Hiya all, thanks so much for your help on these issues. I am pleased to report things have vastly improved. The school finally listened to me and allowed DS to do partial days, which we started beginning of January. This made a huge difference, no more aggression, no more headaches, no more complaints of being exhausted, stressed, or mistreated. DS was only doing math class and specials at that point (his favorite classes), all on the same floor, and no need to access his locker. There were still behaviors (silliness, non-compliance, transition difficulties), but no phone calls, no suspensions, no disputed disciplinary procedures employed.
Around mid-February the school managed to not only get DS a permanent support staff with RBT certification (which he had always had in the past), they even got back the guy he had in 4th grade who worked wonderfully with him. Since then the reports of all behaviors are pretty much nil. Last week there was 1 episode of non-compliance all week. The data improved so much with his staff upgrade we have rapidly added periods back in. Today is his first day doing reading class since the changes were made and as soon as next week he might be back to full days. Reading has always been a problem period, so hopefully his aide can work his magic there as well. (and as it took me so long to write this I can now report that it was another perfect day, no behaviors)
The school continues to dispute the possibility that the behaviors were a staff issue and insist it was all about a difficult transition to middle school that would have occurred regardless of assigned staff. They cite his behavior problems when he started 2nd grade at the elementary school as a pattern of difficulties with such transitions. I find it hilarious that they can look me in the eye and spout this nonsense. I mean, DS had behavior problems in 2nd grade because he was 7 years old and had had behavior problems his whole life. By 5th grade they were gone, and not simply because he was used to elementary school! He matured over those years and learned new skills. There is also the fact that behavior at the beginning of 6th grade wasn't particularly bad. They had a teacher he worked great with in the past (master's level and ABA trained) filling in for him until they could find a PCA. He did great those first few weeks. Things went downhill when they switched to floating PCA's, and got even worse when they started cycling people, not only by day, but often class by class. None of the people were trained in dealing with kids with ASD or behavior problems. They behaved in childish, petty ways, they berated DS for disability related behaviors, they even engaged in physical tugging matches with him over tangibles. But yeah, it was obviously a 4 month long transition problem
Moving on (sorry about the rant, but my poor kid suffered serious mental health issues due to all of this)... all of the testing came back and I just wanted to update/maybe get some opinions.
I'll start with the WISC results. The scores changed a lot on the individual subtests. He did much worse on most of the test, but better on some of his low areas from last time, so his FSIQ is only 3 points lower. He still easily qualifies for the gifted program thankfully, but I do wonder how some areas could drop so far. These are the then (age 7) and now (age 11/12, had b-day during testing) numbers:
WISC V
FSIQ__________144____141
GAI___________143____Not calculated
VCI___________118____118
Similarities___11_____14
Vocabulary_____16_____13
Information____NA_____12
Comprehension__NA_____13
VSI___________151____141
Block Design___18_____17
Visual Puzzles_19_____17
FRI___________155____144
Matrix Reason__19_____19
Figure Weights_19_____16
WMI___________155____142
DigitSpan______19_____19
Picture Span___19_____16
PSI___________100____116
Coding_________12_____13
Symbol Search___8_____13
STI____________NA ___114
Immediate____________110
Delayed______________115
Recognition__________114
WIAT III (last time) IV (this time)
Reading
Reading________NA____131
Decoding_______NA____134
Comprehension_141____119
Oral Fluency__127_____82
Word Reading__127____132
Pseudoword____134____130
Total_________136_____NA
Basic_________137_____NA
Math__________160____140
Problem Solving______NA___137
Numerical Operations_NA___142
This section was not given last time:
Written Expression____Not Calculated
Spelling______________110
Sentence Composition__106
Sentence Combining____113
Sentence Building______99
Essay Composition_____Did not complete
This was further info provided by the tester:
"During the Vocabulary subtest, DS often required additional querying suggesting he had some difficulty providing concise responses during this section."
Block design: "On the tenth item in this subtest, DS was able to complete the task in roughly twenty seconds." Should this mean something to me? Kinda lolled here as I have no idea what the tenth item was or how that might compare to average!
Under Visual Puzzles this was noted: "DS was heard answering additional questions correctly but outside of the allotted time."
Under Figure Weights this was noted: He was heard answering additional questions correctly but outside of the allotted time. DS appeared to benefit from the additional allotted time on the Matrix Reasoning subtest which could explain the higher performance on that subtest.
Under the STI section: "The tasks are timed and DS was heard banging his elbow against the table if the examiner moved to he next question following the allotted time but before DS could provide a response."
