Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment New and Confused

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Portia,

I have nothing to offer on interpreting test results, but hopefully you will find some guidance here. In the meantime, it sounds like you are doing the right thing by meeting his needs with outside coursework and addressing his vision issues. Regardless of what labels our kids receive (or don't), the most important thing is to meet them where they're at and give them appropriate challenges.

Best of luck!

Kitty

Has he turned 6? I would think having him tested with the Wechsler tests would be very informative.

His WJIII Verbal score is very high. The processing score is meaningless, since you know he had a vision problem at the time, so verbal is the only score you can look at with any sort of confidence and it shows he's gifted.

My apologies, no time at the moment for a detailed reply, but I suspect that if vision therapy made a difference, the scores on PRI and Processing Speed might come up if he was tested again.

polarbear

Personally, I would want a NeuroPsychologist to do the testing, given all the factors you've got going on. An experienced neuro should be able to pick up on anything impacting his test scores.. plus, they do a lot more than just IQ testing - they'll evaluate how his asperger's is pregressing/improving, how his vision and attention are, how his motor skills and balance are developing - the whole she-bang.

No, regular psychologists and neuropsychologists can both have Ph.D.'s

I generally have my IQ testing done by Ph.D. psychologists.

If I want neuropsychological testing, which I normally don't need, I generally refer out to a local neuropsychologist.

If you want neuropsychological testing, it's generally more expensive. I tend to use it for memory and processing issues more than basic psychological exams, including IQ, which I send to Ph.D. psychologists.

Website for Pediatric neuropsychology board.

http://www.theaapn.org/

If you go with a neuropsych you'll meet with them first, give them all your concerns and they will tell you what they think needs to happen in terms of assessment. Like JonLaw stated, it's far more than just IQ testing... it's a full neurological eval.

I have a situation where my son might have tics...we are considering some additional testing for him. If we do we will find a neuropsych because then we can get the possible tics evaluated as well as the additional psychoeducational testing done all at once. We are giving it a bit of time because he is at an age where kids can have tics that resolve.

This is an example of a good reason to share the WJ-III scores with the school. He has a 169 in math reasoning - that's a HUGE score, and should shut down any question of does he understand numbers


I wouldn't look at is as "bombing" the WPPSI - maybe there is some reason to be skeptical of the scores or maybe they were an accurate snapshot of where your ds was at one particular day at one particular point in time. I think these scores were before vision therapy - if that's the case, go back and look at test descriptions - the tests your ds seems to be scoring low on rely on vision. If he got depressed scores because he had a vision challenge - that's not "bombing" the test - the test is showing that visual tasks are challenging for him. That makes sense. It doesn't mean he's not smart or bright or not a genius, it just means that at that point in his life, he couldn't perform those skills as well as x percentage of other children his age, and the reason was he had a vision challenge.

I think it's a good idea to see a neuropsych for follow-up testing, especially since he's been through VT and you've noticed that it helped. By having another eval, you can find out if the previous testing was brought down by VT or if there is some other thing causing a split between abilities.

I also believe (jmo) that WJ-III Achievement scores in very young children are influenced by exposure to a larger extent than they are as children get older and are in school full time for a number of years. Since you've worked with your ds and he's capable of learning, I think there's a chance that his math percentiles on the WJ-III might go down in a few years when the other kids who had no early work in math have had exposure to the concepts and some practice. Sooo... right now he's scoring really high on math on WJ-III, and his teachers are discounting it and questioning whether or not he understands the concepts. I'm guessing he understands the concepts! But otoh, you have a child who has a profile on their IQ testing that might suggest they are more verbal than mathy, so maybe there's *something* to what the teachers are saying. Whether or not you think a teacher has a clue or if you think they are just giving out excuses to get you out the door quickly, I think it's always extremely helpful to ask *why* they think what they say. There might be something useful in why they are saying what they are saying. If there's not, at least understanding the reason why they are making the statement can help give you valuable info to use in advocating to show the school it's not true.

polarbear


Without the scores, I can't get advancement for him beyond the top group in class. He's going crazy counting dots at school. The other day, they must have worked on phonics. He banged his head against his carseat the whole ride home "B - buh...".

I'm getting nowhere without the scores at school (other than the label of "that mom"), so we've decided to homeschool next year. I don't really know how to do that either. I read about the EPGY here. He's still running through that and hasn't found his plateau yet. I hope we find it within the next 6 weeks or so. If there are other things out there for him like EPGY, then I'd love to find it.

I've also read that if you have a 2e kiddo, you need to really find a good person to administer the IQ test to get the most accurate score AND additional ideas on how to meet needs not yet identified. Since his 2nd e is now in question, I'd like to see about that too and maybe combine the goals all into one???? Is that possible? How do I find such a person? We did the WPPSI privately but limited the report greatly as it was going to the school and we did not want the aspergers in the report (even though we did disclose to the tester. She said it was good to keep it quiet because she would have never picked it up and she's one of the top in the area for it. She's one of the ones questioning the original diagnosis.) I keep thinking I should go back to her to have the testing redone. But she is the one that did the WPPSI in the first place AND she did not tell me the discrepancy was due to vision issues, she said he may have a learning disability which will show up more around 3rd grade. So I question her expertise a bit.

I'm sorry this is long. Something is not right here. It doesn't feel right in my gut. I don't know where else to turn.

Thanks,
Portia [/quote]

Portia, I think I posted with you before about this (not sure) but just wanted to chime in and tell you I had the same experience with my DS who had an undiagnosed vision disorder at the time. It was the block design that told me at least that something was very wrong with how this kid is processing visual information. He simply could not do it. It was such a sinking stomach moment b/c you just knew and even my DS knew something is very wrong here. Funny, I am not a professional in that field (psycho-educational) and I was the ONLY one who put it together and then I was treated like I was crazy for saying it and pursuing it further. I feel for all of the children this happens to and their parents are misled or never have the info/insight to realize that their poor child's eyes simply aren't working together. Anyway, hugs to you and your DS ... My DS will be taking the WISC again in May and I will try to remember to report back to you about how he performs on the block design after 10 months of vision therapy.