Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment 2E child failed by the system again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So my son has been going through testing to get into his school's gifted program. He is a 2E kid. He has dysgraphia, SPD, AD/HD, anxiety disorder and a possible language disorder. His scores are as follows....

OLSAT 97% (95% cuttoff)
Gates MacGitie 96% comprehension
97% total reading (95% cutoff)
SAGES Reasoning Subtest 92% (73% cutoff)

WISC IV Full Scale IQ 115 84%
Index Score Percentile Rank 95% Confidence Interval
Verbal
Comprehension 98 45 91-105
Perceptual
Reasoning 133 99 123-138
Working
Memory 123 94 114-129
Processing
Speed 91 27 83-101
FullScaleIQ 115 84 110-119

Subtest Scaled Score
Verbal Comprehension
Similarities 12
Vocabulary 9
Comprehension 8

Perceptual Reasoning
Block Design 15
Picture Concepts 16
Matrix Reasoning 15

Working Memory
Digit Span 13
Letter-Number Sequencing 15

Processing Speed
Coding 7
Symbol Search 10

They assured me his disabilities would be taken into consideration but because he total scores in each subtest was within the "average range" for his grade they didn't do anything!!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Is whoever did the diagnosing willing to call the school and advocate for your child?

BTW - his Perceptual scores are well above the average range for his grade.

How old is your ds? Does he have accommodations at school for his dysgraphia/ADHD/etc?

Do you think the WISC verbal scores are what you expected your ds' scores to be, or do they seem low relative to his other test scores? On his other WISC scores, his PRI is very high, his working memory is strong, and Processing Speed is average - which is very typical of kids with dysgraphia. At the very least, due to the spread in PRI vs Processing Speed, the school should be using a GAI in place of FSIQ on the WISC. That still might not bring his overall WISC score up enough to qualify, but it would certainly bring it up at least a bit.

His other scores all seem to be strong too - definitely not average, so I'm guessing by "average" you were referring specifically to the WISC scores? Can you talk directly to the person who administered the WISC and ask if he/she noted anything during the Verbal part that might be significant, and also ask them to calculate GAI for you?

Have you tried to appeal the "no" decision? Who gave you the official "no" - was it someone at your ds' school, or someone who is associated with the district's gifted program? I would think you have a lot of strong evidence to use in advocating for your ds.

Best wishes,

polarbear

ps - does your ds have a teacher who will support you in advocating to place your ds in the gifted program?

She probably would we have an appt later this month with her. I plan on taking in his scores to see what she thinks.

My son is 7yrs he will be 8 in Sept. He doesn't have any accommodations yet. He has coped pretty well so far without. He is on meds for his ADHD. The dysgraphia his teacher last year was just really easy on him. As long as she knew what he meant she let him be. He will be in second grade next year and still writes like he is in kindergarten. He reading is at a 4th grade level.

His verbal scores seem very low to me. I was in shock when we got the results. I have been told by a doc I work with it may indicate even another LD. According to the scoring protocol for the test they can not determine a FSIQ or GAI because there is more than a 23 point difference between the VCI and PRI. Ye the average scores I was talking about were the 2 subtests on the WISC IV test.

I emailed the head of the gifted program, the principle of the school, one of the gifted teachers I know, the psychologist that administered the test, and the woman who is the head of his age group. The principle and the last woman finally got back to me today.

I think I must have scare the living snot out of them because I couldn't get rid of them today. They were all very apologetic and seem to be (fingers crossed) trying to rectify the situation. I told the lady she brought out my "Mama Bear". You don't mess with my child without consequences. lol Right now I think I am more concerned that he may have another issue I didn't know about.

Looks like we will be taking a whole new IQ test in the early fall. Also they are going to have the special ed teacher evaluate his test and possibly come up with a 504 plan for him. I guess the squeaky wheel really does get the grease.

Do you think it is possible the low VCI scores could be from shyness? He is EXTREMELY shy! He is terrified to talk to stranges. The night he met his teacher he hid under a desk. He is constantly getting tummy aches when he has to deal with people he is not yet comfortable with. I just have to think on the verbal portion of the test this would lower his score significantly and unfairly so. If this is the case any ideas how to get around it before the next IQ test? It would be nice to get a real estimate of his IQ instead of one tainted by his ackwardness.

Do you know what test they'll be giving him in the fall? He really cannot take the same one so close to this last one, so they're going to have to pull out something else like the RIAS or SB.


Possibly. If he gave very brief answers, refused to expand, or didn't answer at all due to shyness, that could certainly depress his scores. I'm less familiar with the SB-V, but I'm wondering if a different test that relies less on expansive verbal responses might be better for him. Maybe someone with experience with the SB or another test might chime in with thoughts on whether that might work better for him.

Another option might be trying to get him to meet the person who will be testing him ahead of time in the hopes that he might be less shy.

[/quote] Possibly. If he gave very brief answers, refused to expand, or didn't answer at all due to shyness, that could certainly depress his scores. I'm less familiar with the SB-V, but I'm wondering if a different test that relies less on expansive verbal responses might be better for him. Maybe someone with experience with the SB or another test might chime in with thoughts on whether that might work better for him.

Another option might be trying to get him to meet the person who will be testing him ahead of time in the hopes that he might be less shy. [/quote]


I will try to find out which test they will give. I do think it will help just to explain to him before hand that he will do much better on the test the more he talks, answers questions, and give details regarding the questions. He won't like it but he will do it. See he didn't know on this last test that being quiet would hurt his score.

I think that in the report prepared by the psychologist who administered the test there would be something about his behavior and an analysis about whether his behavior during testing affected the test results. For instance, my DS's tester put a section called behavioral observations and said he was easy to engage, openly offered responses and had a positive attitude etc and therefore his results were an accurate reflection of his cognitive ability.

He is going to be restested with the Stanford Binet test.