Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Confusing WISC/WIAT. What to do?

Southlake - this sounds like it could possibly be dysgraphia. The ds I mentioned above with a similar score profile is dysgraphic. There are different types of dysgraphia, with different skills impacting (spelling etc). You can find a list of the types by googling around - I think there's a good list at NCLD. Sorry I don't have a direct link to post at the moment.

Re what to do to help - the first thing is to find out if possible what is causing the relatively low PSI subtest scores. It will be difficult to determine this without a bit of extra testing to differentiate between fine motor and visual issues. If it's a vision issue, you might be able to find some gains through vision therapy. If it's fine motor, you might also find that OT would be helpful depending on what's up. If it's truly dysgraphia, chances are you'll also want to start your dd using accommodations (maybe you already do and don't realize it). Let her type or audio-record her academic work.

Is she heading back to b&m school or are you going to continue homeschool? If she's heading to b&m school, or if you're planning on any standardized testing in the near future (or even in the semi-distant future), it would be a good idea to get an official diagnosis (if there is a true challenge) and to have a game plan for accommodations in classroom and on testing. Understanding is the first step, and after that documentation is everything

Best wishes,

polarbear

Polar bear, that is REALLY helpful. I had not really considered that as an option. Now I'm off to google dysgraphia! I just assumed dysgraphia meant messy handwriting; it didn't occur to me there was more to it. Thanks!

It's definitely possible she will end up back in a B & M school when we move in a year or so. She has a sibling with special needs and I swear I have PTSD from fighting the district to get him appropriate services. The thought of having to restart that battle gives me hives! But you are right--I don't think she was able to perform well on the EXPLORE because she just ran out of time. And at home she pretty much gets all the time she reasonably needs. If we go back to "real" school she is not going to do well without some kind of accommodation.