6 year old Dyslexic need intervention

Has a comprehensive assessment been done? WISC? Woodcock Reading Mastery Test? Has some kind of classroom reading inventory been done? Test of phonemic awareness of some sort? If so, please report scores. If not, might want to look into this.

It seems as though this student is pre-emergent in literacy skills. IOW, has not connected some/many of sounds/symbols.

I’m sure there are many who will say…oh, do this program or that program. However, I am telling you to be diagnostic before jumping on board a program or programs. Observation is good, but doesn’t tell the whole story. Just as testing does not without observation.

Further, I notice your email says advocate. Is this for your child or another person’s child?

This is for my kiddo, I am my their advocate. Testing, yes we are awaiting the results but as I said I have two other dyslexic kids. I know what the results are going to yeild. My other two have 31 point difference between verbal (higher) and performance IQ. I am sure this one is no different, but of course we are waiting for testing results. We will have a wisc, woodcock johnson acheivement, some auditory, and visual and motor processing. But, I have been doing this long enough with my own kids and helping others observation tells a lot. I am certain the tests will show this, so before the meeting when we actually see the results I want to have some ideas of ways to go. I know that for my middle child we got some great early interevention and it has helped a lot. I know the school is going to continue to put her in with the reading specialist but honestly all they focus on is phonics and this is not specifically for or even good for a dyslexic. So…I guess what I am asking is if anyone knows or has used something with good sucess. I think we need a auditiory (not visual) approach my kids auditiory skills are all very high but their visual stuff is usually weak. Of course the testing will need to support this but I have a pretty keen sense of what is happening. Also, this one has pretty profond dysgraphia as does my oldest (middle one escaped this). Hands hurt, can’t color, struggles to make any letter, very slow….

Leah wrote:
> I
> know the school is going to continue to put her in with the
> reading specialist but honestly all they focus on is phonics
> and this is not specifically for or even good for a
> dyslexic.

I believe that you are mistaken about the dyslexic/phonic relationship. I see your children more as possible NVLD candidates. However, Dyslexia may be the right “label” and your specific version of Dyslexia may not need phonics. The field of LD is too broad to zoom in on one criteria for remediation of all. In fact, an estimated 75%+ of dyslexics need intensive phonics instruction over comprehension strategies. My belief (not I said mine—not the world’s) is that NLD and Dyslexia are different; however, I’ve not done a wild and thorough review of the literature to confirm this theory. Maybe in my spare time or maybe someone else has read a very good lit review…

The field of comprehension intervention is ever more broad than phonics intervention. There are hundreds of strategies that go into the development of a good and fluent reader. It is helpful to know—generally from an Individual Reading Inventory (IRI) what specific skills are at issue: prediction, inferencing, retell/sequencing, factual recall, vocabulary, visualization. Few children have trouble with every skill; however, a rare few do. Often, the inability to correct read words affects comprehension. True word callers are a very low percentage of the LD population. A thorough and accurate assessment can highlight the difficulties and needs. I will not recommend programs or treatments without it. Perhaps others feel okay doing that.

There are many, many reading inventories out there. The Johns Reading Inventory, The Burns & Roe Reading Inventory, The Silveroli Reading Inventory, the Flynt-Cooter Reading Inventory, just to name a few off the top of my head. They all have a listening component to see if the student comprehends better in that mode. They all have oral reading of words at sight in isolation and passages at sight. Some have silent reading measures, some do not. Teachers give these tests. I realize that most parents don’t feel teachers are qualified to give or assess anything, so perhaps you’ll want to hire a specialist to give that test. A university reading person might give it—but remember that he or she is training the teachers for whom we all seem to lack respect. So…I guess what I am asking is if anyone knows

I think we need a
> auditiory (not visual) approach my kids auditiory skills are
> all very high but their visual stuff is usually weak.

Reading is a visual activity that taps into auditory channels. It requires a dual approach. One cannot read through pure auditory unless listening to a recorded book or CD.

