have his hearing checked, so they could be sure it wasn't an issue of him not hearing what is expected of him.

So a few weeks later (one think you'll notice is that there's LONG wait times for all this stuff!), we took him to the audiologist, who tested and approved his hearing. That paperwork supposedly then went over to Rainbows for his file.

Next up to bat - the joys of testing!

After waiting another month or so, it was finally our turn to be evaluated! We went up to Rainbows United's Kid Cove building, near 21st/Zoo on the west side. They took poor Emerson into a room with 3 or 4 adults in there and started grilling him.

Could he write this line?

Could he tie laces?

Could he hold scissors?

Etc etc.

They tried it with us in the room, with us out of the room, with bribes, treats, etc. Finally they told us that they just couldn't test him. He absolutely could not finish the tests even enough for them to score anything. Well, hello!? that's the problem!!

So we had to make another testing appointment to try to fill in the gaps. A few weeks later, here we go!

This time they took him in with just one person in the room and it went a little better. I was rather surprised at all the things he couldn't do that I had just never thought about. We never had a tricycle, and I didn't know he should have been doing that! And I never let him near scissors so he'd never had the chance to try cutting lines.

But there were other things like standing on one leg, balance, skipping, drawing, etc, that he really should have been able to do and could not. Their biggest problem though was his reaction when he couldn't do it, if they could get him to even focus long enough to try!!

So then they schedule the results meeting, where they'll talk to us about what they think and if they can help...

In the meantime..... a little bird there told us that we might get more help if we go ahead and have a psychologist evaluate him for a diagnosis... so that appointment is also approaching (after a 2 month search to find one who would deal with children this young!).