[whoownsthis]

We've had our girls home now for nearly 7 months and have had them in "play therapy" for only a few sessions (even though we know they need attachment therapy). They were doing so well after their initial testing period in the summer, but the oldest (who was formerly on Clonidine, now only on a bed-wetting med) began getting into trouble at school and her lying and stealing behaviors have gotten out of hand (several times a week). The kids know the adoption will happen "soon," so it could just be acting out due to anxiety. ???
The play therapist they're seeing (she says it's the best way to get through to young kids who can't verbalize well) was recommended by our agency because she's an adoptive parent herself and familiar with attachment.

Well...even though this therapist has attended seminars discussing attachment disorder and has read all of the same books I have (Adopting the Hurt Child, Love and Logic, etc.), she is not certified in it and doesn't feel she could diagnose it. She recommended that we find an attachment therapist (the one we had already contacted who is 2.5 hours away, but we've found another who is about 3 hours away and who might take our insurance. The first guy doesn't deal with insurance--he just makes families pay up front then submit the receipt to their insurance...AND he's registered with ATTACH! Grr..)

Anyway, the current therapist referred us to a neurology center and recommended that we get a full psych panel done to determine what she has exactly (RAD, PTSD, ODD?) and to determine what, if any, meds would be recommended. They would also recommend which type of therapy would be best, but she said we could take the results to the attachment therapist. She said she'd continue to see our oldest (and recommended that my husband and I take parenting classes offered by her clinic!) if we didn't go to attachment therapy, or even in addition to it if we thought it would help.

Now since WE think it's attachment, maybe even RAD (as Dr. Art had suggested in another response to me based on their severe early negliect, frequent moves before coming into foster care, and lying/stealing/indiscriminately charming behaviors) and this therapist thinks it's attachment-related (she's not sure it's RAD, but admits she's not an expert), will such a psych panel be misleading or a waste of time? As long as Medicaid will pay for it, we probably ought to get it done, and we don't have to follow their advice anyway, if it seems way off.

I was thinking of asking about neurofeedback, too, hoping that our oldest could retrain her brain to help with learning, too. She doesn't seem to learn from her mistakes ("Hmm...stealing stuff out of kids' schoolbags got me in big trouble last week, so maybe this week I should call my teacher "weird" to her face in class...and then act shocked when she consequences me and my parents are ticked, too."). She also has trouble with reading comprehension (but she aces every spelling test!). Math is a real struggle, too (she's 8 and repeating 1st grade, and in the LD classroom for language and speech, but stays in the regular classroom for math with an assistant who checks on her work occasionally). Her IQ is in the mildly mentally handicapped range, but we're not sure yet, since she has only gotten true remedial help this school year. (She's made great strides, but tested "significantly lower" and "lower than average" for ability, but then "lower than average" or even "average" for achievement...meaning that she shouldn't be able to master some of the material, but somehow she has!)

Anyway, my question is: what exactly is a full psych screen and is there anything specific that we should request they do in it that they probably wouldn't unless we ask? I'm sure we'll end up with a list of diagnoses, but we'll take these with a grain of salt until we can have her assessed by the attachment therapist. As long as Medicaid will pay for it, though, we thought this might be helpful.

Thanks!