Puzzling Reading comp. score

Go with your gut feeling. If a child is feeling unwell they will put a greater effort on what is easy for them and less effort on what is hard. I would take the results with a grain of salt.

When my son was beginning 10th grade he was re-evaluated for Special Ed. He was very angry about the testing. He scored lower then % wise then the previous testing. The Psych. report stated that my son did not want to be tested but that they worked through the problems and the results were an accurate reflection of his abilities. ( This is a standard statement in Psych. reports). In hindsight I now know they were not an accurate reflection. When he got motivated about going to college he produced scores on the college addmission testing that were much higher % wise and I do not thing these higher results were due to special school service.

Helen

You’ve got lots of info pointing towards real gains, and a cold can make a difference.
I will say that often it takes longer for gains in skills and confidence to filter down to the weird passages they pick for standardized tests (which they sort of have to write about the most boring topicsin the world, because if they’re a topic a group of students would be interested in, that group would have an enormous advantage. I had a kiddo have huge differences on the A & B versions of the Gray Oral Reading Test because one passage was about Martin Luther King, Jr. and he knew about him).
I bet, also, that the short-trivial-passage nature hits him where it hurts… that he does better with more difficult reading. It’s the kids with the verbal strengths who can often benefit a lot from “mish-mash” interventions because they will intuitively make verbal connections. I suspect he’s okay in this department. You also could have a teacher who’s looking out for him and realizes that if he scores too well, he won’t get help.

I do not care much for the W-J passage comprehension subtest, esp. if it is the W-J III. The test is in cloze format, however there are certain items almost all my students always miss, regardless of grade level or reading proficiency. Thus, I find many students receive what I believe to be depressed scores.

The Burns and Roe is a fairly challenging reading inventory. Your son will read passages and be asked to answer, orally, 10 comprehension questions that include factual recall, evaluation, inference and vocabulary. I like this measure and think you will get good information from this test.

I always administer at least two passages per grade level. While this is not a standardized test (you will not get a percentile score or a standard score), you will get an instructional level score and an independent level score. Generally instructional level is the level where the student can correctly answer 70% with around 95% oral reading accuracy (I generally accept as low as about 93%). Independent level would be virtually perfect, 90-100% comprehension and 98-100% accuracy. Frustration level is generally around 50% or less comprehension and 90% or less accuracy. 60% comprehension may be considered appropriate for instructional purposes, it can be a judgement call.

So, see how he does on this. And, I would want him feeling well to do his best on a test.

Thanks, Anitya
You are obviously very experienced with testing. Are you a psychometrist/assessment counsellor? I would like to pass on your opinion of the W-III - I think it may be III that was done (Is there a IV? —I now it was the most recent.)

The purpose of the testing was to see what impact remediating APD (with FFWD) had on WISC testing and to see if the reading gains I reported were actual. However much our tester disagrees that a cold or an “bad day” scenario can interfere, I would agree with you and Sue that a cold presents a special problem—especially for CAPD kids, I feel. For example, when we did FFWD, my son’s scores suddenly plummeted on his worst task (but one where he was nonetheless scoring around 70%—he dropped to 50%). When I checked with our audiologist she said this was common with a cold. Consequently, retesting when my son has a cold would cancel out any evidence of the benefits of FFWD if any. (My impulse was to cancel the testing, but since the assessor is a friend and colleague who was giving me a freebie, I didn’t like to.)

I tried an analogy on my son tonight: feather is to lightweight as lead is to _______. He heard “leather” for “feather”. No wonder he scored higher on the W-J Cognitive, where he benefited from the added structure (and, apart from APD issues, the absence of the timing element).

As you say, it will be interesting to see his Burns and Roe results.

Another factor is that earlier WRAML testing showed increased comprehension of story material following a time delay. This testing process is not so straightforward!

Thanks for your help.

It is possible that he is prone to fluid build up in his ears that does not result in an actual ear infection every time.

You could try an antihistamine to dry him up when he gets a cold. Ask your doctor.

My son has CAPD and he had negative ear pressure which dramatically influenced his performance every time he had the slightest cold. We have fought a long battle with it—and finally won. We used Alcon Unisol 4 saline solution that is actually for contacts (no preservatives) as nose drops several times a day for months. According to the audiologist, that usually does it. It didn’t for him though and he used chinese herbal medicine for 6 months. It was a dreadful concoction that the audiologist had used with her own Down’s Syndrome child (DS have smaller than typical ear canels and are prone to infections).

So, anyway, I think it is very likely that a cold disproportionately influenced his performance. My son could always still do the things that were easy for him but if it was hard or he was still learning ….forget it. I would just make sure he takes another test too. If they are very different, you have an important piece of information.

Beth