Hello everyone.

I always get great info here- so have another question that I hope ya'll can help with.

DS- 10, 4th grader recent dx (private) ADHD and specific learning disability- dyslexia
Fairfax County, VA

My son is going to be tested through the school district soon. We are meeting with the local screening committee soon to discuss what testing needs to be done.
They said (over the phone) that not all test we had done are accepted by the state of VA.(or I think that is what she ment) So they need to do more (different) testing for some areas.

What test should we expect and agree with and are there any test that we should say no way too?? Any specific test we should ask for?

The private tester used-- (as listed on the eval)
Beery VMI
Child Behavior Checklist
Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing
Conners 3
Gray Oral Reading Test- 4th ed
Projective Drawings
Sentence Completions
Teacher Report Form
WISC-IV
WRAML-2
WJ-III

Also- when looking at his achievement vs ability gap: It is not as big when looking at his Full scale IQ-- but it is huge when looking at the GAI. (his working memory index was at 2%!!!! which of course is a huge outlier) Is it a reasonable request to have them use the GAI instead of the full scale for determination of learning disorders.

I can't really comment on the tests. Your list looks similar to ones that they gave my DD. I seem to recall polarbear had a good link regarding tests and what they are used to determine.

I would follow up your phone conversation with an email confirming your understanding of the phone discussion. This also gives you a record. I would ask which tests are not accepted and which different tests they intend to propose. I would try not to sound like you are challenging them. Instead, I would try to frame it as wanting to be able to educate yourself so that you can have a more productive meeting.

So before I answer Jolene's questions.... I had to have a good laugh at this... I suspect I did have a link, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was!!!

Raising 3 kids is starting to really mess with my ability to think straight

polarbear

Try not to worry too much about this - it's fairly typical for schools to do their own testing as part of the IEP eligibility process, no matter what type of private testing has been done. I was worried when my ds went through the IEP eligibility process that when the school tested him they would somehow magically sweep away both his disability and his giftedness with their testing, but they were still there Granted, the school *did* try to average them out and hide them and pretend they didn't mean anything, but the key was to understand the private testing and the tests given by the school, and to request the full set of subscores etc from the school testing.



I like Knute's suggestion to call and ask ahead of the meeting - and then I'd post their list here to get some input re what they are proposing. If you have a local parent's advocate group that you can call for advice with no charge, I'd also call and ask them what is typically included in an IEP eligibility review for SLD/reading in your school district.

FWIW, it looks like your private evaluator gave a comprehensive set of tests - I don't really see anything missing, except possibly executive functioning tests such as NEPSY. You've definitely got the tests that are needed to screen for a reading disability and to help you understand the cause of the disability (dyslexia vs other challenges).



It's important to understand that the decision whether or not a student qualifies for IEP eligibility is a *team* decision - it doesn't rest on any one set of scores. The school district (and possibly your state) will have guidelines to go by in determining eligibility, but you can absolutely argue *anything*. Be reasonable, of course, when you advocate for your child, but if you are well prepared and understand the data you have and the academic impacts of the disability on your child, you will have a strong voice in the IEP eligibility review process.

One thing that might help in advocating is to look through the achievement tests and sort them out in a way that illustrates specifically how your ds' reading disability is evidenced in the tests - if he does considerably better on math than on reading comprehension etc - things like that. Sorry I can't think of anything specifically at the moment, my brain is too stuck in writing disability mode... but if I think of some way to collate it I'll come back.

Also keep in mind - according to IDEA, a discrepancy in achievement vs ability doesn't have to be used to prove an SLD. I would recommend reading about this at wrightslaw.org if you haven't already.

Re using GAI - yes, absolutely, you can use the GAI! It might help to take a copy of an article explaining when/why GAI is used just in case the school staff isn't familiar with it.

Good luck!

polarbear

One of the situations that triggers the use of the GAI over the FSIQ is a significant discrepancy between VCI and WMI, so it would certainly be indicated for use in this situation.

Sorry polarbear, it's actually a link from mich. My brain can't keep everyone straight. I'm not sure if it helps but here's the link:
http://www.concordspedpac.org/Whichtest.htm

Thanks everyone!!

The meeting was actually this afternoon. It went really well.

The only "test" they want to do is the KTEA. The school psychologist was accepting of almost all the test that were done and without any need for prompting- acknowledged that the full scale IQ score was greatly depressed due to working memory index scores.

All in the meeting that have dealt with DS or have observed him seemed to tell the same story of behaviors and inconsistency with his school work. So everyone one this end are in agreement at least about that.

So now the evaluation process begins. They are suppose to have it all finished before summer break. Hoping that the other steps are just as easy and pain free as this portion of the process was!!

The only thing that threw us today was the mention of screening for ASD. Gotta say that this freaked me out a little. After hearing everyone verbally talk about DSs behaviors and social interactions- I am freaking out that this might lead a different direction that I was ever considering. Heck- I am still trying to come to terms with the whole unexpected ADHD dx!!!

Thanks again everyone for all the awesome support and information.