Help Me Understand

Where is the rest of the WJII? Have you asked the person who tested your child for an interpretation, and is this the first time for testing?Are you looking for a confirmation of a NVLD diagnosis? Other testing is needed for that…

Actually, this testing was the result of our meeting with a children’s psychologist to evaluate frustration issues. We had provided them a packet containing all previous testing (approximately 3 years worth!) performed by her previous public school, her current LD school, and independent evaluators. This was to fill in the gaps and verify IQ and memory. Our doctor only discussed the fact that the IQ was higher than the pubic school had originally reported, and the discrepancy between verbal and performance IQ was wider. He has requested the opportunity to perform additional testing, and we’re on the waiting list. I am hoping to get complete benchmark testing performed, but that probably won’t happen before May. Meanwhile, we’re also in the process of screening and applying to new schools, with most of the applications/interviews occuring in early April. I’d like to be able to discuss my daughters performance issues a little more intellegently. I do work with her quite a bit at home, and can discuss the issues from a laymans perspective, just feel a little over my head.

The last testing we had done was in the summer of 2001. Would those test scores be of value still? Her LD school did wide-range testing at the start of the school year, but I hestitate to accept the results of those tests at face value. The teacher does all the testing, and with the serious financial issues of the school, we have found the scores to be inflated somewhat to indicate growth when it hasn’t really occured. That had been our basis of the 2001 testing — to validate what the school was reporting, because it didn’t correspond with what I was seeing in our daughters performance.

What grade and state is your daughter in? The questions to ask are: is she making effective progress in her current ed. placement? is the lack of progress a result of Lang. based LD or another disability? does she need special ed. to make effective progress? If you’re disagreeing with the prior testing, first start with a discussion with that evaluator…”average IQ” is 90-110 and testing is a snapshot of ability, not static and may go up or down a few points, that doesn’t mean the ed. placement has caused her to lose skills.

We live in Washington, and my daughter is in the 4th grade. Until I have further benchmark testing performed, I can’t give a definite picture of whether or not she is progressing academically. Unfortunately, I don’t think she is. When we first moved her to this LD school, they had approximately 75 students, 7 full-time teachers, plus appropriate support staff. Three years later, and three moves later, they have one and one-half teachers, and 20 students. They are hurting financially, and it appears that the school could be closing at the end of the school year. They are willing to take children with serious behavior issues in order to keep the numbers up. Between the staff reductions and the disruptions in the classroom, program delivery has been seriously compromised. Our daughter is receiving almost no special accomodations for math, even though all testing we have provided in the past indicated a disability related to math. The school offers no writing program, so she has been exposed to very little in the way of grammar or usage. We’re trying to compensate for those at home. She does get Orton-Gillingham (Slingerland) each day for several hours (this was the focus of the school) and her reading is moving right along (probably at early 4th grade now).

So in a nutshell, I know she is still impacted by her LD. At a guess, I would say she is at least 1-year behind on reading, 2-years behind on math, and probably 2-years behind with spelling skills. She presents a fairly typical picture of a dyslexic kid, struggles with reading/writing; confuses words (was/saw, three/there); requires lots of repetition and one-on-one to understand the math concepts, etc. She has a good working memory, but it takes a long time to move things to long-term memory. She is a very hard worker, and a sweet kid — fortunately no behavior issues. She is also very sensitive to sounds, easily frustrated, and needs instructions given one step at a time (give the first instruction, let her complete it, then move to the second instruction).

You already have a dx of LD, and apparently have had her in a private LD school for 3-4 years(?at your own expense); you’re asking has she made progress? Wait for the academic testing; sure all testing done in the past is important, look at LD in Depth and click on assessment and go to the Wrightslaw article about how to plot out test results over time. Her V and P IQ are only 6pts apart, why is that a concern? Ask the testing person if the P is lower because she didn’t get the speed bonuses. You haven’t said anything about public school involvement now; if you’re looking for services from them, they need to be involved in the eval. too. Otherwise go back to your eval. person with your questions…and complete the eval.

From this data she does not have a learning disability. Her IQ is in the average range and you only provided a spelling achievement from the Woodcock so with that information she has no discrepancy. Compare the IQ to achievement standard scores so you are comparing apples to apples. The GE and Percentiles are not used in my district to determine qualifying.

The difference between verbal and performance is small. Six points difference is not significant where I come from.

The difference between verbal and performance is small. Six points difference is not significant where I come from.

I’d agree that that “1” is probably not a measure of what she could do… that’s generally a “shut down” score. This would put the P score even closer to the V score.

A good achievement battery would be in order to see just where her skills and knowledge are. Sounds like things like grades aren’t going to mean a whole lot in this setting. It’s a shame about the school :( Fortunately, it’s a lot easier to make up the “general knowledge” stuff than the skills that the Slingerland should be helping her with. Are you trying to figure out options for next year?

I’ve asked for a full battery of tests, which won’t occur until the end of March. We’re busy putting together applications to other local private schools. We’re hoping to get into a local private catholic school — not because we’re catholic, but because they have slingerland training, and several dyslexic kids. Their academic program is very solid, their classroom size is good, and they are very structured. We’re trying to present all the information so the school can see her strengths/weaknesses, and are crossing our fingers that we can get her in. Selection is based upon participation in the catholic church, which puts us at the bottom of the totem-pole, but we can hope!