Hi Evelyn,
I finally remembered to come back to this - sorry it's taken me so long!!! And... fwiw, I probably won't have time to read through the rest of it tonight, but will get as far as I can and finish up on Monday.
She concluded that my son has poor VMI based purely on watching him--but she supposedly saw him do things that neither his teachers nor we parents have ever witnessed (use his non-dominant hand to guide his writing hand), so I am dubious about the quality of her observations.
I'd want a follow-up test on the VMI rather than just making a conclusion based on observations (the Beery VMI that my kids have had sorts out at least two different types of Visual Motor challenges.. I think... it's been a few years since we've had it! But I distinctly remember at least two parts to it). However - even though I'd want the follow-up testing, I'd be sure to think through the psych's observations. Using the non-dominant hand to guide the hand that is writing happens frequently in kids with dysgraphia - but otoh, my dysgraphic did this quite a bit, and his issue is fine motor, not visual-motor.
The one useful thing she said about the coding test was that my son was looking back and forth between the "key" and EVERY SINGLE symbol that he had to "fix." I don't know what that means though--maybe that he couldn't keep the symbols in his head?
One thing it *might* mean (and there are probably 300 things or more that it could mean, so this is just one possibility) - is that he had difficulty focusing his eyes on the symbols. My dd who has vision issues was assessed for intake into a reading program when she was around 7 years old, and part of the assessment was to copy a short paragraph off of the board. The person administering the test said that dd looked up for every single individual letter, which she'd never seen any child do before. I'm sure, now that I know about her vision challenge, that the reason she did this had nothing to do with a reading challenge, and most likely happened because it took so much effort to make her eyes focus together.
She DID do the Woodcock-Johnson tests, but I'm not sure what I should be looking for.
I'll be back to look at this - not enough time to think it through tonight
As for the TEA-Ch, the scores are all over the place. Hmmmm...Maybe because of varied interest? We ran the report by a special ed person (a friend), who did not think he has ADD, despite those scores. I can't remember what her reasoning was. She might have said that it was really clear from the report that when he is interested, he has no trouble paying attention.
I would go back and ask your friend to explain her interpretation to you again, so that you understand and remember what she tells you. If it doesn't cost an arm and a leg it *might* be worth making a follow-up appointment with the neuropsych to give you a chance to ask more follow-up questions about the testing. If you don't have confidence it would yield you any useful info, I wouldn't bother - but fwiw, I've done this second follow-up with our neuropsych every time my kids have had an eval simply because that typical post-testing parent/neuropsych meeting where you are discussing the report for the first time is so full of new info coming at you quickly that it's next to impossible to expect to have all your questions answered at that point in time - it usually takes me at least another week just for my questions to bubble to the surface
Vision is fine, though he did have a tracking issue a couple years ago. We worked on that and it got a lot better, but it still could be somewhat of a problem. (The optometrist said he was OK at the end of the vision therapy work, but his friends certainly can track a ball hanging on a string much "cleaner" and faster than he can!)
My dd, that I mentioned above, had a year of vision therapy starting when she was 7. VT really helped her a ton (she had tracking issues as well as double vision). Yet starting last summer, when she was 10... we realized she was starting to have issues with her vision again... so you might want a follow-up vision exam by whoever did the VT to be sure he hasn't lost any ground with his vision (especially since you have the low coding subtest score and the note about how he looked back and forth at every symbol on the subtest).
He says it does not hurt to write, nor does his hand get tired. "I just can't think of what to say."
About this:
"he can get the thoughts out a-ok if he's asked a question about something factual that he knows - but when the writing prompt is open-ended he struggles - and he says at those time he "has nothing" up there in his head"
I don't think we have asked him to write facts. My guess is that he would have a lot less trouble with that. Thanks for the idea! I really don't think he has THAT much trouble with the writing per se; it's the preceding thought process that's problematic.
That's my ds' issue as well - he scores very well on "writing tests" where he is simply asked to diagnose grammar issues, or asked to put together a sentence in correct order etc. His challenge is in generating ideas to put into writing. None of us (myself, my ds, or his speech therapist) have a clue really what's going on... but he basically says that when he is asked to write about an open-ended prompt, he simply has no idea what he is supposed to do/write, and he has no ideas in his head to pull from. When I re-read that last sentence, it sounds like something any of us might say from time to time, but it's much more severe than a simple writer's "cramp" or whatever. He really has *no* idea whatsoever what to write.
I'm going to read on further on Monday and finish up my reply - tomorrow I'm off on a road trip
Hope some of this helped!
polarbear
