What tests should I request?

Why do more testing? Perhaps all that is needed is a meeting to discuss past testing and develop an IEP. You may want to consider the Gray Oral Reading Test, if your child has a reading disorder. More assessment doesn’t equal more progress; under what classification is your child receiveing special ed. services? Is your child going into 3rd grade so this testing is less than a year old? Most of these tests can’t be repeated for 2-3 years. How does your child do socially, with sports, etc. If all other areas are OK, don’t do lots more testing.

Hi Laura, My son also had a similar battery of tests recently, some the same and some different. But in addition she also did a bunch of tests to look at his emotional health. She believes (as do we) that anxiety is responsible for some of his behaviours and a factor in his reading problem. I ‘m not familiar with what schools are able or obligated to provide (our testing was done privately) but I really feel that these results helped round out the whole picture.
We also saw an OT and a speech therapist and a psychiatrist separately.
Good luck!!

I agree with SAR, why do more tests at this time? You have a good battery of tests that are less than a year old. You need to review the IEP and check progress on the IEP first before you jump into pragmatic and emotional testing.

What makes you believe pragmatics need to be tested?

You have some pretty good testing and the CTOPP has a rapid naming subtest, so I cannot think that you need another one.

The OT eval is probably a possiblity, but don’t be shocked if he doesn’t qualify for school-based OT interventions, they rarely do, even when they have horrendous handwriting.

Get a current informal reading inventory to check his reading skills and level. Make sure they include a word recognition test. Good ones include, but are not limited to, the Johns and the Flynt Cooter.

How can an IEP be written if the child has average to above average scoring? There has to be justification for SPED placement and there doesn’t appear to be any, at this point.

The OT was the only one able to give me real insight into what was causing my son’s problems in school.

She was also the only one who actually gave planned interventions to assist with his specific problems.

The other tests did point to visual sensory integration issues but his teachers and the school psychologist didn’t really give me insights into remediating this issue.
When the OT eval was done it showed his sensory integration issues went beyond the visual realm. He also seeks out proprioceptive stimulii pointing to a problem with his receptors in this area.

I have researched this myself and found alot of activities that can be done for his specific problems. I am glad I pursued further testing and treatment by OT both in and out of the school.

I looked under the results of my son’s CTOPP testing and didn’t see any results for a rapid naming subtest. All I saw were Elision (is that it?), Blending words and Phonological awareness.

My son did not qualify for services and almost didn’t make it into a reading intervention program (because of high test scores). However, his teacher insisted he be evaluated for the program and told me that when they checked his reading they were “frantic” because he could barely read even the simplest words (this was around the middle of 2nd grade). Part of the problem if he isn’t pressed to read constantly he forgets how to read! Sometimes when he’s trying to spell he forgets what certain letters of the alphabet look like. Also, he often gets frustrated speaking because he forgets the words. Any oral reports must be very simple and I always insist he has cue cards (which hadn’t been a problem with his teacher because he can’t read that well).

In his test scores, the only really low subscores I could find were processing speed (27%), Auditory number memory (forward 32% reverse 16%) and on the Woodcock-Johnson (L-W Identification and Passage Comprehension were both 33%). Spelling (39%). The rest of his scores were between 40 and up which I’m guessing is closer to average. Also, surprisingly, his visual perceptual skills were 121 which placed him at 92 percentile…. if his visual perception is so good, how come he consistently sees “was” as “saw” and “of” as “for” and must hold up his left hand in the shape of “b” when he’s trying to spell a word with “b” or “d”?

I’ll look into emotional. My son may be at a point where that may be becoming a factor. In the past he seemed pretty oblivious to a lot of things. But I think he is becomming a little more aware and sometimes gets very frustrated. I know he wants to learn and tries very hard.

I think I’ll ask if he can have a speech assessment, OT assessment and maybe the Gray Oral Reading test.

My son will be seeing a neurologist next month and hopefully that may provide some answers as well. This is a neurologist who saw him a couple times when he was a toddler. As a toddler he received OT for SID and tactile defensiveness (although he still has tactile defensiveness. It’s the one thing I actually “know” he has!).

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!!!! :-)

(It’s time for me to go to the library!!! Get my son to do a minimum of 45 minutes of reading, and let my older child get a stack of summer reading books!)

