testing

My husband and I are concerned about our son, (age 7 in 2nd grade) particularly his performance in school. Our pediatrician referred us to a pychologist/educational assestment expert for testing. We are scheduled to meet with him and then he follows up with an in-class observation and then a series of tests, which is good. We thought he might have ADD (not bad behavior type, more inattentive), but am also thinking he might have ADP, based upon what I've been reading. Should we also have a hearing specialist take a look at him, or will the psychologist's phonological tests, such as CTOPP and TAPS-R) and visual/auditory attention test (IVA) be enough?
His teacher said that he seems to WANT to listen, but zones off a lot -- so he's not doing it to be bad. We've had his speech tested last year and he was borderline, not enough to get into the speech program at school. I think he has an auditory problem b/c he does say "huh" alot, but what kid doesn't!? ;-) He's a 100% speller but he's been increasingly coming home with unfinished work. He says he's "thinking". His main problem seems to always have been comprehension of topics at school. Once we go over them enough, he finally gets them. We just want him to be able to do his best, whatever that is, and don't want him to fall farther behind as he gets olde

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

As part of the initial workup, you can request through his pediatrician that an audiologist examine him; this will yield information that will not be available in the psychological/educational testing. Then you can incorporate the audiologist's information with the testing information and see where it leads (in particular, if it answers the pertinent questions or invites additional evaluation).