I have a friend who has a 12 year old daughter. She has always had a rough time of it in school and has recently been evaluated by a private Dr.
She had the Stanford-Binet done because the school did the WISC. I don’t have the scores from the school but do have the ones from the private eval. Her IQ is average, 95 composite on Standford and 97 on WISC, her verbal on the WISC is 111 but I don’t know the performance but with a full scale of 97, I imagine it isn’t significantly below average.
She also had the WRAT-3, subtests, reading SS 85, Spelling 92, and Arithmetic 93, on the WIAT subtest Reading Comprehension SS 88. The Dr. did note a learning disability, which seems obvious when you compare her IQ to the achievement.
She also had the WRAML, and there are a number of subtests, she scored low, SS 6, on number/letter, on finger windows, SS 7, visual learning SS 5, and on the Index was below the average on all four subtests.
The entire report talks about her inability to learn visually and that she is an auditory learner.
She is a very guarded young girl, with no friends. She has tried sports but didn’t have success making friends. She perfers to watch Tv and doesn’t like to interact with anyone, at times her own family.
The Dr. notes that because of her low scoring on visual perceptual areas that she may have difficutly with social cues and complex interactions, which would account for the reason that she has not friends. He also suggests that she has NVLD, which leads me to believe that her performance IQ is considerably lower than her verbal.
She is going to be placed in a behavior school, which seems highly inappropriate for her.
Can anyone provide me with any guidance. Other than the need for reading instruction, and social skills training, what does this girl need?
I would suggest a developmental vision evaluation.....
The difficulty with visual perception could be due to undiagnosed developmental vision delays. Go to http://www.childrensvision.com for more information, and http://www.covd.org to find developmental optometrists in your area. Many children with poor vision compensate by becoming good auditory learners. Unfortunately, regular eye exams don’t check for developmental vision delays.
There may be other things going on (Asperger’s ?), but I would definitely check out vision.
Nancy
Please do get a developmental vision eval.
Try to go to a doctor that takes a comprehensive approach that addresses balance and coordination as well.
Look for an optometrist that requires the child to work every day at home. It is very difficult to improve visual learning but not impossible. It must be done using intensive means that address not only the eyes but the vestibular issues that can affect vision.
Just my humble opinion.
Re: Please do get a developmental vision eval.
Thank you both for your suggerstions. I do know of a developmental Dr. just a few towns over who is supposed to be very good.
I thought of that when I read her reports but wasn’t convinced, now I am, thanks!
I would have her evaluated by a developmental optometrist. The difficulty with visual perception could be due to undiagnosed developmental vision delays. Try http://www.childrensvision.com for more information, and http://www.covd.org to find developmental optometrists in your area. Many children with poor vision compensate for it by becoming good auditory learners.
There may be other things going on (Asperger’s ?), but I would definitely check out vision.
Nancy