I just received a copy of the scores for my dd’s Phonological Awareness Test. When we met, the diagnostician didn’t go over the scores with us, she just showed us the test and her answers. She was worried about parts of the test. What is the most important to look at—the Age Equivalency, Percentile Rank or the Standard Score? She tested anywhere from 1 month ahead (graphemes) to 1 1/2 years behind (2 parts rhyming and blending) I would think the 1 1/2 years behind is a pretty significant delay? Is that how I should be interpreting it? She is being evaluated tomorrow by an evaluation center at an LD School. Just curious as to what everyone else is seeing. Thanks for any info! One of these days surely I’ll understand all of this jargon!
Suzi
Re: Can someone help me understand PAT scores?
Rhyming and blending are pre-requisites to reading. She has difficulty wtih rhyming words and with blending phonemes, for instance, f-l-a-t is flat and mat and cat rhyme but mat and sit don’t. There may be a pattern in the errors she makes with certain vowel sounds. How old is she?
Re: Can someone help me understand PAT scores?
I would ask about patterns too — if the parts she does okay on are all things like graphemes, which are written down, but she’s lagging behind when it’s auditory, then she is going to have trouble reading. And while there *is* a lot of variability that’s normal when kids are young, I’d have to agree that being a year and a half behind is a big ol’ red flag being waved high & hard.
Percentiles and Standards are the most meaningful numbers — what were they?
YOu might want to wander over to http://www.auburn.edu/~murraba for some painless fun ideas for working on the phonemic awareness.
Re: Can someone help me understand PAT scores?
She was 6 years 7 months when the test was given. She’s in kindergarten and just finishing Saxon Phonics. She really scored low in the percentiles on all portions of the PAT.
Suzi
Re: Can someone help me understand PAT scores?
Her percentiles were low in all areas.
Rhyming-14th
Segmentation-18th
Isolation-21st
Deletion-35th
Blending-23rd.
This, combined with low scores on an auditory processing screen makes me really wonder what is up!! Her SLP didn’t score the AP test, but she only got 1/2 correct and on the 3rd part she couldn’t do it at all with competing words. She also had persistent speech articulation difficulties. She is definitely a bright kid. I just had her tested at a private evaluation center yesterday and we won’t know the results until next week. I can hardly wait! I so much want a diagnosis and a plan of action! I’m almost certain we will get a diagnosis of either dylexia, AP or both. What do you think?
Suzi
Check out the article under “assessment” in the “LD In Depth” section of this site— it’s titled “Understanding Tests and Measurement for the Parent and Advocate”. It is really worth reading carefully. Standard scores are what you want because they mean the same thing at all ages and grade levels (it would be quite different to be 2 years behind at age 5 than at age 15). One month ahead doesn’t mean much, does it?! The diagnostician/psychologist/counselor has an ethical and professional duty to explain the scores and what they mean in language you can understand. Insist on it, but do your own research as well.