Wednesday, March 11, 2015

CP AWARENESS: PSYCHOLOGY REPORT II

Here's the second Psychology Report a year later from yesterday's post.

Again I'll translate:

Age: 6 years 6 months

Seen: New Iberia Health Unit
          Iberia Parish Unit
         5-12-69


I saw Lisa in April of 68 at which time she attained a Stanford-Binet I.Q. of 71. Another test was wanted to see if she had changed significantly and what class she should be placed in, whether she should attempt the regular class or be in a retarded class.

Lisa impresses me as rather formal and matter of fact without great feeling. She talks rather vaguely and her articulation problems make it quite difficult to understand her.  She is still a fairly scared child.


On the WISC Lisa attained a verbal IQ of 72 and a Performance I.Q. of 65. These scores are in the Borderline and Mildly Retarded ranges. The highest score seems to be the more accurate measure of her academic or school ability.

There are signs from testing and otherwise that the mother tends to keep expecting too much and pushing this girl some. Again I told her that she couldn't help Lisa's ability by doing this but could harm it some. I encouraged her to let Lisa do as much as she could, however.

Actually, this girl needs a slow learner class but that's not available. I think it's probably better to let this girl belong to the regular class and spend a year or two in each grade, rather than being in class where they are much lower and much rowdier.  Also regular classes are near her home and family would not have to drive an hour a day to make arrangements. I cautioned the mother that Lisa probably would fail every year or so and to emphasize on grades significantly. I think it would be good if Mrs Hebert reinforced this from time to time.

______
I passed every year as an average student. I went onto becoming a nurse. So much for being a slow learner.

With many years of speech therapy during my Elementary years my speech has improved significantly although I have trouble with saying a word. I call those times as having a CP brain fart.

 Once you get to know me, you usually get used to my speech. However, strangers have trouble sometimes. MyHubby tells me most of the time they are not listening exactly to what I am saying.

Case in point: The other day I was on the phone. I was saying my address and our street name is difficult for people to spell: Courtableau…signs like Core-tah-blah. I spelled it. She comes back with C-o-r-t-o-b-l-u. How did she miss u, got "o" out of a and totally missed ea is beyond me because I was saying it fairly slow. So I had to repeat using words "C as in Cat", etc.

My mom is my hero. She could tell I could do a lot more than the Psychologist implied. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if there was a slow learner class available. I think my Mom would have fought tooth and nail.

The  tone of the psychologist and the way he used mentally retarded makes me cringe.

It's funny! I think I express myself with very strong feelings just fine. I think many will agree.

I think as a child I was shy and I knew I was "different". Being evaluated by doctors and psychologists was intimidating to a little tot. Kids sense many things and maybe I sensed something with this psychologist so I clammed up.

I also wondered how the test was performed because how could he give me a score when he could not understand what I am saying?

Of course with my bad speech problems at the time, very few people took the time to try to listen and understand me. So I probably thought why bother to talk.

I have friends and family members say they forget I have Cerebral Palsy in any way, shape or form.
I love to hear that.

Thank you for the warm comments and encouraging words.

2 comments:

  1. You sure showed him! Sad part though is how many others were inaccurately diagnosed and went through the system as being "retarded". That makes my skin crawl. Bless your heart for being a strong and confident woman who didn't let these idiots keep them down. And bless your mother for not listening. Hugs my friend.

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    1. Barb, this was in the 60's and not much was known about many things medically. I often wonder the same thing, how many of us was misdiagnosed? Thankfully, there are a lot more resources to help both the medical field and those with severe disabilities and their families. Thanks my friend..Hugs right back at ya!

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