It's helpful to look at what each subtest actually requires a child to do to help make sense of an uneven profile. For instance, on the WJ-III Achievement test, each subtest labelled "fluency" is timed; the other subtests aren't timed. A student who writes slow, for whatever reason, might have lower fluency subtest scores than other subtest scores.
That's a great point, polarbear! Thanks.
He is notably slow when asked to do writing or math calculation tasks, but we've known this. So him doing relatively lower on timed tests doesn't really surprise me at all, but it also doesn't really tell me anything else, either.
The key is - she also looked at samples of ds' handwriting and followed up with other tests to tease out, was it dysgraphia or something else (finger-tapping tests, visual-motor integration).
Are these also WJ-III Achievement tests, or are these other, more specific sub-tests from somewhere else?
A dysgraphic student's handwriting samples might include letter reversals, mixing up capitals vs lower case, uneven pencil pressure, inability to follow lines when writing, lack of punctuation, poor spelling. If you watch a dysgraphic student write, some dysgraphic have extremely odd pencil grips, and some will have wrist pain (they will hold their wrist or elbow while writing). You might also notice that a dysgraphic student doesn't form letters consistently using the same pattern (top to bottom etc).
I can't say that I've noticed any of these things. He is mostly slow and cautious, and his subtest for capitalizations and punctuation (surprisingly) was quite high.
I wouldn't wait for a year to see if the gap widens, because if it *is* dysgraphia (or some other challenge), that year in school struggling with a challenge which other kids aren't struggling with can be very frustrating and potentially damaging to a young child's self-confidence and self-perception.
And this is where I need to figure out if I am worrying about a problem he doesn't really have or if I need to be out in front of providing a solution to a hidden problem that hasn't manifested itself yet... argh!
I didn't mean I would wait a year to reassess; I meant that I would keep an eye on him at school and alert his teachers that his fluency is an area for improvement. I think for now, that's the best I can do.
