Diagnostic Assessment of Cognitive and Educational Abilities
Since our child’s teacher became concerned with our son’s progress at school and the mismatch between his thinking and writing abilities we have searched for what to do. This in itself is a long story but I contacted SPELD and made an appointment for an educational assessment. As they were unable to take him until after the current holidays, I asked a friend of mine who has had all her granny kids tested and who instigated “Books in Homes” who would be a good person. Sadly her contacts were all Auckland based but one of them recommended Justine Wilson. These tests are Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children and take about five hours over at least two sessions. They cost us almost $600. They must be administered by a trained psychologist or qualified assessor. They are classified according to a scale, one assumes you could be an A grade, but here, evidently, they are all C grade. This is sufficient.
We duly took our son and he worked hard, although I suspect he must have faded over the course of the mini timed and non-timed tests. Activities include listening, matching symbols, finding and solving patterns, free writing and drawing. The results take a week or two to compile but our assessor had a pretty clear picture from observing how he completed the tests at the time and from some of those that were scored immediately. He was said to show all the characteristics of dyslexia. This was of course a shock to us, as we did not really suspect this.
The scores are given as percentile ranks adjusted for age. A child needs to be 7 years before it is suitable to apply the tests. The tests have been accumulated and adjusted over time to reflect where children are at on average. It appears that asessors can have a pyshological background or a more learning centered one. I am unable to say how Justine feared in this artificial division, but i suspect she is in the former camp.
The tests cover the broad areas of:
Verbal Comprehension
Perceptual Reasoning
Working Memory
Processing speed
These could be very broadly likened to your computer’s capacity of:
Word Processing Package
Graphics Package
RAM measured in gigabytes
Processing Speed measured in gigahertz
The overall result was expressed as an average IQ score. A combination score of very high and very low comes out as average, so this overall result is of little use to those showing deficits in one or more areas.
Dyslexia then, is defined by the uneven spread of these components of learning. A “normal” person would have a rather even spread of these abilities.
Since we had one son tested, and the eldest had earlier had a less thorough test, the Woodcock Johnston test, we thought that we should get the last one tested too. While we thought there was no problem here, he turned out to have an even greater spread of abilities.
The Woodcock Johnston which gives a similar set of results but they cannot be compared easily by a mere parent. The categories are similar but not the same. The test takes only an hour or so.
Our youngest son’s results showed a range from the 91st percentile to the 1st. Quite a spread! He has excellent verbal skills but very slow processing. This type of result creates lots of problems for the child in school and for his teachers.
But what dose the test do for us? There are recommendations with the test, but we felt that the report had the look of “paste a new name and number in” job. I suppose there are many similarities that will have the same recommendations. There was a page of conclusions showing what the tests found in relation to my son. The recommendations are fairly broad, and as it might be useful to someone I will list them below.
Acknowledge his high average verbal comprehension skills.*
He needs skilled one to one tuition for spelling, reading accuracy, reding comprehension, written language and maths. (ed: PHEW!) (* not maths)
Consider an Individual Education Plan for him to consider how to meet his specific needs.*
He needs to develop excellent computer skills and use a computer whenever possible.*
Explore ways for him to record and present his work. For example, have him dictate some of his answers whenever possible.*
He would benefit from having class notes provided for him rather than him having to copy information. This will reduce his frustration levels.*
Encourage and develop his interests to enhance his confidence in his abilities. For example foster his love of drawing and building things. (* include creative skills)
Also..
A parent feedback meeting is recommended.
Monitoring is important. A reassessment is strongly recommended in two years to assess how he is progressing.
By comparison the other son's report had different results but the findings are as above, that is each * point is the same bar comments in brackets)
Some parts of this throw up a whole set of challenges . After looking at Speld (my sister in law is a primary teacher and said the tutors could be very good or not so good) . I also researched the Danks-Davis scheme here in New Zealand. But I found them not very good at responding to my email requests. We spent a small fortune on the Davis Method, supported strongly by the dyslexia Foundation. However this was not the most successful for our middle son. Where does one find an experienced guardian angel? And if you find out what you think is the best solution for your child how can this be incorporated into a busy school schedule? Perhaps these issues can e addressed in time. But currently I have put Ros Lugg from the Learning Staircase into the Guardian Angel role. The two boys are attending a three week intensive course instead of school. Any way there is no magic bullet but a long process to discover and support our son's through.
Posted by Suzanne Pickford