Unless you are a parent that is very trained in reading, you might spend your time before the meeting in a careful observational analysis of what your child can and cannot do. Ex: Can pronounce most words in x story, very frequent questions about meanings (Freq = y in x story) Carefully analyze ability to predict and confirm, Set a purpose for reading, Tap into prior knowledge, draw conclusions, retell in sequence, visualize descriptive details, and use synonyms and antonyms for important vocabulary.

Also, record rate and accuracy levels.

There are a lot of factors to analyze before deciding which interventions and strategies are appropriate. Then, because your child is in a group of chilren, he or she may get a few they already know so that everyone gets what he or she may need.

Happy analyzing!

I know in theory one is right brain and the other is a left brain dysfunction. And yet my son , who looks NVLD on paper , looks really dyslexic in real life. With certain mild motor and social deficits that both sides claim go along with their disabilities. Just curious if you have a theory on any connection between the 2…. I enjoy reading all of your posts! Thanks!

Actually, researchers are finding less & less merit to the left/right brain “thing”. As more fMRIs are used, they see that brain fires in both hemispheres for many learning tasks. Memory is multi-modal, too. I’ve kind of thrown out the “Unicorns are Real” stuff from the 1980’s…it’s really before any hard data was acquired.

I think that some kids—Sally Smith from Lab School (and staff) used to call them “flip kids”—exhibit characteristics of both NVLD and VLD. They defy the one- label theory altogether. (I finally just stopped trying to find a one-label package for my own son and said “Flip”. He’s the Heinz 57 of LD… Some of the hardwiring in the brain from a motor procedural standpoint have hardened and matured into pretty decent connections! Despite his 7’ height, however, he’s still not coordinated enough to play basketball professionally. Darn my luck!)

That leads me to another thought: The brain has some many hundreds of thousands—millions really—of important connections that we cannot possibly bottleneck this into one test, one score, one label. Human behavior is just too complex for our current thinking. Yet, we all try to do this—even me.

If we just want to use the term Dyslexic to mean: one w/reading and writing disorders…then lots more kids fit into it. I’m not sure what the Internat’l Dyslexia Association says about the whole deal. (I’m not sure I care in the whole spectrum of teaching reading and writing.) I do like to separate the NVLD and the VLD and the Flip kids in the mix, though. Helps me begin hunting for teaching/learning clues.

For some, the social deficits come from inability to read visual cues and the environment. For others, it may be keeping up w/langauge and missing out on all of that. I don’t see many kids w/”normal” measured IQ and low, low verbal and visual social issues. Again, brain is way complex here to just say, “Misreads social cues.” My question is always, “What kind of cues? When? What happens then?”

If you want to get off the IQ/label bandwagon, take a look at the writings of Eric Jensen and Pat Wolfe. (Very respected, work within the academic community.) They are way friendly in vocabulary usage (i.e., don’t have to be a “PhuD” to comprehend the darn things.) Get them from the library. They have wonderful stuff about memory—getting it in and out. Many things I knew as a mother were confirmed in these books for me as a teacher. Mothers tend to take their own kids’ case study and try to apply the problems and solutions too globally. Human nature, too.

Jensen—Teaching with the brain in mind
Wolfe - Brain Matters

Jensen also has a new one but I’ve not reviewed it.

I also love the work of Spencer Kagan, but its really for working w/kids in groups…perhaps not as interesting to parents.

Got to get off this darn computer. I’ve been sitting here researching all day—answering emails as they come in. Time to do something else for awhile.

I have done both programs with my dyslexic children. LiPS has worked wonders for both of them. LiPS work on phonemic awareness and the ability to manipulate phonemes in words or nonsense words which dyslexic children need before they can benefit from phonics. Fastforward worked well in one child, improving listening skills so that she was able to follow class instructions better. It didn’t seem to help the second child much. The good news is that the earlier you start intervention, the faster it will go. I read that a young child of 6 or 7 needs only 1/2 an hour a day to be remediated, while an older child will need 2 hours of day one on one. Two hours per day is very expensive if you are paying this yourself, so the sooner you start, the better for the childs self esteme and your pocket.

