Hi my son has dysgraphia as diagnosed by neuro psych. Our SD
will only use the WIAT-Written Expression to test writing skills.
It gives inflated scores and does not show my son’s issues.
Can someone kindly recommend some alternative testing
that I can request SD to use . His writing lacks organization,
proper grammar, spacing, and contains lots of spelling mistakes
<lots of reversals>. He has about a 2 year delay in writing.
All his teachers acknowledge his writing issues yet
special Ed has writing scores that are above average range.
If anyone has the name of a test that will accuratley access
a child’s writing skills please let me know.
Thanks for reading
Getting Your Child Qualified in Written Expression
The law states that the school district can not use just one test to determine qualification. If they only do only one test of Written Expression they are not following the letter of the law. I also recommend the TOWL (Test of Written Language). Both the High School District and the Grade School District in our area claim that everyone would qualify for Special Education if given this test. The test is much more involved then the subtests in the WIAT, WRAT. Children with dysgraphia also tend to get tired while writing and the TOWL is longer and more taxing.
You stated your son has reversals but did not say how old he is. I asked when my son was in 4th grade that they administer a reversal test and the TOWL as they were looking to dismiss. He scored in the < 1% on some of the reversal subtests and did not score well on the TOWL. With the results from the tests I asked them to give they did not dismiss him.
Two of the reversal tests are listed below:
(JLRRT-R) Jordan Left-Right Reversal Test
http://www.slosson.com/item149574.ctlg
The Test of Pictures/Forms/Letters/Numbers/Spatial Orientation and Sequencing Skills by Morrison Gardner
This link discusses the above two tests
http://www.umsl.edu/~optrgarz/visualperception4.htm
There is the TOWL (Test of Written Language). It demands a bit more than the WIAT. But none of the Written Language tests are very useful in identifying bright students with non language based writing difficulties. The problem is that the Writing tests ask for students to produce very little. A decent paragraph can earn a high score. But classroom demands are much higher. The tests are probably developmentally normed —but in many schools, curriculum demands are out of synch with normal development.
It would be a real blessing if somebody would develop a written language test that is more in line with current classroom expectations.