I remember one time I was doing an ADHD evaluation with a kid who had asked to go to the bathroom like 3 times during the 30-ish minute part of the interview where we asked his mom questions, so I knew that was his go-to excuse when bored. We get started on the WISC-V after the interview and within 30 seconds of vocab starting he asks if he can go to the bathroom, and I say:
And this kid rolls his eyes because DUH and he says βWhy not?β all cranky-styles, so I said
βBecause you donβt need to go to the bathroom, youβre bored and you need to move. If you need to move, tell me and Iβll let you know if weβre at a part of the test where we can pause. Like, for example, we can pause right now if you wanna race me around the building.β
And this kids face fucken LIT up. We did three laps around the outside of the building and came back in and he finished like 3 subtests and asked if he could move so we got up and tried to see how high we could jump for 3 minutes and the finished the rest of the assessment with one bathroom break. And that was all it took tbh, this kid was SO capable he just needed to move and hadnβt been allowed to do so before. I also like making people mad by pointing out that I know what theyβre up to, then just giving them permission to do the thing they were sneakily trying to do in the first place. Itβs like being affectionately annoying and itβs part of how I connect to others.