Ability/Achievement disparity and diagnosis - 01/17/13 04:55 PM
Good news this week is that DS5 jumped six months on the waitlist for his assessment so he will be seen in May instead of Nov.
DH had a question about how any diagnosis would be made that I could not really answer and I was hoping someone could chime in with how it worked with your kid.
I explained how one thing they look for is a gap between the ability test and the achievement test.
His concern is if DS doesn't give consistent effort across the two tests then the results might not really reflect whether or not he has any issues.
I also think his concern is that we are going to spend a lot of money for an assessment that ends in "well it is really hard to tell right now, maybe come back in a year or so and we will see how he is doing then"
We have some reason for the concern.
Last year he took the WPPSI when he was four and a half. I think the psychologist was ready to call it on the testing because DS was not really taking it seriously. Fortunately the psychologist was working with doctoral intern. I think the intern "got" my son more plus it seemed like he had more experience with young children. I got the impression the psychologist worked more with older kids and teenagers. The intern took over and tried a "testing the limits" strategy or something like that where they ask harder questions first. DS was more engaged and finished the tests.
Thoughts?
I am guessing there is more to it than just looking at any gap.
DH had a question about how any diagnosis would be made that I could not really answer and I was hoping someone could chime in with how it worked with your kid.
I explained how one thing they look for is a gap between the ability test and the achievement test.
His concern is if DS doesn't give consistent effort across the two tests then the results might not really reflect whether or not he has any issues.
I also think his concern is that we are going to spend a lot of money for an assessment that ends in "well it is really hard to tell right now, maybe come back in a year or so and we will see how he is doing then"
We have some reason for the concern.
Last year he took the WPPSI when he was four and a half. I think the psychologist was ready to call it on the testing because DS was not really taking it seriously. Fortunately the psychologist was working with doctoral intern. I think the intern "got" my son more plus it seemed like he had more experience with young children. I got the impression the psychologist worked more with older kids and teenagers. The intern took over and tried a "testing the limits" strategy or something like that where they ask harder questions first. DS was more engaged and finished the tests.
Thoughts?
I am guessing there is more to it than just looking at any gap.