Testing ???

Visual matching is a test of visual memory. The individual is presented with a set of pictures- more and more as the test progresses- and then has to pick out the ones they saw from another set. Visual closure is a part to whole thing- the individual is presented with pictues that are distorted in some way or have increasing amounts deleted and they have to identify it. Neither of these has a lot to do with visual acuity or with the sorts of things I understand are done in vision therapy- but I could be wrong about that.

Analysis Synthesis is a test of abstract reasoning (mostly deductive reasoning) and flexible thinking. Abstract reading closely correlates with things like reading comprehension and higher level math reasoning.

What this all means relative to academics is that your son has poor visual memory I guess- hard to tell without scores- so he has a hard time recalling what things look like- spelling would be a classic example- punctuation and capitalization too. He also has some difficulty reconstructing what he sees. So… envision spelling again and long division perhaps as academic skills that require recalling what it looks like AND the capacity to reconstruct it. In addition, if reasoning is low- then he will have a hard time figuring out what is wrong and making the leap from what he knows to what folks are trying to teach him.

You understand that this explanation is kind of speculative because I don’t know how he actually did- but if his deficits are in these areas, then the places he is having difficulty are pretty much the places where I would expect him to have difficulty. What is the school planning to do relative to service?

Robin

Here are the scoresa I have
Academic Functioning
Results Standard score Percentile
Broad reading 97 43
-letter /word identification 91 26
-passage comprehension 108 70
Broad Mathamatics
-calcuation 87 19
-applied problems 128 97
Broad Written Language 93 43
-dictation 94 34
-writing samples 95 37

Cognitive /Intellectual Funtioning

Broad Cognitive Ability does not reflect his real ability
-memory of names 107 68
-memory for sentences 120 90
-visual matching 83 17
-incomplete words no scores shown
-visual closure 81 10
-picture vocabulary 136 99
-analysis/synthesis 87 19

OWLS listening comprehension stand. score 126 age equ.13.3 ,oral expression standard score 110 age equ.9.6 and needs to work on sounds /k/,/g/./th/ and conversation /f/,/l/,and/r/.

The school has him working one on one with a LD teacher on spelling,phonics,and writing.He also has his work modified and has all year by his teacher he does not get marked wrong for punctuation and spelling and reversal unlike the rest of the class.He also has a reduced spelling list.His written work is reduced and he uses a slanted board to write .I dont have the finished iep yet but will tomorrow.

wante dto add he has many reversals in writing and reading and no space between writing words and large wrutung.He also has difficulty using pens,coloring,sissors,and playing ball..His teacher states this and I seeit too.She also says he is very slow to complete work even the modified work.

Your son sounds a lot like my daughter at age 9!

Since you mention you tried vision therapy, what were the results of the initial developmental vision exam? I am wondering if specific developmental vision delays were found and how severe they were. Also, I am wondering how long vision therapy was tried and what exactly the results of that were.

My daughter did 6 months of vision therapy for severe developmental vision delays that included very slow focusing, very restricted field of vision, many reversals, some convergence problems, very poor gross and fine saccades, etc. At the end of vision therapy, she tested age-appropriate in most areas, but we had seen little improvement in reading and academics.

We followed up VT with PACE (http://www.learninginfo.com), and that’s when we saw dramatic improvements in reading, reversals, visual memory, etc.

My take on this is that VT corrected the basic sensory-level vision problems (visual efficiency), but PACE developed all the fine motor visual skills (visual processing skills).

Mary

He did vision therapy for 9 months but nothing has changed it was developmental.He has more of a processing problem.He can comprhend anything once it is read to him but he cant read his reading book.He has even taken OT and it has not helped he has been in itfor over 5 months.He seems so intelligent when verbal but writing is such a struggle and reading is always a fight he is starting to act out in school we think to fustration.I get calls every other day or notes .

If he’s not reading, then the first thing I would try is Phono-Graphix. You can do this at home using the book “Reading Reflex” by McGuiness. This approach did wonders for my 8-1/2yo daughter when she was in 2nd grade and reading at preschool level. After about 15 hours of one-on-one with me she could decode words well enough to not feel stupid in school.

However, that’s also when I realized something else was wrong because her reading was so clearly dysfunctional. At that point we did PACE, which helped her reading enormously in terms of developing reasonable fluency — not skipping lines, not skipping words, not substituting words, not misreading little words, etc.

We then followed up with even more Phono-Graphix (one week intensive). Once her visual processing skills were normalized by PACE, she was able to absorb advanced decoding skills pretty quickly.

Vision therapy does a good job on developing visual efficiency, but it’s not very good at developing visual processing skills, which is the next step. PACE is really good at that.

Mary

I will go through these in clumps… and then have a comment down at the end. Sorry for the length.

Academic Functioning
Results Standard score Percentile
Broad reading 97 43
-letter /word identification 91 26
-passage comprehension 108 70

These are average range scores. I would guess that his reading comprehension is higher because of strong vocabulary/background knowledge. Unless he is a REALLY slow reader, he should be able to manage most text at grade level.

Broad Mathamatics
-calcuation 87 19
-applied problems 128 97

This looks like a kiddo with a lot of trouble putting pencil to paper- but has excellent understanding of what he is supposed to do. I would be modifying things like the number of problems required to demonstrate mastery, encouraging the use of graph paper, and suggesting that someone find algorythms for him that are easier to manage visually.

