I’m looking for suggestions on what if any additional testing should be done for my son 4th grade. These results are now almost 3yrs old and the school is thinking about the 3yr update on his IEP.
He can’t print, but has learned cursive, he doesn’t want to learn typing. He still has trouble writing numbers, many are backwards. He has trouble with transitioning between tasks and organization skills. His IEP was simple, OT for fine motor skills and behavioral intervention. The classes are small 17-18 so the teacher has given him individualized work.
He had the WISC III at 7.5, he’s almost 10 now.
info 19 picture comp. 12
similarities 17 coding 3
arithmetic 9 picture arrangement 6
Vocabulary 19 block design 3
Comp. 14 object assem 14
digit span 12 symbol search 8
verbal IQ 133 performance IQ 93
verbal comprehension 141 >99%
percep org. 93 32%
freedom from dist. 104 61%
processing speed 80 9%
He also had the WIAT, scoring
basic reading 140 >99%
math reasoning 112 79%
spelling 121 92%
reading comp. 144 >99%
numerical op. 99 47%
composites
reading 142 >99%
math 107 68%
As you can see he has quite a bit of scatter. The school’s psychologist. is supposed to contact us with recommendations and I would like to have some ideas before then. Any advice?
Re: Suggestions for GT/LD diagnotic tests?
There are two tests for reversals. I would suggest having one of them done: Jordan Reversal Test or The Test of Picture, Shape, Number and Letter …
My son is 14 and his processing speed is also 9%. I would highly recommend he learn keyboarding. One way to possibly get him into keyboarding is if he has a group of friends who are into computer and can Instant Message back and forth. Another think is to get the keyboarding into the IEP so that the practice is done at school; 20 minutes 3 times a week. Once my son could touch type 11 words a minute he could type faster then he could write. There is no way my son could keep up with his middle school work without using a computer.
Helen
Re: Suggestions for GT/LD diagnotic tests?
My son was tested recently with similar results - they also did additional cognitive testing (CAS) and emotional testing to try to understand if there was an attentional issue. (The conclusion we are working off of is that there is an issue with anxiety, and not ADD. and a real problem with motor output which is responsible for his low low processing speed.) An earlier Stanford Binet revealed similar scatters, but higher overall scores. My understanding is that if your child is testing in the gifted range the Stanford Binet should also be given.
Good luck.
Re: Suggestions for GT/LD diagnotic tests?
Have the school retest him and get an Alpha-Smart written into his IEP. We bought one for my son through the school, and it was wonderful for him to learn the keyboard on, and now he types quite well for a kid who flunked typing in the 5th and 6th grades. He is a senior in HS now. Good luck - Melanie
NVLD
It’s too bad he doesn’t want to type; it made a world of difference to me : )
(but I didn’t learn until I was in 6th grade, till that point I was dependent on other’s willingess to let me dictate).
I was wondering if you were familar with non-verbal learning disabilities? Your son seems to fit some of the perceptual profile. (low coding score, low block design score, trouble with organization and transitions).
lists tests that are recommended for these kiddos.
Definitely let the school re-evaluate him; the WISC III, updated OT eval. and you may want to have someone privately do the Stanford-Binet LM(the old Binet, which has much higher ceilings for gifted kids), and also look at why his processing speed is so low. If his achievelment at school(and on any group standardized tests) is in line with this testing, you may want to skip achievement testing. What about looking at attention, behavior, etc?