He is entering 5th grade and sounds similar to your boy. The letter/word reversals seemed to work themselves out about your son’s current age.

He has 4 different labels but all are pretty obscure since, except for speech(hes been in speech therapy since 20 mos)he is borderline in everything. Or, for example, scores at the 1% in one CAPD measure and above average in the next. It’s very frustrating and since we have moved to a larger, more crowded school district I don;t know that he will qualify for resource intervention in the fall.

But then I dont know if it’s done any good all these years either.

The slp who has been with him for several years feels its all working memory related. He simply can’t retain information. He also processes slow-a symptom of inattentive ADD-and does better with adderall. Stimulants will up processing speed and his standardized test scores are much higher on the meds.

But he is too borderline to cause great concern in the public school community. Im guessing your boy will be too.

I worked in early intervention in IN with First Steps. Approximately 20% of the kids who qualified for this 0-3 program qualified for public school intervention at age 3. And, no, for the other 80%, it wasn’t the miracles we reaped but differences in the amount of services they were able to financially provide.

Sorry I don;t have any suggestions. We are working an hour a day this summer on reading, etc. and crossing our fingers…..

Laura,

Sounds like you’ve just about run the gamut of testing. And with an average IQ, average results are not bad.

Additionally, most public schools won’t touch the sensory integration OT situation - we had to provide that privately - and I must say, it worked wonders.

Laura,

Sounds like you’ve just about run the gamut of testing. And with an average IQ, average results are not bad.

Additionally, most public schools won’t touch the sensory integration OT situation - we had to provide that privately - and I must say, it worked wonders.

That is interesting.

My son HAS visual perception issues but doesn’t see reversals. I don’t know what that means. Just thought it was interesting.

It appears your child is gifted with his visual perception scores. My son is the opposite he is gifted in vocabulary and comprehension.

There is a whole subset of kids who fit the gifted/ld criteria. Experts in this field do not look at whole IQ numbers but will look for specific gifts within the scores or look for exceptional creativity which is often not tested for at all. Unfortunately schools are way behind in their thinking regarding what it means to be gifted. (sigh)
When I emailed the woman in Washington who runs the council for exceptional children she basicly said, “Your child needs you to advocate for him.” I think that deserves a DUH.

Plug twice exceptional, dual excelptional or gifted but learning disabled into google There are some great articles in the eric clearinghouse. These kids have very specific issues. They are often lost in the system because their gifts hide their deficits and their deficits hide their gifts. So you end up with a child who is bored but frustrated at the same time.

Hi Leah,
What problems did your son have and how did OT help?

It’s encouraging to hear that your son’s letter/word reversals worked themselves out. I think you may be right about my son (like yours) being too “boarderline” to receive services. Although I think my son will most likely be pulled out for reading intervention at his new school.

Good luck with your daily reading this summer! We’re doing the same thing. Also, I’m hoping to start Language Wise this week (I’m just finishing reading the introductory section and I plan to start scheduling exercises within the next day or two). Have you looked at Language Wise? Another thing you might want to research is RAVE-O. It’s not available yet, but I believe it’s suppose to be available soon.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

My daughter had many of hte same tests that your son did. The CTOPP has a subtest called Rapid Object Naming. My daughter sounds very similiar to yoyr child (except mine is going into first grade). The only tests initially that my daughter did poorly on was the CTOPP. She just recently had a RAN (Rapid Automatic Naming Test) along with PAT (Phonological Awareness Test) combined with testing she has already had and the Doctor diagnosed her as dyslexic. The biggest sign that I saw that made me think she needed some help and persists to this day (I noticed this at age 4 and now she is 6) is not being able to find the word for what she wants to say and what she knows. (Although she knew her age, whe could not say the number until she was 6, she has a waffle every morning and it is still ” the circle thing with the squares”). She also has had great difficulty learning the names of the letters and the numbers, despite superior intellingence as shown by IQ. She had difficulty learning the colors, and forgets things she seemed to have known. Getting back to the CTOPP, it has many subtests. Elision, Rapid Color Naming, Blending Words, Sound Matching, Rapid Object Naming , Memory For Digits, and Nonword Reptition. The child is then given composite scores for Phonological Awareness, Phonological Memory and Rapid Naming.
The RAN is suppose to be a very good indicator of reading ability. It requires no reading, but rapid retrieval tests like the RAN have been found to be higlhy related to aquisition of reading skills. Hope any of this info helps!