Hi Leah,

I work with a lot of very poor readers and frankly, I just don’t use the word “dyslexic” when thinking about them, nor NLD, nor NVLD.

In my opinion, most of the poorest readers have a vision problem that is passed down from one of the parents. You or your husband may not have had trouble learning to read, but I’m reasonably certain that you (or your husband’s) parents or some brothers or sisters did. The fact that you have two other children who have trouble reading obviously points to a genetic factor. I would expect that none of them have well-developed binocular vision skills, at least at the nearpoint-range where we do most of our reading.

Along with poor visual development, some kids evidence other fine motor difficulties, such as difficulty with speech, or difficulty with finger movements. Also, poor binocular vision, if it extends to greater range, can lead to clumsiness because such kids simply can’t tell how far away something is (including the floor) so they are stumbling a lot or bumping into things whenever they are in a new environment.

I have found that it takes three things to turn these kids into pleasure readers (which has become by primary goal as a reading therapist): 1) a parent seeking answers, 2) vision therapy, possibly including other fine-motor therapy and 3) a good understanding of the phonics underlying English along with the willingness to adopt a phonics strategy.

Congratulations on fulfilling the first requirement. Stick with it. If I’m wrong about the other two, I hope you succeed in finding the answers that I didn’t have…..Rod

Thanks for all the info. Just to give more info. I also don’t care what you call it to me you just need to know if there is a hole that can be filled. My other two kids both had vision therapy, and to be honest it did not seem to make a huge difference but along with that they also had LIPS and it did make a huge difference with my oldest. And some difference with my middle daugher.

You know I was just asking the info to see if anyone had any different idea’s. As far as NVLD my kids don’t really fit that except for the verbal/performance difference. You know it seems to me you can name it what you want, but the truth is these kids learn differnt and in many cases they will always struggle to some extent. I think it is real important to listen to the kids because I have found they usually can give a lot of insight. I also think it is important to teach them how to compensate for their difference. I don’t like focusing on the deficiet and feel it can be more usefull to focus on what they can do because the truth is in the end it is their gifts that is going to lead them to sucess not their weakness.

By the way, my 14 year old can read grade level and comprehend much higher but is about 4-5 times slower then most. He uses books on tape when he is under a deadline and reads on his own for pleasure. He does prefere the books on tape because of the time factor. He also uses a laptop with voice activated software for ALL writing, his dysgraphia is pretty severe. He is now a freshman in highschool and just got his first report card 3.2 GPA so…my interventions worked pretty well.

My nine year old is also doing very well with little to no accomodations except for additional time. She reads close to grade level and loves it. Her dysgraphia is not as severe and she is a very gifted writer.

My hopes for my 6 year old is that we keep her self esteem intact and not have her waste her time with remediation that offers little or no help. I am thinking of having the schools do LIPS with her. I have requested that they do things like letters in sand, play dough letters etc.. but we keep battling. I loved the apple tree suggestion I will forward that info to the school. As I said she can’t really recognize more then about 5 letters and still gets very confused with her numbers. It seems clear that the visual side is very weak, but I am leary of vision therapy because I really haven’t had the best luck, in addition, this school district will not pay so…I think we will have to get creative.

Thanks Leah

I also see kids that are just plain delayed in their development. No intervention seems to work at anything close to a normal speed until they are neurologically ready, despite a good reading/spelling/writing assessment and well-trained teachers. (In my district every K-3 teacher is trained in and uses our version of LiPS—pictures and “labels” different to avoid copyright problems. The classroom version is a bit different, but kids who don’t pick it up right away go for small group with a clinician trained the real Lindamood way.)

I keep saying this but, with seven different kinds of learning disability there are 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 different combinations. If you multiply 7! out, it is 5,040 different possible types of LD from the seven categories (Basic Reading, Reading Comprehension, Math Calculations, Math Applications, Written Expression, Listening Comprehension, Oral Language). And those categories were just made based on learning behavior analysis. As time goes on, we may discover they are different.

So, you are right to think about accommodations. We try to get under the core of the problem and fix some of it, but for many that is a long and winding road instead of a short one. For others the LD may not be as complex or severe and the teachers can get under it pretty quickly.

