Thorough investigation makes it official: V is mentaly retarded

A couple of days ago we recieved a not surprisingly yet somewhat discouraging notice.
After being tested several times with at least four different test types the psycologists agreed to put the diagnosis "Non Specific Mental Retardation".

The Non Specific part is based on the fact that V made some really great achievements on some of the tests, and then other results that were, well not so good. He also only speaks some 10 words or so, that makes it difficult to judge his language abilties.

He really scored good on the parts called "helping out at home and know his way around the home". I´ve already written about the great fact that he can make his own smoothie. He knows how to find the different parts of the mixer, he put´s them together and he brings a banana, some youghurt, orange juice and frozen berry fruits from the freezer and mixes them together. All by himself.

On that part of one of the tests V actually scored points as of an average 5 year and 4 months child. A brilliant result since he´s only 5 years old. But that was also the only really good result. The rest indicated a boy around 3 or 4 years of age.

This is one of the tests where V struggled.
"Fill in the missing square by choosing one of the four pictures down below:"

Patterns and numbers are hard for V. Colors are simple. But the psycologists suspects that he has problems with the perception of the eye. We havn´t been able to investigate his sight very deep, the doctors think his eyes work fine but there can be some problems with the information from the eyes to the brain. Some things might get lost in translation there.

So how did all this affect us as parents? Me, as a father?

Well. It was all in all quite predictable information. We knew about his strengths and his weaknesses. Now the question is - what´s the hen and what´s the egg? Is he good on colors because we play the same game every night where we collect "balloons" in different colors? Or is it because he is good on colors that he likes the game so much?
Is he good in the kitchen because we spend so much time there together, letting him try and be a part of the cooking? Or is it because he likes to bake and cook that he has made so much progress in that area?

And always when we get a test result with V that´s telling us about his disabilties, it is discouraging. It tells us in black on white that he is a boy with problems. He is not a normal kid. And that hurts of course. I mean, I know these things already, but when another doctor or psycologist again tells me about this, well you know... it is a reminder of something I sometimes let myself to forget.

Good things: V is now officially entitled to special school. And information about his conditions will now spread to his teachers in kindergarten and to people within the care system around him. The more information people around V gets about his mysterious undiagnosed condition - the better.

And, most importantly, V is the same great kid with the same great smile and tendereness as he were before the tests. Nothing has really changed in the fundamental part of being V. But we have gathered another small piece of information that helps us understanding this enigma of kid we have. And that is always a good thing.