Monday, March 23, 2009

Nathans Neuro-Psych Evaluation 3/23/09

Ok where to begin. I am just going to note on here what we discussed as to keep a record of today. My memory is getting bad lately so I try to write everything down so not to forget it.

Overall my impression of what was going on in Nate's head is pretty much what I thought.

His response to questions is delayed. When she would ask him questions that required some what of a response he was very delayed at answering.

His goofing off and ovoiding answering questions is his way of coping with his confusion and frustration of not knowing the answer right away.

His short term memory is not there at this point. It may return with time but in her educated guess is that he will always have a deficite on short term memory of what extent is not clear. With regaining memory after brain damage it is never the same response of regaining it.

His math skills right now is that of a 3rd grade level.

He shows signs of neurological damage in his right hand vs his left. The response time for him to hear a word and for him to put that on paper is very delayed again. She said that with time this may come back to a normal range.

Multi tasks for him is not atainable. He needs to have only short answer responses with multiple choice and or true or false. Any writing he should be encouraged to use a computer for that. Nerve damage to his right side is noted in his medical notes from last year.

His social skills are very delayed. He needs to get in to some social skill therapy. This is due to his delay from many years of being in pain and pushing away others out of his safe zone. His coping skills will be addressed in this therapy. She gave me the name and info of the therapist she suggests.

He needs ocupational therapy. The school should be able to get this service from the school. If the school does not think he needs it she said to get a hold of her and she will set them straight.

He also is in need of speech therapy. His delayed reaction in verbally answering questions was labored at times. He would say the wrong word for comon items and so forth. This is also something that the school should cover. Again if they do not then she will see to it that they do.

She wants to see him in a year for a re-eval to see what his progress has been.

He is not to be in regular classrooms as yet. He needs a one on one in a small setting. She does not want him walking in the halls with the other students going from a class to the next class. This is something that maybe in a year he can start doing. He is to only work maybe 2 hours a day on school work. She suggests that we split the time up between a tutor at home and then some time at school as well. The goal is to get him aclamated back into the school and classroom settings. But for right now and the next year he needs to have the one on one. After he is re-evaluated is when we will decide if he is ok to try changing classes.

I am only putting this info in here because his carepage has some friends that read it from time to time and I do not want any one reading it and knowing that He has brain damage.

Overall the long term outlook for him in the education area is all up in the air. He may flourish and go far beyond what at this time she thinks is his capability. But for now we are just going to take it one day at a time.

Right now this is most of what I can think of.