“Yes,” Dr. Granger said. “Geneva is extremely smart and very good in her classes. But she is having some issues socially, and some mild ... behavioral issues—”
“Behavior? She’s acting out in class?”
This time, the counselor cleared her throat at Siena’s interruption, and there was no smile. “No. She’s very well behaved in that regard. But she has a tendency to be distracted—to get caught in daydreams, we could think of it that way. She sometimes seems to get bored or just lose track of lectures and will start doing something else, things like that.”
“But her grades are good, right? So ... does it matter if she’s focused on a lesson she already understands?”
“Well, when one student loses focus, it tends to ripple out to other students who might not be ready to move on.”
Siena’s hands ached, and she registered that she’d made fists so tight her nails were digging into her palms. “So ... what. Are you going to punish her for—”
“No.” Dr. Granger leapt on the opportunity to interrupt Siena back. “This is not about being punitive in any way. I want to talk to you about assessing Geneva for a possible learning disorder.”
“Learning disorder? She’s got straight As!” Gym didn’t count.
“Not all learning disorders mean poor grades. Most disorders are about how students process information, and many students—especially girls, because the behavior aspects of these things tend to be more muted in girls—instinctively develop coping mechanisms. But a diagnosis, if it’s indicated, can make things easier even for students who are succeeding. Geneva is a bright, sweet, kind young woman. She works hard. But high school is obviously very unpleasant for her. It’s possible there are struggles we can help with.”
With a slow, deep breath, Siena tried to hear what the counselor was saying and not simply react like a bear defending her cub. “What kind of learning disorder?”
“We’d like to assess her for ADD and ASD. Attention deficit disorder and autism spectrum disorder.”
“You think she’sautistic?”
“Possibly. But it’s not an uncommon diagnosis.”
“But she has friends.” Well, she’dhadfriends until they’d turned out to be little perverts. “She makes eye contact. She can be sarcastic as f—very sarcastic. I thought autistic people couldn’t do all that.”
“ASD is a spectrum with a very wide range of presentations, from nonverbal and cognitively impaired to what we used to call Asperger’s, but now we more often use the term ‘high functioning.’ In fact, autism in girls tends to look very different from what we might think of as ‘classic’ autism—what you’ve described. In girls, it often presents as anxiety, depression, introversion. Things like that.”
Oh. “Oh. I didn’t know that.”
Dr. Granger nodded as if she weren’t surprised. “If Geneva is indeed on the spectrum, obviously she’d be on the high-functioning side. A diagnosis would help us identify obstacles she’s now having to hurdle on her own. It’s a matter ofsupportingher, not labeling her.”
Another slow, deep breath. “Okay. I want to talk to her, though, before I agree to anything.”
“Understood. I’m glad you’re willing to talk about it.”
“If we do get her ... assessed ... will that cost money?”
“Not necessarily. I can administer an assessment here, and we can develop a plan from there, from minor interventions to a formal IEP—Individualized Education Plan—if that’s warranted. Then you can decide if you want another opinion, or different therapeutics, and those likely would be of some cost, depending on your insurance and other factors.
Their insurance wasn’t robust, to say the least. But that sounded like a can she could kick down the road a bit. “Okay. Okay, I’ll talk with her tonight. You said there was a more urgent problem, too?”
“Yes. Can I get you a bottle of water or something?” Dr. Granger began to stand.
Siena could use a drink, but water wouldn’t cut it. “No, thank you. I just want to know what’s wrong.”
Sitting down again, Dr. Granger said, “Several teachers have come to me over the past week or so to express concern that Geneva seems different since winter break.”
“Different how?” She’d been pretty normal at home. By herself a lot, but Geneva had always enjoyed her own company best.
“Detached. She’s eating lunch by herself, sitting by herself in the library. She’s less interested in class activities, far less willing to speak up, even when she obviously knows the answer—and normally, she’s usually the first with her hand up.”
Despite her tension, Siena smiled. Her kid sister was an introvert, yes, but she was also very confident in her own intelligence and liked making sure the teacher knew how much she knew.
“When we see a change in behavior, we want to identify the cause and try to remediate it, if we can. So ... I want to ask you if anything in particular happened during winter break.”
Yes, something had happened during winter break. Geneva had lost her only friends because those friends were pubescent boys who were more interested in the changes in her body than they were in their friend since fifth grade.