OK, I have some other threads about this, but long story short DS7 was recently tested by the district due to my concerns about reading fluency and difficulty with writing. They surprisingly went ahead and did a full assessment including cognitive testing (this is the first time DS had a cognitive test where he was medicated and actually was cooperative.)
I do not have the subtests right now, maybe I won't be getting them or maybe they will come in with the written report, but this is all verbal from a phone conversation as of right now. I am mainly concerned with whether this test shows any real areas of deficit. DS was given the Celf 5, the Wisc 5, the WIAT, the Beary, and the BOT 2.
Celf 5
Core language 118
Receptive 123
Expressive 118
Highest scores (average is 7-13):
Recalling sentences 16
Following Directions 16
Weaknesses:
Formulated Sentences 10
Pragmatics 7
There was also an observation score for social skills where he got 11/32 and she (apparently (thanks aeh)) said that 9 or lower is considered normal.
WISC
Visual Spatial 151
Fluid Reasoning 155
Working Memory 155
Verbal Comprehension 118
Processing Speed 100
FSIQ 144
WIAT
Math 160
Reading 141
Word Reading 127
Pseudo Decoding 134
Fluency 127
One thing worth noting is that on the WIAT he was able to go until he couldn't go any further on math, but on the reading sections he was only able to be tested on 1st grade level material which is below his reading level. I would say he would have performed just as well on the reading section at age late 4/early 5 as he did during the test, which is one of the main reasons I am concerned about reading, lack of progress over the last few years. I was really hoping for a test that would check his fluency on something at his actual reading level. He scored a 207 on his map test in January for reading and the lexile level with that was like 6 hundred something to I think 770ish? I would have much preferred if they had him read something at that level for the test, because it would have been very slow and choppy and I doubt recall would be adequate.
He was also given rating scales and meets criteria for ADHD (which he is already diagnosed with and which I think is his main disability), came up as "elevated" on the autism rating scale, and has executive functioning challenges. The school has his primary category listed as autism and secondary as gifted. I still am not 100% on board with the autism thing and experts tend to be split on whether they see it or not. His diagnosis of ADHD is combined type, severe. Many of us who know him best think that ADHD explains his symptoms best, especially since he does not have some of the core deficits of autism (but he does have bits and pieces of it).
He was also given fine motor testing. On the Beary his visual motor integration was 123 and visual processing was 140. On the BOT 2 his fine motor was 62. They determined his slowness and reluctance to write is not an OT concern. They did find sensory differences and a lot of deficits in self regulation and recommend OT for those areas.
So, overall I was somewhat expecting that he had to be smarter than prior testing had shown based on his academic performance, especially in math. I was honestly not expecting scores in the 150's and I'm feeling slight panic. Of course his FSIQ came out 1 point below DYS cut off, lol. Not sure if it was something we were interested in anyway, but I just think it's funny
I'm mainly concerned with how much lower Verbal Comprehension is than the other scores. I'm assuming this is why he is not keeping up with the other students in his gifted class in reading and writing. He also was totally average in formulated sentences. I was there during that test and it was painful. There is not a time limit, but DS was taking up to 10 minutes to make sentences even for the easiest questions. It's hard to say if he was having trouble coming up with something, had too many ideas to choose from, was suffering from analysis paralysis, was overly concerned with determining the "right" answer, etc. But I can see how he might hate writing if even coming up with the sentence "The boy is holding a jar" takes 10 minutes of agonizing thought. I missed the end of the test, so I don't know if he got to a point where he could no longer answer, if he gave up, or if he hit some discontinuation criterion. I could definitely see that there was a problem for him in this area.
I guess I am less concerned about the processing speed. I pretty much guessed this would not be an area of strength for him and it's totally average, so not really a deficit I guess and pretty typical for ADHD and, based on what I have seen on this board, it's totally common for gifted kids to be average in this area.
The district is going to get me an official written report sometime next week which may have more info in it on the subtests. We will also have to schedule an IEP meeting where I will find out the placement recommendations and proposed accommodations. If anyone has any advice or ideas on what I should bring up at that meeting I would really appreciate it.
Overall I am very happy with the job the district has done, and I didn't have to fight for any of it! I do wish that we had done more to tease out the exact nature of his reading and writing challenges/reluctance, but at the very least we did rule some things out. I was especially amazed at his pseudo decoding score as he was never even taught phonics and I thought that was what this was based on. And here I have been so worried that I failed him by not teaching him phonics and feeling guilty that it might be the reason for his slow reading. It's nice to lose a little chunk of parental burden
Any advice or help understanding what is going on here would be greatly appreciated, especially with understanding what it means to have verbal comprehension so much lower than the other main areas of cognitive functioning. I'm also curious what the kid is asked to do on the tests that make up that score. Thanks everyone for all your help so far
