Gale
I live in the US . I also have a son who is now 14. He was officially diagnosed with DD( developmental Delay or mild mental retardation)two years ago. Because of his delays and our suspicions, we put him through some intense testing thruogh the social security system. I am not sure of the policies in Canada as far as the school system goes, but here,if there is any suspicion as to the diagnosis of the child or learning abilities, the school is responsible for the testing and it can be quite expensive.There is a psychological examination first, if the doc determines the child as delayed,he then refers him to a specialist to determine cognative delay levels. (learning ability)Then that person refers the child to another specialist who will determine whether he has motor function delays (muscle tone,ability to run,walk,hold a pencil,etc.)After that determination, he will be refered to a speech specialist and that person will do an evaluation as to his level of speech. I don't know if the process goes in that order for all tests, but it took about three weeks of testing to determine my sons' diagnosis. It sounds like you are accepting of this as something that is not a bad thing, and of course it isn't. My son was also tested for fragile X and was neg. MR(mild retardation) is hard to diagnose as there are many factors involved. There are also many levels of retardation and these are determined as to the abilities of the child. I think you should try to get some sort of diagnosis as soon as you can so your son is better understood and can get the services he needs to function in society. Please feel free to E- mail me any time.As I would like to talk more with you.