Sounds like you’ve done a great job w/your children!

The NVLD label implies a pretty tough future. I don’t think it is a label that fits many kids. It is actually pretty rare but seems to be popular at the current moment.

A child can be dyslexic related to either an auditory, visual problem or both. The label itself just means the child has trouble reading. My son had trouble reading mostly related to visual processing. He picked up the sounds easily with phonographix. He now reads well but still has some visual problems. He actually learned to read before those deficits were dealt with.

I would have pursued the diagnostic route if I felt like I could find someone who could help.
There seems to be so many opinions and theories that unfortunately, I don’t believe one expert has all the answers. Instead, I think educators, therapists, psychs, neurologists, all understand a piece but can’t explain the whole problem. I think you can get help from these people, but more often than not, it will cost you.
I have taken the route of using my money on programs that have some science behind them that help these kids.
I have seen a very positive affect from this approach.
Just something to think about.

Susan,

I read alot of you posts and have a question for you. Is there a specific reading test/evaluation that a teacher can give to monitor progress. What I want is something that can be used say every 6 weeks so progress/regress is being monitored.

Thank you.

The nice thing about Individual Reading Inventory testing (such as I mention in another post—if you cannot find the names of them all, I’ll post them again) is that there are many, many of them and they usually have at least two forms—and usually four forms. I keep two-three of the tests around in case I run out of forms or a kid listens to someone else do the same story or whatever. I test every 9 weeks or once per quarter. I have found that testing more frequently is a waste of time as I usually don’t see a lot of growth in the first 9 weeks.

While the reading inventories are not all alike—some have different grade levels (such as passages to 8th grade level and some others to high school level). Some have silent reading components and some not. Some have fewer or more comprehension questions. Some have fluency built in—but it’s easy to do without since the passages have a count on word number.

Now, if you are wanting something that will stand up in court, these kinds of tests aren’t for you. They are not normed on a sample group. They are criterion tests and there is some qualitative piece to the assessment. IOW, there must be some level of trust in the tester’s ability to assess.

Susan

Thank you Susan. No, I am not court bound and I totally trust this year’s teacher I just want to measure progress or lack thereof on a regular basis.

If progress is monitored then we will know if something is helping. Do I make sense?

I am new to this forum and I definately need help. I suspect it is rude to write this much but I don’t know what is important. My 14 year old, 9th grade daughter, began talking suicide 3 weeks ago. We’re getting her help for depression. No medication yet. Her strengths have been math, music (jazz) Her weakness has always been language. Lately she is failing despite trying hard and into the night.When she was young, she was retiring, shy and not speaking much at 4. She was somewhat accident prone- falling off chairs, etc. but active. At 4, “Speech is difficult to understand and she is she is echolalia at times. MLU-2.1.words per utterance” she qualified as a preschool child with intensive needs.
she could sing words to the songs.She went to a Montessori kindergarden, got speech therapy. She doesn’t learn language that she hears, and can’t memorize vocabulary words.She doesn’t understand context well. Her ears have been tested time and again. In the 4th grade she was retested. “A relative weakness is noticed on the digit-span subtest, measuring auditory short term memory. Her freedom from Distractibility Index measuring auditory attention/concentration ability was significantly lower that her Perceptual Organization Index score. Her lowest scores were on reading decoding.” I put her into a whole language school. and had her tested by an outsideSpecialist. The results -she was not processing language, with significant problems in passage comprehension and a slightly lesser weakness in word comprehension. She showed no preference for a learning style. Her Learning Efficiency Test -
Visual Ordered /Unordered Auditory
Immediate Recall 16% /37% Immediate Recall 9%/ 25%
Short term recall 16% /37% Short term recall 1%/16%
Long Term recall 25%/37% Long Term 1% /16%
She was referred and diagnosed with Ad/HD, adjustment disorder with mixed emotional features. He described her as a “quiet ADD” She took adderral which help with her shyness, took up trumpet in the band. Had improving test scores but vocabulary was poor, poor memory, disorganized. She hung on in middle school, lots of band, marching and jazz. her writing is still poor particularly when she has to synopsize what shes read, her test scores are poor, she has difficulty memorizing. Had her tested. The WJIII revealed general ability 98, verbal ability 97, thinking ability 104, cognitive efficiency 92. Her Broad Abilities are comprehension 97, long-term retrieval 83, visual-spatial 105, auditory processing 99, fluid reasoning 119, processing speed100, short-term memory 88, phonemic awareness 104. However, on the TOAL-3 listening/vocabulary, listening/grammer/speaking vocabulary/and reading/grammer were all at 25%. Her speaking grammar was 63%, her reading vocabulary and writing grammar were at 9%. The TOAL-# composite percentiles are listening 21%,spekaing 42%, reading 12%, writing 16%, spoken language 30%, written language 12%, vocabulary 16%, grammer 21%, receptive language 13%, expressive language 25%. The school says her problems with vocabulary stem from a poor memory but she’s not failing. They also tested for CAP- They say it is one of her strengths, decoding skills are good. I’m still looking at a poor executive functioning and weak memory.She’s feeling better but failing math, perhaps because the depression is making it hard for her to remember long enough for her to use the numbers. I fantasize that this is what alzherimers is like. I started this last round of testing because I read about FastForward but its not available through the schools and I can’t begin to afford it myself. The standard memorizing techniques don’t work. Say the word, spell the word, write it ten times. She takes the test the next morning, 3 right out of 10. Italian is a nightmare. I’m stymied for techniques that work with memory. She’s taking lecithin and says the Adderal no longer helps.Any advice?.