Actually it’s my daughter. SHe’s 9, going into 4th grade. SLD in all areas with significant processing delays. She also had fine motor and gross motor, motor planning problems and ADD. Gifted IQ.

Because of her handwriting and the gap between performance and IQ the evaluator suggested SI OT. My daughter’s handwriting is now as good or better than most children her age. It is legible and well spaced. Her teachers couldn’t believe the difference in 1 school year - they said they have never had a child improve so much in 1 year. Her ability to copy from the board has improved as well as her ability to organize and complete novel experiences. Her bike riding has improved (when she went the OT said it was a miracle that she could even ride a bike) and her self esteem has soared. I can’t say enough about it. Her reading level has gone from 34% in 2nd grade to 87-94% at the end of 3rd grade. (She also receives private Lindamood tutoring, including VV). We has spent a lot of money, but the improvement is next to miraculous.

Hi Jackie,
My 11 years old son has expressive language probs (and LD) and frequently used the phrase “Uh you know, that thing”. I do have to admit tho that his working memory and word recall did improve quite abit after LB visualization/verbalization. Before that his working memeory was like a sieve. recently we are having him take Adderall XR (recent inattentive add diagnosis) and that has also shown more more improvement. After V/v, he startted to sing songs consitantly (he could never remember the words) and improve his vocabulary. Altho he still does say “that um thing”, it is far less frequent.

Hi to you Robin,
Believe it or not my daughter does well on expressive vocabulary test. This has always stumped me. As I said she always has had trouble finding the words. She never sang songs until this passed fall. She adored her music teacher. One night I put her into bed and she said “Hey Mom, I learned this song…Lucy Locket lost her pocket ….” and she sang some of it. I cried. I have always called her My Little Star and sang her Twinkle Twinkle since infancy. I don’t believe she can sing it correctly to this day. I never understood why she does well on expressive vocab tests. From her age, to the numbers, colors, letters, names of her friends, our last name….she struggles to recall these. Yet, the first time I told her at 4 her birthdate, she has never forgotten.

How strange! In reading the report of my son’s test results, the only subtests listed under CTOPP are Elision and Blending Words.
That’s it! Just like your daughter, my son has difficulty with word retrieval and rapid naming of objects. He sounds very similar to your daughter.

I know I mentioned these problems prior to testing and am a little surprised that these other subtests weren’t included. Perhaps I should call the school and ask about this?

Thanks for sharing this information.

Thanks for sharing the information about LMB’s V/V. I’ve been thinking of purchasing the book and trying it with my son.

I would definately check into the rest of the subtests. Maybe they forgot to give them to you (and not your child). Who knows. I read somewhere that it is an excellent test to help diagnos dyslexia, along with others. (like the Slingerland something which escapes me now). Good Luck! I had this test done by our private SL therapist (the school didn’t have it) and when I gave it to the school they lost it THREE times. Yup, 3. Didn’t matter anyway, they didn’t know enough about the test and really didn’t give it any weight even though she scored less than 1% on two of the three areas. Anyway, after many months and many disagreements with the school, her learning disability is proven and now she is getting the help she needs. Of course, the school won’t use the “D” word. Maybe they lost that too.

Hi Jackie…
I am robinA vs Robin G. I saw the mix up in the other post..Whoops.

That expessive language thing is so wierd isn’t it? My no 1 son has normal long term memory so obviously some things make it thru the bad short term to stick to the long term or there would be nothing to measure! There must be some way that the material is presented to them that makes it stick such as a personal or a visual experience or a versus just being told.
What are the receptive language scores for your daughter? My middle child has receptive language skills in the 30%tile but expressive in the 60%ile. He has a photographic memory (I think) that enables him to compensate. I truely believe he may have an audtory processing issue but his compensatory skills are so strong that it goes unnoticed. His written word is also better than his oral speech. My older son who I decribed in the previous post has such a severe mish mash of LD that I find it impossible to believe no 2 is unscathed. They were both speech delayed.