I recently posted my DD7's various test results (which included a 155 on the WISC-IV VCI and 136 FSIQ along with lower CogAT and NNAT scores) in an attempt to see if anyone could help interpret the variations. I also posted some areas of struggle she has that seem inconsistent with those scores (most notably a strong tendency to transpose letters when writing simple words). I got a lot of good advice, including the suggestion to look at the Hoagies website for a psychologist to do further testing.
There was someone on that list near me who is a neuropsychologist with a strong background in IQ test development and gifted assessment. He suggested administering the WJ Achievement Tests, which I expected, along with a host of neuropsychological tests that I am not familiar with. I am not opposed to doing them, particularly as I think they might be very helpful in discerning whether there DD has some form of an LD or "glitch" versus a more typical bottleneck in her processing. But before we sign her up for 10 hours of testing, I wanted to see if anyone here has opinions or experience with these types of tests.
The neuropsychological evaluation assesses the following:
- memory for various types of info (verbal, nonverbal, etc)
- language capabilities and retrieval under time pressure and no time pressure
- ability to understand increasingly complex directions and expressive and receptive language
- attention ability and the ability to shift from idea to idea
- executive functions including the ability to look ahead, plan and to inhibit automatic responses
- visual-spatial processing and ability to reproduce geometric shapes
- emotional adjustment including anxiety, perfectionism, depression, etc.
- a research section on overexcitability
My DH and I would have an initial consultation and final consultation and receive a written report. There are also evaluation forms for DD's teachers to complete.
I am looking for advice of any kind, such as...is this likely to be useful? Is it overkill? Is there any potential harm in doing it (besides cost, of course)? Is there anything I should ask for in the report or discuss in the consultations?
