"Atypicality"

From the word “atypical” or “not typical.” This would suggest unusual scores.

Hi Anitya,

I know what the word means. And I know that his scores aren’t “typical”. His IQ is 97th %ile, processing speed at about the 3rd %ile if I’m remembering right. He’s just barely on grade level academically, and he’s an emotional train wreck. (on meds for anxiety… they are reluctant to try anything for the ADHD/Inattentive piece for fear of tipping the anxiety over the edge again)

But back to the word “Atypicality”. This is a specifiy rating category on the BASC. (other categories are depression, withdrawn, somatic complaints, adaptability, social skills and attention) What I’m looking for is the significance of this finding. I looked on the BASC web site, but their explanation was scanty. I have the feeling that it’s one of those things where another psychologist or neuropsychologist would immediately know what the first was talking about, but the conversation is going on over my head. According to the report, both I and his classroom teacher rated him as “clinically significant” in this area, but I don’t know what it encompasses.

Karen

My quess is here they are talking more about behaviors then test scores. For example the child does not have the typical eye contact that his normally developing peers would have. His pattern of speech deviates from that of his peers. His social interaction, ability to read body language, follow converstation ect is not what you would expect to find in a child of his age and cognitive ability. This is also used when a child does not completely fit a diagnostic criteria. For example atypical autism is applied to a child who: meets some but enough of the criteria to meet the diagnostic label, or meets enough of the criteria but does not meet age of onset criteria, or who meets the the number of sx’s required for dx but not the severity. It is a very lose term that means not following what would be expected in the childs given situation. For example my youngest son, dx’d PDD-NOS, meets the number of criteria required for dx, met the age of onset, but his severity is not great enough to warrent a dx of Autism. I hope I did not confuse you more. Good luck to you and your son.

Thanks for the input, and yes, the BASC is a behavioral assessment tool. What I’m really after is what the term means in this particular tool.

Karen

You got me interested. The BASC website has some parent info. reports you can download in Adobe Acrobat. They describe atypicality as “the tendency to behave in ways that are immature or considered odd. May also indicate hyperactivity.” It encompases behaviors from “being easily sidetracked” to “unusual or repetitive thoughts”, “self-injurious behavior”, “lacking thought control”, or “hearing strange voices”. So there are two components, thoughts and behaviors. To me, these are quite different— being hyperactive and hearing voices certainly suggest the need for different interventions. I would definitely ask the neuropsych. to interpret.

Thanks. I think I’m going to have to do that!

Karen