“I know.”

The assurance of her response caught him off guard. To Denise it seemed as if he’d expected either an argument, an excuse, or a predictable series of questions. When he realized she wasn’t going to say anything else, he cleared his throat.

“There’s a note here that says you’ve had him evaluated elsewhere.”

Denise nodded. “I have.”

He shuffled through the papers. “The reports aren’t in his file.”

“I didn’t give them to you.”

His eyebrows rose slightly. “Why?”

She reached for her purse and set it in her lap, thinking. Finally: “May I be frank?”

He studied her for a moment before leaning back in his chair. “Please.”

She glanced at Kyle before facing the doctor again. “Kyle has been misdiagnosed again and again over the past two years-everything from deafness to autism to pervasive development disorder to ADD. In time, none of those things turned out to be accurate. Do you know how hard it is for a parent to hear those things about her child, to believe them for months, to learn everything about them and finally accept them, before being told they were in error?”

The doctor didn’t answer. Denise met his eyes and held them before going on.

“I know Kyle has problems with language, and believe me, I’ve read all about auditory processing problems. In all honesty, I’ve probably read as much about it as you have. Despite that, I wanted his language skills tested by an independent source so that I could know specifically where he needed help. In the real world, he has to talk to more people than just me.”

“So . . . none of this is news to you.”

Denise shook her head. “No, it’s not.”

“Do you have him in a program now?”

“I work with him at home.”

He paused. “Does he see a speech or behavioral specialist, anyone who’s worked with children like him before?”