You make perfect sense. It’s the only way I can be sure I’m helping the child progress, too.

Hi Alison,

Wanted you to know that I’ve read your post and I want a little time to look over the scores and look some information up in my WJIII materials. Looks like reading is a problem, however, you didn’t post any reading achievement scores (that I noticed in just reading through.)

BTW, posts of your length are not considered rude on this BB. Parents often must post very long text—and some of the replies get pretty windy, too. (Speaking for myself, that is.)

I may have questions, too. Sorry to be so slow, but I don’t just want to “pop off” some generic response.

Alison, as a parent let me assure you are not rude to ask for help. And you are lucky because some really wonderful professionals (many of whom are parents as well) read and post here. When Susan Long responds back after thinking about your post you will be getting terrific advise. Hang in there. (Also check the parenting a child with LD board for good information and support!)

I’d really like to see the individual subtest scores on the WJIII if any of them are very, very low or very, very high (SS 85 or lower and SS 115 or higher). Do you have them?

Hi Leah,

Please keep an open mind on the vision therapy. You said you didn’t see much difference, but you also say that both of your older kids are now reading for pleasure. Maybe it wasn’t the VT, but with most of the kids I work with, it took the VT to get them comfortable enough with print to engage it voluntarily…..just my thoughts…Rod

I can’t speak to patented programs, because I use my own choice of tried and true. Certainly it is always a good idea to look into things like vision therapy and listening therapy; find good honest providers, people willing to not sell their program if the child doesn’t need it, and have the child evaluated and helped in any way possible.

