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verbal-performance discrepancy

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

Hello,
>
> My nephew had neuropsychological testing done privately. His verbal iq was 29 points lower than the performance iq. The neuropsychologist says this is unusual. But didn’t seem to know what this meant other than that my nephew had a language disability — which we already knew. My nephew has
articulation, mixed language delays, oral motor issues and possible
auditory processing disorder. He has not yet been diagnosed with
CAPD but school and private SLPs think he does. His full score was
within the normal range. What does this discrepancy mean? We will
get the full written report within two weeks. Thank You.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 02/12/2002 - 10:54 AM

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It means that he is less comfortable and skilled at expressing his knowledge with language than he is with more nonverbal expressions. And- as you say- you knew this already. The real meat of identifying approriate services and modifications in a situation like this is really going to come from the speech and language folks- the neuropsychologist will have some things to say but if your speech folks are any good at all you will have already heard anything he says too in terms of program planning.
Robin

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 02/12/2002 - 6:48 PM

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My child has this discrepency as well . My child is in third grade. She has poor expressive language.Check out the memory as well. My child had problems remembering the alphabet and numbers. It took a while to get her to know those. It is taking a while to read also as well as do math story problems.Math is ok but having a hard time getting it memorized and to express it.She has poor word recall.Suggest finding out childs strength, mine is visual so using that and make sure they are teaching the basics and child is getting it ,so they don’t just pass them along as they seem to get it but really haven’t.Make sure the IEP is detailed to make sure your child is getting the appropriate education for their needs.Psychologist will get the ball rolling and the Speech therapist will be the main person to talk with and the learning support person will be the person who deals with your child the most and you will have to let the teacher know what is going on since they don’t usually read the IEP.As in my case.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 02/12/2002 - 11:22 PM

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Its not unusual at all, of course I am a speech therapist so I see it a lot. Just to reassure you though. It means what they said above, verbal things are not his strength and you use the areas that are a strenghth to build verbal skills when possible and learn to compensate when not possible.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 02/13/2002 - 2:37 PM

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You may have good answers from others already. I see this, more and more often. Generally the child is labeled as languaged disabled. Other times we may see this kind of spread might be in autism, for instance.

I have several such students right NOW on my caseload with 25-30 point spreads.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 02/13/2002 - 3:44 PM

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Yes, my son who falls on the spectrum has this same IQ split although his is only 22. His VIQ is 82 and PIQ is 104. His first VIQ when first tested was 68 so he has made some big strides. I think the key is he received early interventive services since before the age of 2. Despite continued language difficulties he has come along way and continues to make good progress. His first teachers can not believe it is the same child. I think SLP’s are the “bomb”.

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 02/14/2002 - 12:27 AM

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Lisa M.

I am curious as to when you got the IQ testing done first, then when you had it done again. My son was diagnosed with language disorder. The school basically is saying he is mentally retarded and will never achieve more than what he is achieving right now. They say IQ doesn’t change…but if a child would have a language disorder, wouldn’t the IQ change once remediation is given?

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 02/14/2002 - 1:31 AM

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Patty his first testing for IQ was at age 4 his last test was done at age 9 1/2. He falls on the autism spectrum so they said his first testing could of been invalid. I feel he has improved significantly though. He did not have significant verbal skills until after the age of 5 as a matter of fact he was almost 6. His case was complicated by the fact he had a 65 percent hearing loss before having surgery on his ears at age 2. Since that time his language skills have grown by leaps and bounds. He is able to communicatte all his needs to us and participates orally in class. During my recent parent teacher conference she commented on how surprised she was one day when he was the only person to come up with an answer. You see they also use signs to help the kids learn about expressions. The teacher did a sign and asked who remembers what this means. My son raised his hand and said “it means we have something in common”. She was surprised by his choice of words. I know some of you might be thinking common is not a difficult word but if you knew my son you would understand my pride. He has been using much more sophisticated words correctly lately. To top it all off he has even become better at eye contact, not perfect but at least he looks briefly now.

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