"The Math Problem Solving subtest did decline (2022, SS-137; 2017, SS-160). There could be a multitude of contributing factors for this drop, but one area observed to impact DS’s overall score was his refusal to complete word problems on the WIAT-IV."
"The percentage correct for the different reading
categories are as follows; Literal comprehension 100%, Inferential comprehension 91%, Narrative comprehension 88%, Expository comprehension 100%."
"Performance on the Essay Composition subtest was unable to be calculated due to his resistance to write an extended response." DS was able to list all sorts of things over a 3 day period that related to his answer to the prompt, but when it was time to write apparently said he couldn't remember what to write. The examiner went on the write this: "He referred to an analogy of a leaky pipe and described it as having a bad connection between his thoughts and the paper and pencil. When he was asked about Math, he responded, “it’s like a vacuum cleaner” and that “numbers stay in his head for a minute”. He stated that when the pipe bursts, he forgets his thoughts." He was then given an alternative prompt related to his special interest, but again gave a simple one sentence response. "He then wrote out a full song that he learned in Chorus that day reporting that the song did not include full sentences, so he was able to write it. He again referred to the leaky pipe stating that words were leaking out and reported that he knew what words mean but not in the context of the sentence. The test was then ended as DS had missed 3 days of writing class at that point.
On a different day he was given the TOWL-4 because I had specifically requested a writing score and they were not able to obtain one on the WIAT. On that day, for whatever reason, he sat and wrote with no issues! When I asked him about it at home he said sometimes his brain just works!
His scores were:
Spontaneous writing_____112
Contextual conventions___12
Story Composition________11
Logical Sentences________11
This additionally was in the report, from his algebra teacher:
“DS had a 92% First Trimester and currently has a 78% in class. DS has outstanding mathematical computational skills and understanding. He is able to look at math problems and analyze them quickly. What he does not seem to like to do is anything regarding word problems. Whenever we have them in class or on a test/quiz he immediately says he doesn't understand them and generally refuses to do them. By him not completing these types of problems on quizzes and tests, it has brought his grade down to its current level. His organization has improved, but still
needs to continue to improve. When DS likes what he is doing he is focused and works well. When he does not like what he is doing, he finds ways to be distracted or shuts down. When I am instructing the class on a new concept he does not tend to listen - he draws pictures on his papers. His organization has gotten better, but still needs to improve."
So that's all the testy stuff and relevant comments I noticed. My main questions are, did they do an adequate job testing what I was concerned about? (I did mention every test you mentioned in your post AEH) Are they correct that the testing doesn't show anything interesting (other than a relative weakness in the verbal area)? What might cause DS to not excel at information and drop quite a bit in vocab when everyone who knows him would assume that the more concrete stuff would be a strength for him? And finally, how much would the time limit on various subtests be expected to impact the score? If it was a factor, how was it not a factor the last time he was tested?
We have an IEP meeting to go over everything on Wednesday, so I'm just trying to get all my thoughts in order. The testing looks good to me and I was able to speak with the examiner who was very friendly and said he really enjoyed his time with DS. I didn't really expect DS to do as well as the last time, but I was surprised at some of the things that dropped and by how much.
Just talking to DS now as he is smacking himself on the face, a recurring tic he has that he says he has to do because his skin and bones feel wrong if he doesn't do it. His tics are way worse now than they were at age 7, they take a lot of his time and mental effort to perform/suppress. I wonder if this could also affect testing? I know it affects his work output. I feel so bad for the kid sometimes, but there are some things a parent just can't help with and that's just something we all have to live with.
Oh, just remembered, the FBA showed by far most behavior was escape/avoidance as I suspected, with an equal smattering of the other fun options. The FBA was less useful than it might have been as it was started after changes were made to the schedule. It does make it pretty obvious there wasn't really any behavior of concern after the good PCA took over. DS has a lot of anxiety, and to me this whole thing was about fight or flight response. It was when they took away flight as an option that he resorted to fight. And it was poor staffing choices that caused him to feel the need to flee to begin with.
And I might as well mention a happy development for DS. I started teaching him piano at the end of 2019 and he quickly surpassed me (not saying much, I'm not great). I got him into lessons shortly before Covid hit, so he did most of his study remotely until recently. Even so he has really excelled and also started composing almost right away. We finally found him a composition teacher a few months ago and it looks like DS is actually quite good. He has a few songs completed at this point (and a bunch in progress) and his teacher is looking for a venue for him to perform at. This is what DS wants to do with his life, he is very passionate about it! We are thrilled. His disabilities won't be a big deal and even if he can't perform himself (sometimes his tics cause issues with playing) he can compose for others. He is especially interested in composing for movies and video games. Oddly he had never shown any interest in playing an instrument before this and pretty much never sings!