Meanwhile, I have had very good success with direct intervention in reading and writing instruction. First find out what the student knows and doesn’t know (this is more complex than it sounds on the surface; it’s an ongoing process and project) and then teach the missing bits (also a long-term ongoing project.)
If the child is having trouble with letters, teach letters. The most successful method is multisensory: first be very very insistent about directionality — see all the posts about dysgraphia and reversals for why it is best to avoid getting into that swamp as much as possible. Get a good sample of proper letter formation and follow it absolutely consistently (consistency is vital for a kid who is already having problems, and creative do-your-own-thing teaching is a disaster here.) Have the child trace letters over yours and say the sound at the same time as tracing them. Use large paper or whiteboard and markers to allow large, swooping motions. AS the letter is being formed, say the sound, drawing it out as much as possible, or remeating it if it’s a stop. Example — m middle to bottom, one bump and another bump, say mmmmmmm all the time you’re forming it. p middle and down below the line for the tail, slide back up and over the bump and around the circle, say p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p all the time you’re making it. The first few letters will be a long, long process, but speed will slowly build up as the idea sinks in. Take your time and get those first foundations right. Do one letter a day at first, spending an hour getting just one letter right. You may even need to spend more than one day on one letter.
If the child is missing or reversing pronunciation, teach pronunciation. Teach the individual sounds, how and where formed in the mouth (if you don’t have LMB texts, any good university linguistics 1 text will do). Stress them and say them very, very drawn out. Then say the word, building up one sound at a time. Have the child imitate you, very very slowly and then just a little faster. Yes, it’s slow. It’s also how to develop phonemic awareness for those who lack it, so consider the time a valuable investment in the future. Obnoxious as it may be, correct your child’s pronunciation consistently. If the child is allowed to practice a mistake hundreds of times, how are the five repetitions in the lesson supposed to make a real change? To avoid overload, work on one issue at a time and let others go at first, but work on it steadily.
Once you have a few letters and their sounds known, build up simple words. You can do cat and sat and mand and then and and sand, and so on.
FORGET so-called “sight” words; why teach reading twice with two contradictory sets of rules? Teach “the” for example as the normal th sound as in this, that , then, these, mother, father, etc., followed by the “schwa” or muttered vowel (unstresed “uh”) that all vowels but especially e fall to when unstressed, the normal third sound of e as in her, Earth, early, second vowel of elephant, etc. There is no such animal as an “unphonetic” word in English; some are partially irregular but all have at least some clues to sounds in them (The worst two are “one” and “once, but even those have consonant clues.)

I’m so glad to hear you say that about the left-right brain stuff! Thanks. Pop psychology does tend to take an idea way too far and try to use it to explain everything.

Looks like long- and short-term memory are suspect. I’m also thinking about Rapid Automatic Naming issues, but really need to see the scores to confirm that this needs more assessment attention.

Looks like visual and auditory discrim are working okay. Memory is a real parsimmon.

I’d stay away from mnemonics and most things in the semantic (word) lanes of memory. Try going to procedural (movement—like writing) and episodic: Making up jingles and rhymes to memorize things. Overlearning is important, too. Lots of overlapping (backtracking what is already learned). Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect permanent.

Brain’s strongest memory channel is from episodes: You hear a song on the radio that takes you back to right what you were doing many years ago. You remember every word to the song. Powerful memory channel.

Have you had a Woodcock Reading Mastery or Woodcock Diagnostic Reading Battery? From the tests you have had done, I cannot tell whether your child has trouble with word identification or comprehension or both.

(Bare with me. I didn’t post on-line originally because I not very savvy about what I’m doing. I’ve cut and pasted Susan Long’s comments interspersed with my original questions below and will respond to group from now on.) This afternoon I’ll provide the WJIII scores. Alison

Hi Alison,

RAN is purely quick verbal recall of names of people, places, and things.
The falling you spoke about would be more from the visual-spatial or
perceptual domain. Without the individual subtests, I cannot see if there
is anything suspicious in that area within the WJIII cluster scores you
provided.

I also cannot tell from these tests exactly what the reading problem might
be. Though we can be pretty sure memory has something to do with it.

<>
> Try going to procedural (movement—like writing)…..
> Are you telling me to have her write her vocabulary words ten times? Or
make
> up four sentences with the word?
<>

Actually, for some kids, it is walking while they simultaneously speak to
themselves (c-a-t is cat) and move in a cadence to the word-rhythm. For
osme it it “air writing” while they walk in the cadence the word sounds
create.

<> Do you think picture cards would help? <>

Try them & see. Brain is a funny and oh-so complex thing.

