Hi. We are looking for advice interpreting some recent test scores and their educational implications for our son. The testing was provided free by the town and administered by a school psychologist in cooperation with two physical therapists. We received the results at a meeting with everyone and therefore were not really prepared to ask them the many questions we now have after having had time to read the report.

Our interest in the testing was in the hope of establishing documentation that would assist in our son�s individualized needs being met. He is already (Pre-K) downplaying and concealing his abilities in the classroom, and his teachers think he should focus on bringing his physical delays up to speed with his classmates. He likes playing at school but wants to know when he can go to college and start learning things in the classroom. Right now, he does most of his learning independently, at home, from books.

We assumed it was understood by the school psychologist that his inability to write would be worked around in doing the cognitive testing; after all, she had ordered the PT testing because of the suspected fine motor delay. He does math in his head because he doesn�t write yet (he might have inherited his mom�s dysgraphia). Anyway, he is smarter than all of us: he spoke in full sentences by one year, sight read before age two, chapter books by age 3, has trouble keeping decimals in the right place while doing math in his head, composes song lyrics and poems, and routinely poses complex ethical questions. The school psychologist said she had never seen scores like this before, which was supposed to make us happy, but hardly boosted our confidence in the results. We could, and probably will, press her for a better explanation of the scores, but this week, it was all we could do to get her to print out the subtest standard scores for the W-J III, half of which came back �NA� as he was age 4y 10mo and she said that the computer would not let her process a child under age 5. So the W-J III scores were entered as though he were 5, and we still didn�t get the relevant scores that we needed to apply to the Young Scholars� Program.

He also kept growing irritated by the test and rolling on the floor. He said he had fun but that the psychologist asked a lot of questions that grownups usually know the answers to. He seemed stumped at various points when a simple answer was called for, such as �What covers a turtle?� Apparently, �scales� was not the desired answer despite being scientifically accurate. (We looked it up and he was right).

If anyone knows how balance and vision might factor into learning/testing issues, we�d be interested in that, too. The PT couldn�t tell if his clumsiness was the result of balance issues or poor vision. He has no history of ear infections, but he does wear prescription glasses for nearsightedness and to correct a wandering eye. We have those results, too, if anyone is interested.

His physical impairments, combined with his tendency to be contemplative, dragged down his processing speed quotient, and we suspect that it negatively impacted a number of other areas.

The W-J III score breakdown is as follows:

CLUSTER/Test Age Equivalen t Grade Equivalent Standard Score

Letter-Word Identification 9-0 3.7 187 (184-190)
Reading Fluency 7-1 1.9 NA
Word Attack 10-4 5.1 168 (166-171)
Spelling 5-11 K.4 119 (114-124)
Broad Reading 7-10 2.5 NA
Basic Reading Skills 9-4 4.0 186 (184-188)
Calculation 5-6 K.3 NA
Math Fluency 5-7 K.3 NA
Applied Problems 7-2 1.8 138 (133-143)
Quantitative Concepts 5-5 K.2 111 (102-119)
Broad Math 6-0 K.8 NA
Math Calculation Skills 5-6 K.3 NA
Math Reasoning 6-3 1.0 127 (122-132)
Academic Knowledge 8-0 2.8 137 (132-143)
Academic Skills 6-11 1.5 NA
Academic Knowledge 8-0 2.8 137 (132-143)

WPPSI-III scores are as follows:

VERBAL Scaled Score
Information 19
Vocabulary 17
Word Reasoning 15
(Comprehension) (13)
(Similarities) (19)

PERFORMANCE
Block Design 16
Matrix Reasoning 16
Picture Concepts 16

PROCESSING SPEED
Coding 10
(Symbol Search) 10

GENERAL LANGUAGE COMPOSITE
(Receptive Language) (19)
(Picture Vocabulary) (17)

WPPSI-III COMPOSITE SCORES

Verbal Intelligence Quotient 143
Performance Intelligence Quotient 137
Processing Speed Quotient 100
Full Scale Intelligence Quotient 139
General Language Composite 147