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decreased test score

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

MY daughter has ld and she is in the 5 grade. She took her test of where she is every 3 years and her test came back as 15 point (IQ) lower than 3 years ago. The special ed teacher and school psychologist is very worry something is medical wrong. They want our doctor to do a complete blood work on the her and she said
something like to much protein in her blood. She had seziure as a liitle girl and out grew them but I was thinking since she started puberty it can come back. The teacher said she wants to sleep in the morning in class , but she get pleny of sleep here. and says her head feel like needle or bee sting inside of her head. Also she said She with it one minute and then the next she not. Hot and cold in her work.
She don’t like school and not responiable of bring her homework assignment home. She loves to do thing she interested in
such a art work and drawing.
She loved school last year and was on A and B honor roll
I’m so confused

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 01/07/2004 - 3:36 AM

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You should definitely have her examined by a neurologist. Even so, the drop in IQ might be for a couple of reasons unrelated to seizures. First, if your daughter has a language based LD or is a slow-processor, her IQ might appear to have dropped because the IQ tests are age-normed. A younger child does not have to produce answers as quickly in order to receive a higher score. As the age of the child goes up, “bonus points” are awarded for answering questions quickly. In kids with processing problems and language-based LD this can result in a seemingly lower IQ score as they get older. They are as smart as they ever were, but the design of the test means that their LD affects their score more as they get older and that the score is less accurate and reliable for them. Another reason that a child’s IQ may appear to drop is called the Matthew effect. If a child is not receiving proper remediation for her LD, her ability to learn is diminished and her scores drop.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 01/07/2004 - 5:14 AM

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Would the doctor be treating your daughter or the test scores??

IQ test scores can go up and down - IQ testing is NOT an exact science by any means at all. Children can do better one day than another or one year or another depending on how they feel that day, what IQ test is given them, how comfortable they are while taking the test etc. etc.

Unless you have observed a dramatic decrease in what your daughter is intellectually capable of, I wouldn’t be concerned about a drop in IQ test scores. I wouldn’t even rightly know why a school does repeat IQ tests on a child. I’d rather see them spending the time testing her learned skills rather than her IQ. Is she reading better than she did before? Is her writing coming along?

It can’t hurt to talk your doctor but don’t let these IQ test scores hurt you or her.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 01/07/2004 - 6:27 PM

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IQ is not static, but 15 points (a one standard deviation drop) is significant and should be explored. It is unlikely the child’s innate ability has actually changed. Instead, the IQ score may not be accurately reflecting that innate ability, either due to the impact of the LD on the scores and the increased expectation of swift performance by an older child, or because the child is not adequately remediated . If intellectual functioning has actually dropped, that could well indicate a progressive neurological problem, but that is a quite unlikely occurrence.

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