<>
Making up jingles and rhymes to memorize things……
> We can do this.
> Over learning is important, too. Lots of overlapping (backtracking what is
> already learned) Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes
perfect
> permanent….
> Is over learning and overlapping the same thing?
<>

Not quite. Over-learning is continuing to practice long after you think
she’s got it. Overlapping (looping is another name for it) is going back
over things sometime later to be sure they’re still in memory. Say a month
or two then six.>

<>
Right now they have her reading “Great Expectations” two chapters at a time.
> First she tries reading it. Yesterday she brought it to me and said she
> couldn’t understand it. I read it to her sentence by sentence, making sure
> she understood ever sentence. We looked up words. She was enthusiastic and
> wanted to know what happened in the next chapter. Now she’s going to go
back
> and read it. What do you think of this as an approach? I’m going to ask
her
> teacher for the vocabulary words that she will be tested on so we know
where
> to focus our efforts. My sense is that they are testing to her weaknesses.
> Immediate recall, and reading. Do you think I should have her read it to
me?
> Should she read it with me while I read?
<>

Also, consider books on tape for part of her assignment if shes spending too
much time on this task. I love what you are doing, however, it may be too
time consuming for her to keep up well. Then, you can let her listen for
awhile to be sure she stays on pace with her peers. Read along with the
book, stopping to discuss vocabulary, make predictions, discuss interesting
passages, wording, contextual meanings.

RE: WJIII scores—
Yes, you posted the same scores online; however, there are individual
subtest scores within these. I like to see those—especially in reading. I
like the Woodcock Reading Mastery better, but must give the subtests to get
at decoding problems. See, with your daughter, we’re not sure whether
decoding is an issue for her or only comprehension.

Some schools don’t want to give them out—but you have a right to have all
the subtests scores. Some private psychologists don’t like to give them
either. Again, they are scores you paid for—either with tax dollars,
insurance dollars, or private dollars.

Glad to hear from you. Why didn’t you post online?

As you may notice, I don’t get into a lot of the discussions.

Susan

Susan - Shall I fax the cluster scores or do you want me to post on-line? If on-line do the want the AE’s throu the SS% (The entire line? They also have something called a “protocol” which I can get my hands on - that would be the original hand scored test results.

This the Woodcock III. I hope this is what you want.
% SS
Letter Word identification 41 96
Reading fluency 69 108
Story Recall 38 95
Understanding Directions 36 94
Calculation 91 120
Math Fluency 25 90
Spelling 83 114
Writing Fluency 67 107
Passage Comprehension 24 89
Applied Problems 51 100
Writing Samples 81 113
Story Recall - Delayed - -

Word Attack 72 109
Picture vocabulary 41 97
Oral Comprehension 58 103
Editing 58 103
Reading Vocabulary 50 100
Quantitative Concepts 84 115
Academic Knowledge 55 102
Spelling of Sounds 9 80
Sound Awareness 46 98
Punctuation and Capitals 88 118
handwriting 23 89

Just post the SS scores on line. The protocol wouldn’t do me any good unless I could see it—too lengthy.

Going through test results is very difficult and inconclusive when done via email/Internet. We can give a ballpark—somethings to look into—can’t do real absolutes.

Other than the spelling of sounds, the remaining subtests are not especially discrepant from this child’s overall abilities. The one ability exception is long-term retrieval and that is much weaker.

Word attack/phonics skills seem intact, sound awareness is intact (however it does not seem that she applies her sounds knowledge in spelling). She seems to function adequately as a whole-word learner, or she’s had good phonics instruction in the past. I’m more concerned about keeping comprehension up.

With a general ability level in the average range of 90-110 nothing is standing out as major—except long-term memory, short-term memory (somewhat).

Statistically speaking, these scores are not significantly different. I would not do Wilson, LiPS or any of the phonics-based programs with your daughtr. I’d teach spelling in context of literature. I would try to do some naming work with putting things into categories. (Waiting for RAVE-O…)

Susan,thank you for feed back. We read aloud to each other, taking turns and discussing the meaning. She is enjoying it but I doubt her ability to remember & use the vocab. She gets tired after reading a page of “Great Expectations”. I am enjoying this revisitation but it reminds me how much work real reading is. I just read for pleasure and don’t worry about remembering. I’ve purchased the first set of SAT pictograph and will try those. We will read every night regardless.