Broad Written Language 93 43
-dictation 94 34
-writing samples 95 37

These are also average range. He has a good basic understanding of mechanical skills and can produce them in isolation. He is also able to put together a grammatically correct sentence in response to a specific prompt. This does not always translate into being able to write a paragraph- but it is encouraging to know that he knows what he does know.

Cognitive /Intellectual Funtioning

Broad Cognitive Ability does not reflect his real ability-

How come?

-memory of names 107 68
This is solidly average- good auditory/visual association skills- doesn’t have a lot to do with most learning kids do in school I think- this test is not on the new Woodcock Johnson BTW.

-memory for sentences 120 90
Excellent auditory short term memory

-visual matching 83 17
This is low average- near the lower end of the low avg. range. He clearly has some difficulty recalling salient features of what he sees.

-incomplete words no scores shown
Huh.

-visual closure 81 10
Also low average- has some trouble with identifying salient features and visual part to whole stuff.

-picture vocabulary 136 99
Wow… great vocabulary

-analysis/synthesis 87 19
This is abstract reasoning and it is low avg- upper end of the range.Now, it is primarily a visual sort of test- which , given his difficulties with visual processing may be kind of hard for him. It looks as if he did okay in the beginning- where the solutions to the puzzles are pretty straightforward relative to sequence but then got into trouble when he needed to move through the puzzles in different directions to get a solution. So… my guess is that there might have been some confusion visually but it could equally be that he is not a particularly flexible thinker- kind of a “this worked before so it has to work now” kind of guy.

Based on this- which is pretty scanty testing by the way, it sounds as if the services/accommodations you described in your lower post are okay. I will look again. OT takes a while- it is not a quick fix sort of therapy and five months isn’t really long enough to see substantial gains. You might want to look at the site www.nldonline- your son’s deficits are pretty much confined to visual stuff- and if his visual acuity is okay? they may have some good information for you. He has REALLY strong verbal skills- so strategies such as verbalizing the steps of a task will be more valuable to him than visual prompts.

Robin

This sounds like a lot of visual/motor stuff. As his reading SCORES are okay- what happens when he reads? He has the skills to read the words and he clearly understands what he reads- is he thrown off by the size of the print?
Robin

when he reads he guesses at words he cant sound out words he often confuses words like place for piece and on for no .He writes and copies letters backwards very often and does art work this way too.he dont space words,writes large difficulty handing pens,crayons,sissors .He is also ADHD and gets very fustrated at himself.He is on Wellbutrin he had adverse reactions to Ritalin and Adderall.He is starting to use color overlays in school when he reads.He did handle the grade level reading earlier in the year but now he is recieving low Cs and Ds with his modification and he cant read the textbook or recogize the vocabulary words.
The tester wrote on the papers that .The examiner feels that the score may be a mild underestimate of his true ability given that hecan hold numbers greater than 100 and do multipication in his head without no instruction.However the score can be viewed as a functionallevel in the instructional enviroment.
It also states that * appears to have visual-perceptual issuses that drastically interfere with his ability to recogize and understand print.His dearth of sight words and perceptual issues interferes with rate and fluency of reading decreasing his reading comprehension well below his oral comphension.* rate of writing ,letter formation,tendencies for reversals are below expectation foe his age as well as drastically less than his intelligence.* is presently compensating by sheer dint of intelligence for uncommonly severe visual percepectin problems.the probability of fustration and behavior problems in the future is considered high.
He also took the OWLS test
listening comprehension test age equivalent 14y 6 mo
oral expression test age equivalent 12y 3 mo

Well, poor guy- and poor you too. It is as hard to watch your child struggle as it is for them to struggle I think. At least it always is for me.

The overlays might help- they do help a lot of kids, and most office supply stores have colored paper that coordinates well so their worksheets can be the same. I don’t know much about PACE though I have looked at the website. In the meantime, I agree with the examiner about his visual processing depressing his performance. It sounds like the combination of this and the ADHD are creating a processing burden that he is finding very frustrating.

His ADHD may require that he have some limitations on the amount of reading and pencil and paper work he is required to do to demonstrate mastery of a concept. Typing worksheets in a larger font with bigger spaces between the words may be helpful also- this is an easy fix when teachers make their own and commercially made WS can be enlarged pretty successfully. He might benefit from using a card or learning to track reading with the eraser end of a pencil to help him focus on keeping his place when he reads.

It occurs to me that the trigger for his ADD- the input he has trouble maintaining his attention through -may be visual. Some kids react to noises- some overload with visual stuff. Therefore- simplifying the visual density of the stuff he has to look at might help him focus and his performance may improve. The OT can be very helpful at orienting the team and providing some guidance.

His basic reading skills are not that bad you know- so I guess I would be inclined to focus on fluency- the ability to apply thaose skills automatically. There are a couple of very good programs to address this including Read Naturally and Great Leaps. They are quite different in the way they are organized but both seem to get good results. Partner read with him at home for content or independant reading assignments- you read a page, I’ll read a page, and feel free to scribe work for him- make sure you inform his teacher(s) that you will be doing this. As long as he is getting the instruction that he needs to eventually become independant it is perfectly okay for you to allow him an alternate way to express his thoughts.

Good luck- and I hope this helped:)

Robin

Thank you for all your help.We already do team read with him at home and he loves to be read too right now his father is reading the Harry Potter books to him each night.Do you happen to know where you purchase the color overlays at?

You are very welcome:)

I do not- but only because the person who assesses students in my district gives them to the kids if they are positive. If that isn’t the way yours functions, then you could do a search for Irlen Syndrome- which is the name for the condition- and I am sure you will come up with a supplier. Good luck!

Robin