Hi, I've been a member for more than 10 years but I don't think I have ever posted. I joined b/c of my oldest but I'm currently having issues with my youngest who is in high school and recently had a round of psych ed testing for transition planning, post secondary studies...
This is the first time we have done the testing through the school. We knew he was so clearly LD that there was no way he could have his LD designation removed and private testing is so expensive.
He has had 2 rounds of psych ed testing previously. In grade 1 and grade 4. Both were remarkably similar in both aptitude and achievement. He has also had various language assessments done with SLPs which have shown very similar results in the overlap areas assessed.
CLEF 4 (2010) all percentile scores
Core Language-96
Receptive comp- 87
Expressive Comp- 98
Language Memory- 92
Working Mem- 96
TAPS- all 63rd-99th percentile except memory- numbers reversed- 37th
WISC IV (2010) percentile scores
VR- 98
PR- 55
WM- 42
PS- 21
WISC IV (2013)
VR-98 (S-98, v95,c95)
PR- 68 (BD-25,PC-91,MR-63)
WMI- 50 (ds-50,LNS-50)
PSI- 21 (C-16, SS-37)
WJCOG IV (2019)
GIA- 52
Gf-Gc- 55
C/K-50
FR-58
Shrt trm W Mem- 88
C Process Sp- 23
Aud P- 85
Long trm Ret- 53
Visual P-53
WJ ACH ranges from 2nd percentile in Math calc skill, 5th in Broad math, 11th in Math, but 45th in Math problem solving. In reading most scores are in the 80th-95 percentiles except fluency and rate which are 45-50th percentile.
The school psych says there is no evidence of a learning disability and that he is a very average learner, despite his struggles, because his math reasoning skills are okay, there is no LD. Also, there never was because he believes the previous testing was an overestimation of his abilities because it was done too young and kids "always test to high when tested too young". He also told us that since kids always use calculators, a score at the 2nd percentile "is not that unusual". It felt like he has created his own norms based on his experience. He told us that we should make sure that he focus on lower level courses for the remainder of high school (not university prep courses). He did the Cog testing- another teacher did the achievement testing and told us privately that she only had 1 person who tested as high on some of the subtests and that the other person was our older son. the psych also told us that our son reported depression and anxiety on his self report BASC forms.
I am not a psych, but I do understand the statistics, and am familiar with most LD diagnostic methods. I am not sure what to do this or how to refute it. Maybe there is logic to his reasoning that I am not seeing, maybe there is new research I'm not familiar with. It looks so straight forward to us. The stakes are high because with an LD diagnoses, he can have access to a lot more support and generous government funding for university or community college.
I guess my question is, is it as clear cut as it seems to me? I don't know how to, or whether to, start my request for a second opinion. It is very unlikely that another school psych will change the diagnoses because this is a small area and they all know each other. But, maybe, if I can make a clear and logical argument, it would be hard refuse?
Also, I know that it is common enough, for LD kids (especially those who have difficulties in reading as he did), to have verbal Cog scores fall over time. that isn't so much bothering me, it is just the psych's reasoning that is getting to me. It feels like it negates our sons struggles and the consequences of his unmet needs.
TIA for any advice or opinions'
Lilith