Hi- My 13 year old son scored a 68 on the WIAT-II Written Expression subtest(second grade level). The testing reported that the low score was due to his inablility to complete the paragraph writing portion of the subtest. The final report said that my son did not qualify for a Disorder of Written Expression because of his inability to attend to the task rather than his inability to perform the task. He does have ADHD, but I don’t think his difficulty in writing is due to inattention, rather difficulty expressing himself. Can anyone tell me why he didn’t qualify for the disability? Does anyone have recommendations of a curriculum or program that is beneficial for kids with written expression difficulty? Thanks for any and all responses.
Re: need help understanding test results!!!
I was thinking the same thing… I’d request an Independant Evaluation.
Erin
www.schoolpsychologistfiles.com
Re: need help understanding test results!!!
If he qualifies under the Other Health Impairment (OHI)eligibility, couldn’t the school include written expression goals in his IEP? An independent evaluation might give you some additional information, but it isn’t going to solve the problem.
If he has difficulty writing, he may have dysgraphia, which effects a persons ability to get complex thoughts down in writing. I would ask for independent testing with a neuropsychologist.
As for curriculum or program, my dd, who has dysgraphia, uses a word prediction program. These types of programs help find words by giving you a list after you’ve typed the first couple letters or commonly used words that would come after what you have just typed. This takes some of the stress out of the work, helps with spelling (if that is part of the issue) and can help with work production. Its also good for kids with ADHD because it holds more interest than writing. You can search for Word Prediction. There are a number of good programs out there and several have demo versions so you can give them a try.