Hi-
I know there is another perfectionism thread, but I wanted to get a little more specific. Almost all the people involved in Mite's (8yr old 2E boy) testing and evaluation have said he has extreme perfectionism and performance anxiety.
Apparently he really takes his time answering questions, even on timed tests, and this is having a severe impact on his results. In addition, he has performance anxiety and often, during the test, says things like "I'm doomed now" or "No hope for poor Mite in that concept".
Poor guy!!! The district psychologist said that seemed to effect the PSI (which was 50 points lower than the VCI, but still in low average range) because Mite refused to pick up his pace to accomodate the time limit.
What to do??? Should we stop testing? Are there better techniques? Do we give him DRUGS to calm him down? Or do I just pull out my hair?
8^()
No answers... just sympathy. MY DD didn't cooperate on her testing either and the pysch really felt it was fear of getting something wrong that caused her to say 'I don't know' when she obviously had a pretty good clue.
We are opting not to do any testing for a year or two and see what happens. Maybe she will mature enough to make it worthwhile. Meanwhile, we are focusing on things like playing games and losing - but having fun anyway; trying new things that are hard; etc - trying to work on that perfectionistic streak that keeps her from really showing her stuff when she feels under pressure.
Good luck - and let me know if you find any magic fixes.
Mary
Your son is twice exceptional. Are you concern about
IQ test or state and classroom exams.Is your son on a IEP? If he is maybe you could request extended time on test as a accomodation.
Can the psychologist tell you his GAI score? I have heard that for a child that scores low in memory and or processing the GAI will give a better idea of his/ her potential.
IMO I think perfectionism can keep a child from performing on everything,sometimes even games. Also look into getting him help for his
anxiety issues.
www.shwablearning.org will be having experts July 24 - 28 answering questions on anxiety on the parent to parent message board. I hope this will help.
Hi-
His GAI came out at only 115, but the ed. psychologist said he felt it was much much higher than that, but Mite's hands would spasm anytime he had to use them for a subtest. Both the ed psych and the special ed teacher said they felt Mite would be a 99.9%ile kid if he could use his hands better and not be so perfectionistic. On the blocks subtest he actually put his hands way in front of him and the blocks and turned his hands backward, with stiff spasms, to manipulate them. The ed. psych. said Mite verbalized what he needed to do quickly and correctly, but physically couldn't perform the tasks.
In addition, he performed less well on the verbal tasks if they followed a fine motor task.
So, the ed. psych. felt it really was not an accurate representation of who Mite really is. Mite has developmental coordination disorder aka dyspraxia, and dysgraphia.
I'm wanting to get an idea what his real iq is so we know who we are working with before we slap interventions on him.
The District gave us the results on the VERY last day of school this year. It was his first evaluation (we had to fight several months before the district did it). They basically dropped his results on us and said, "see you the week before school to do his IEP".
So, I'm using the summer to figure out who he is. I want to make sure the interventions are appropriate.
Oh. To be fair, I really do think his team is going to be good for him. They all fell in love with him during the evaluation process and seem interested in championing his case. I do know they are excited to be working with him because of the rarity of his 2E (his VCI was only 136, but he hit the ceiling on several of the Wood**** Johnson subtests). I also know they wanted to take the summer to study 2E and understand better what to do with him.
His perfectionism seems to be effecting the neuropsych evaluation; so we stopped. I think it also effected his performance on the SCANTRON, but his fine motor issues would have done that too.
It looks like his left hand functions at about 2 years level while the right is about 5 years level. He's 8.5. His body is just far less mature than his funky brain.
thanks for the website. i'll look into that.
Willa Gayle -
If you don't mind video games, DS10 just got (and then lost) one that I thought had great potential - it's called Big Brain Academy and plays on a Nintendo DS handheld system.
It is a series of IQ test, and silly fluff about how much one's brain weighs! It is quite fun and addictive, and has a lot of eye-brain-hand connecting activites - much more diverse than the typical video game because one actually points and draws on the screen. There are mazes, memorisation, and it' all timed - with an obnoxious ticking sound for the last 10 seconds of each minute long test.
What's amazing is that even I thought that it was fun. Every kid at DS10's summer camp was drooling over it. It has a very light hearted spirit. The one thing it don't get is that schools are so worried about "how kids will react to some being smarter than others" and here comes this video game that rates one on their "brain weight!" LOL!
Trinity
I'll look into this. Both my fellows love to play Nintendo when their friends come over, mostly because thats the only thing those friends will do. Anyhow, I think they'd enjoy games like that.
thanks Trinity
good luck, DS10 just lost his Nintendo DS, so no more game for now. ((lower lip out))
just when I was getting good at it!
T
check the garage!! that's where DS14 just found his yesterday!!! chuckle