Help with Test Scores-SLD "went away"?

You might want to get a developmental vision evaluation (http://www.covd.org for specialists in your area, and http://www.children-special-needs.org for more information about developmental vision problems). My 11yo daughter has similar problems, which were helped greatly by vision therapy followed by cognitive training (PACE, http://www.learninginfo.com). Much of my daughter’s problem with reading rate was due to her inability to visually process text fast enough. Vision therapy brought her visual efficiency skills up to age-appropriate levels, but her reading fluency did not become normal until halfway through PACE, when her visual processing skills caught up with her age level.

My daughter was able to learn cursive by means of Handwriting Without Tears (http://www.hwtears.com), which is often used by OT’s. We did the program at home over a period of about a year, and it was easy to do. However, both her printing and cursive remain very slow and tedious. That is why we have opted to teach her keyboarding skills (using the Avko program), and plan to have her use an AlphaSmart or laptop for writing as soon as she is able.

Her spelling has improved greatly since we started Sequential Spelling at home (http://www.avko.org). This program is very easy to use and seems to teach some of the subskills necessary for spelling, such as recognition of letter patterns in words. As a result, dd now has no problems memorizing the spelling words she gets in class (something she absolutely could not do last year). However, none of her spelling gains has transferred to her writing — which is typical of dysgraphia. She will probably need a lot of years of keyboarding with spellcheck to develop spelling abilities in her writing. I know of at least one college student who developed spelling ability this way.

My daughter is bright, not anxious, highly verbal (you know the old phrase, “…could talk the hind legs off a donkey”?).

Mary

As far as I am aware, the only way you can become “NLD in the future” is by having a brain injury. NLD doesn’t come and go. although, of course, test scores can change in some situations. Everything I’ve read, and my own personal experience with a NLD child has been that school only gets harder for NLD children as the comlexity of work, and the demands for written output increase.

I think that if there is any chance that your child has a Non-verbal Learning Disability, you should have a complete Neuropsych eval done as soon as possible. If he IS NLD, the more help you can get for him as young as possible, the better the outcome will be.

Karen

Well, my guess is that had you not intervened, this kiddo could have gotten that LD classification (what a prize!). The “might be NLD in the future” would refer to being eligible for that classification, not for actually developing more problems. It looks like he has some pretty specific problems that are keeping that processing speed down — do you know how much scatter there was in those subtests? Lots of kiddos wouldn’t have qualified as LD with either of those sets of scores, without that big gap in reading, some serious subtest scatter, or other test info that pointed that direction (did they do anyhting on auditory processing or phonemic awareness, or visual processing?)

Kids can have good solid verbal cognitive abilities so they look OK on the WISC but struggle with something motor or visual or auditory so that the info has to get *in there* for them to work with it… which can be a challenge in the reality of school. It’s also really important for him to realize that yes, he’s got some very specific struggles with speed (I’m curious — do you think it’s the speed that he gets the reading stuff in, or is he a slow-but-deep processor all around?)… but he really is *not* dumber than his peers. Speed ain’t everything :)

The recent WISC subtests: V: IN 15, SI 15, AR 9, VO 16, CO16, DS 11; P: PC 10, CD 10, PA 15, BD 14, OA 11, SS 12, MZ 13; the WJIII results I have are only in grades and percent. ranks: the lowest are word attack 32PR, math cal 28PR, math fluency 21PR, and reading fluency 22PR, and academic fluency 23PR; the original WJR results were lowest in broad reading 6PR, passage comp5PR, word attack 18PR, and reading skills 13PR. He works very hard and gets tired from the effort. Thanks for your comments..

Do you know what the discrepancy between IQ and achievement has to be in your state? For example, a math calculation score of 28%ile would equal a standard score (which is what you need to compare the discrepancy) of somewhere between 91 and 92. With a full scale IQ of 122, that would be a 20 point discrepancy and he would qualify in my state (which requires a 15 point discrepancy). What were the total math and total reading percentiles?

Janis

I agree with Janis. You need to find out what the discrepancy between IQ and achievement has to be in your state. You should read Pete and Pam Wrights article on Test and Meaurements at the following site to understand what your child’s scores mean.

www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/tests_measurements.html#anchor829789

Percentile Ranks of 21-23 would give you a standard score of 88. FIQ- SS would give you 34 points and 30 point is considered 2 Standard Deviation difference. What state are you in someone might know what the severe discrepancy is for your state?

Helen

Thanks for your comments; we are not looking for help through the public school; we were wondering why his WISC scores changed over the past three years and should we expect more change in FSIQ over time? We are in Mass.; we have high stakes MCAS testing and he did very poorly in the 4th grade tests; the school system cares more about these than discrepancies in achievement/IQ.

SAR,

I don’t know why his IQ increased. I’ve seen more children who had a decrease when they were older. Perhaps there were factors in the second grade test that kept him from performing to his full potential (ranging from less than optimal test environment, nervous, not feeling well, etc., etc.). However, it is pretty obvious that with that level IQ, something is wrong to have achievement at the levels you have given. Personally, I would go for an evaluation outside the school system to try to get a more specific diagnosis so that the private tutoring might better address his difficulties.

Janis

One more thought. Even if you are not looking for direct services through the school system, there can be great value in having the LD label with consultation services only. That way the child can at the very least have testing modifications such as extended time or read-aloud on tests other than reading. That is a life-saver for many kids in trying to pass those state tests.

Janis