ADHD and hearing loss

Yes, that is my child upside down, a common sight around the Blakely home, after all he is a young boy and he has significant ADHD. I may post on this again after I finish reading all the information the ADHD psychologist gave me after his evaluation of Gage. I noticed several times it was noted that he was very talkative. That may have surprised him since Gage is deaf and didn't learn to speak well until after he received his first cochlear implant when he was three and a half. He noted that during much of the testing, Gage was constantly talking and telling little stories, some were true stories, others were fictional or fantasy type stories. So testing him was very difficult. I feel for the teacher! I was his teacher for most of the year last year, I know how hard it is!!!

At this point Gage is considered of average intelligence. He said he didn't believe these to be his true scores because it was obvious that his ADHD affected his testing, which is why we were there, not necessarily to measure his intelligence at this point...but we can come back for that or have our school do it (the IQ tests). Does he feel Gage's scores will change dramatically, not necessarily, but he does believe that Gage should be tested AFTER his ADHD is stable for around four weeks. We are going Tues. to discuss meds with our pediatrician. The psychologist says that Gage scored average to high average range on basic academic skills like reading, spelling, math. And get this, he also scored high average range for word pronunciation, yeah, the deaf kid!!

I wish you could've seen that video of Gage, when the doc left the room for 15 min. and had him do some "school work". He did good (just fidgety and out of his seat, but he tried to really do the work at first) until the eight minute mark, then it all went haywire! He was making faces at the camera, out of his seat, not on task at all, left the room....but he does feel like Gage will respond well to the meds and he assured me that the meds should not affect his personality, just his ability to concentrate and stay on task...more on this later!