Thanks so much for all the responses. Much appreciated.
I'm on my phone so can't reply in detail at the moment, but it would be helpful to have subtest scores for the processing speed subtests and also the Beery (there are two parts to the Beery).
Did they administer the writing portion of the WJ-iii?
polarbear
The Beery portion states this: The Visual Motor Integration task involves copying a series of designs of increasing complexity. His score is 88 on the VMI, which falls in the Below Average range, and he is better than approximately 21% of the same age peers.
I looked at the report and it does not separate visual and motor.
Aeh, thanks. I found your wording very helpful. Also, a related question on the WJ -- in general, do kids usually score their age equivalent or higher on the WJ ? I am not asking from a grade-skip perspective ; I am asking more from the perspective of some enrichment in class. Should I even be asking for this (the report does recommend that his abilities be taken into consideration), given his low processing speed ?
His PRI scores were as follows:
Block Design :12
Picture Concepts: 14
Matrix Reasoning :16
So, yes, block design was lower than the other 2. How did you infer this ?
Processing Speed was the lowest
Coding : 7
Symbol Search : 9
I wouldn't worry about the processing speed unless you see symptoms of slow processing speed, like poor fluency or slowness with classroom work. DD has been in piano lessons for close to a year and I think that might have helped boost her processing speed, since it's probably unusual to jump 21 points.
Blackcat, at school, he does very well on fluency based tests. However, he is very slow with classroom work. For example, if there is a page on math and if he has to color bears (who have numbers on them) (for example) based on the result of the math problems -- he takes very little time to solve the math question; it takes him forever to color the appropriate numbered bear. For most kids, if anything, it would take them much longer to do the math, than to color. He does do much better with a timer, though sometimes he does get stressed out with the timer.
cdfox, I haven't taken my child to the developmental optometrist yet. I am actually not sure what to do about the Beery VMI scores.
ps - I've had kids with low Beery scores for *both* reasons - one fine motor and one visual. I'm a *huge* fan of developmental optometrists, so please don't think I was saying don't go to a developmental optometrist, I was only pointing out that there might be a different cause, and it wouldn't be worth time/$ to see a developmental optometrist if the issue is fine-motor related.
The report elsewhere states this - his low performance on Beery VMI may be suggestive of mild fine motor difficulties or attempts at perfectionism.
So, piecing together various parts of the report, should I be requesting the school for an OT assessment ? Or should I be pursuing this on my own (through a private OT practice)?
The neuropsych was iffy on dysgraphia as he has legible writing, but I still wonder about it sometimes.
Also, regarding the writing test, the neuropsych evaluated his writing on the WJ and found it superior (but that was mostly spelling which he excels at, as well as some writing prompt that was super easy for him)
I was actually expecting something similar to the Test of Written Language to be administered; should I be requesting this of the school instead ?
Again, thanks so much.
