I recently requested my brothers adminstration file and found an OT eval done 11/2000. I am not sure what it is telling me and I am wondering if someone could help me!
He had the Gardner Test of Visual Perceptual Skills, it originally says he received a median age of 11 yr 4 mohts and placed in the 75th percentile and scored within the average in 5 out of the 7 subtests. Then it goes on to say the two tests that he scored low on are neccesary for reading fluency and other visually related academic functions.
Raw Score Perceptual Age Percentile
Visual Discrimination 14 12.11 75%
Visual Memory 12 12.11 63%
Visual Spatial Memory 15 12.11 75%
Visual Form Constancy 10 10 25%
Visual Sequential Memory 13 10 25%
Visual Figure Ground 14 12.11 75%
Visual Closure 16 12.11 99%
Then he had the Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration, his score was 25 out of 27 placing him 73% with a standard score of 109-age equivalent 14.0 yrs.
Next was the Jordan Left Right Reversal Test, he made 6 errors which places him in the 68th percentile. At the second level, when he was asked to scan and locate reversed letters placed in a word, he missed 5 words. The third section of the task is to read 20 sentences and identify which ones have a word with a reversed letter. Silently, he missed 7 out of 13; when he read them aloud using his finger as a guide he was able to quickly identify the remaining 7. It doesn’t give a score, percentile rank, or age for this test, but based on her writing he obtained 7 out of 20, which I imagine does not lead to a high PR or SS.
On Fine motor and handwriting it was noted he was right eye dominant and grips the pencil third finger and thumb with index finger resting on the pencil shaft. with ample time he is able to produce legible manuscript. She noted he needed to be cued to recall the sequence of letters of the alphabet and was confused by b and d. He also confused upper and lower case letters. He attempted to perfect his work and made many erasures to his paper.
On the Motor Speed and Precision Test he completed 49 items in two minutes, significantly lower than the average for his age. A score of 49 is equaled to that of a motor age, 5 yrs 9 months. The test which requires an X to be placed within varying circle sizes, none of his work had to be discounted but even when encouraged to work faster it seemed difficult. He could not increase his speed and remain accurate.
He accurately copied a sentence in a near and far point when presented in manuscript. He had difficulty reading cursive and was only able to produce 5 lower case letters when asked to write the alphabet. However, he was able to write his first name in cursive!!
His developmental hand skills were age appropriate with the expectation of translation movements from palm to fingertips and reverse which were awkward and slow. However, he improved with physical prompts and practice. There was some delay and hesitancy observed when he was asked to imitate unfamiliar movement patterns. Again, he was seen to improve his speed and accuracy when given opportunity and encouragement to repeat the task.
The recommendation at that time was not occupational therapy services. That he be continually encouraged in class to continue to work on his written output.
I pretty much understand what she is saying but would like other opinions!!
Thanks
K.
Re: Ot eval and report (long and posted on parenting bb)
Thank you for responsding to my very long post!
The initial request was becuase he had such poor handwriting, at times illegible. His reading level is around 3rd grade and his Woodcock Johnson scores are consistent with low reading ability and low language arts skills.
Is there anything that can be done with an Occupational Therapist? Do the scores indicate that he needs therapy?
He has been in speech and language therapy since age 3/4, he is 14 now and acocrding to the speech pathologist, he has not made any progress. I am switching him to private speech and lang therapy in the hopes of making progres.
Thanks
K.
The Occupational therapist is saying that in general the scores are within the average range of abilities with some variation. The low scores in question on the Gardner are in form constancy and visual sequential memory.
When a psychologist talks about constancy in terms of perception, the reference is to a person’s ability to recognize the same figure even though it may be presented in different ways. For example, if you are standing near a tree you will see it as a tree. If you move away 200 yards and look at the tree it looks much smaller. It is a smaller visual image but you will still see it as a tree. That is one form of visual constancy. Can a person recognize an image, which could be a letter, a form, an object, in different visual representations or orientations.
Visual sequential memory looks at how well you can recall a series of pictures, numbers or letters that are shown to you in a sequence. Can you recall them as well as you can when you hear a verbal sequence?
Both are aspects that may be involved in the reading process but the question would be whether the standardized scores of reading were significantly below grade level. The same would be true for written language. It seems his writing speed is slow but what did his achievement test scores (such as the Woodcock Johnson Tests of Achievement) show for his school work?
Some suggest that a mixed dominant pattern of hand and eye is important in diagnosis children who will have difficulty learning to read. It would seem that your brother was not mixed dominant.
Without knowing the original referral question, (assuming referral for learning problems) an important issue to look at is that the school did in fact request this evaluation. Many schools do not routinely include an OT evaluation.
Kathleen Ross-Kidder, Ph.D.