Do I go to a psychiatrist or neurologist to consult about my son who has learning disability?

Question

He is showing strange or repetitive behavior not manifested when he was younger. He is 23 years old now.

Answer 1

I am going to address your question because so many of the answers have missed a huge point...your son is 23 and therefore is not under the protection of IDEA, IEP, or any pubic school services.

I am a teacher and I work with adolescents and adults until they are 21, which is the age that IDEA mandates services be provided to students.

You stated that your son is diagnosed as LD. I am inferring that he received services while in school thus you may be able to get some input from case manager, teacher who worked with him and would be able to compare his past behaviors to the new ones your are seeing. Thus, giving you more insight into the whole picture.

I work with Autistic students and many are multiply handicapped. My experience tells me that your son may have been identified as LD and may truly be high functioning Autistic or Asperger's. Recently, I attended a workshop at Rutger's University's Douglas Developmental Disabilities Center. The presenter actually spoke of this very kind of situation, and its not so uncommon occurence.

A possibility is that your son is displaying "self-stimulating" AKA stimming behaviors typical of autisim. These behaviors are not bad. The reason they occur is the person is trying to block out too much sensory input, by focusing on one form of sensory input - the stimming behavior. Your son may have only started this because something has changed dramatically enough that he was not able to handle the sensory input that he was handling before. The change could be in the amount of input, the type of input, the form of the input. Senory input in anything that the body recieves a message about and is supposed to act on the input. Smells, touch, sight, tastes, sounds in all their forms and variations are able to trigger stimming behavior in any person with too much sensory information to handle. IE if you are tired and bored in a class you may begin to bounce your feet or leg to stimulate your body away from being tired and bored to thinking about the bouncing of the leg or foot.

Seeing someone who is familar with Asperger's and/or Autisim, either neuro or psychologist with experience in this field could help you to the next stage of your journey.

Web site www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html - this is a web site listed in Autism for Dummies - and that is not a cruel joke the book exisits and has a lot of information. This book dedicates a chapter to Asperger's and notes how the disorder is often misdiagnosed or undiagnosed.

Good Luck - I hope I helped.

Barbara

Answer 2

I am not sure what the strange or repetitive behaviors would have to do with a learning disability.

I would recommend keeping a journal of the these behaviors, how often they are occurring, any interventions you have tried and their effectiveness.

Take your findings to your primary physician and ask for the proper referral. You may end up seeing a nuero-psychiatrist, which takes both fields into consideration.

Answer 3

Contact your primary doctor. They should be able to point you in the right direction. A neurologist would be best if you think it is a neurological problem that is manifesting. A psychiatrist would be best if you think these behaviors are a result of stress or mental health issues.

I wish you good luck! I hope your son gets the help he needs.

Answer 4

A lot of misinformation around here. First of all, if it is a true learning disability the cause is brain based. Thus a psychiatrist is not the answer at all. Second, if it is a true learning disability the results would be weaknesses in processing, storage or retrieval of information. The result would be academic performance substantially lower then same aged peers. In our school systems, learning disabilities students receive support in reading, writing and/or math. The description you gave of behaviors is not characteristic of a person with a learning disability .

Answer 5

There is no need for you to consult a psychiatrist or a neurologist for your son's disability towards learning, what you need to do is sit with him and ask him why he don't have a passion to learn and if there is any specific reason, just try to help him in that.
If there is no any specific reason at all and since due to laziness he is wantedly doing that, make him aware the necessasity of learning and its purpose,
Show him some examples like the educated people and differentiate them with the uneducated people.

Also guide him with some of the easy way to learn, since he is twenty three, I think he would have finished his basic learning.


Find out the field in which he is interested and what ever the field may be please encourage him to do more in that, so by doing this he may get closer to you and to make you happy he will change his way. Slightly would like to come into your way.

Just try this and the last thing and never the least :

Never ever scold him for this reason .. That too in front of his friends or any....

Answer 6

You may want to consult a neuropsychologist. Call the nearest big city hospital and ask for a referral, or maybe a neurologist or psychologist can recommend one. It sounds like you are going through a tough time with your son. I hope things get better and you find the right help.

Answer 7

That no effort is wasted, nothing learned done or made is useless, people are complex and are never what they seem, everyone has motives whether they know it or not, for something to exist it has to be triggered- this goes for actions emotions and everything else in life,i should always do everything to the best I my ability, everything doesn't have to include emotions, sleep is precious, and the goal to life is happiness but, however lazy someone is they can not be idle an however hardworking they are, they still have to stop and have precious moments of absorption of the beauty around them.

Answer 8

If he is on Psychiatric medication you may want to see the psychiatrist to see if his behavior is related to the medication. If it is not a medication issue you may want to consult with a neurologist.

If he is not on psychiatric medication, he should see his primary physician first then apporpriate course of action should be taken.

Answer 9

Why not go to a special education specialist? When it comes to educational placement and educational interventions, it would be best to consult with them.

Answer 10

first go to i phsyciatrist because thier is no harm done their and if he says you need anything else thatn do it but be sure he isnt just scaming you and whatever you do do not go to an of the doctors he recomends to you