Say WHAT?!!  You didn't think a kid with a Dysgraphia and ADHD could be a straight up genius?!  Well, as a smart-mouth person once said, "Don't raise your eyebrows, raise your expectations!"   I absolutely love that quote, because it basically says -- stop selling people short because of your own biases.  A lot of times as parents, we don't take our kids to get tested because we are afraid of what we might find.  What if they label my kid?  What if they say he has this?  What if it turns out to be that?  I say to heck with all that.  As soon as we noticed our oldest son's brain might be processing things differently, we took him for comprehensive psychological testing.  That was when he was six.  You can search my blogs for ADHD and I'm sure something will come up about it.  Well, he is no 10 point five, and puberty is among us.  This is a time when ADHD symptoms can become more prominent, and indeed we began to notice this was the case.  Because we will slay any and everything that threatens to erect itself as a barrier to our children's success, we immediately went back to the psychologist for more testing.  Our question was simple: "Is it time to start medication?"

Now from here, I'm going super lazy and just going to copy and paste the Facebook post I already made about this on my personal page.  My hope is that it will reduce the stigma people have about taking their kids to a mental health professional to get tested.  There really is nothing to it but to do it.  Here you go:

We got the results of Zahir's psych testing. His fluid reasoning and quantitative reasoning IQ are 95th percentile. NINTETY-FIFTH PERCENTILE! As in he is literally the most reasonable person in the house lolol!!! On the other hand, his working memory (i.e. executive function and organizational skill) is just above average at 58th percentile. That is a HUGE gap (more than 2 standard deviations!) and is absolutely having an impact on his academic performance. He is doing ...well in school -- but can you imagine what he could be doing if he could organize himself?! He would be KILLING IT. His diagnoses are ADHD combined type, moderate severity and Dysgraphia -- the combination of which account for that gap. Importantly -- remember the entire point of the repeat testing was to help us determine if we wanted to start medication at this time, and indeed it has helped us make the decision. Because his deficits are primarily organizational and executive, the Psychologist said it is reasonable to start with a trial of ADHD specific executive skill and organizational management skill building, so that is what we will do. Zahir is getting an executive coach. We will watch closely for improvement and if we don't see it, we will add meds to the formula! So, long story short, if you think you see something in your kids, get them tested. The amount of information that comes out of psychological testing is just absolutely invaluable. This is our second time around the block and it has been just as rewarding as the first. And just a note -- that was only one of the 27 recommendations she gave us as options for how we and Zahir's teachers can support his ability to maximize his brain power. So we will all be getting to work to ensure Super Zah reaches his full Superness