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Today was my sons IQ test that I was rather worried about for the last 2 weeks. It was scheduled for 9am. He got started around 9:15 after I talked to the tester a bit. When I walked out of the room she was showing him the red and white blocks and he appeared interested.

A little later she came out to the waiting room to get me. She said he had been doing well and got all but the last block question right, but that he was hiding under the table and she needed my help. Apparently he was upset because he got one wrong and had tried to throw the book at the tester. I got him out and calmed down and they continued on with a section that had 4 cells and he had to choose what went in the empty one.

Around 9:45 she came back to get me out of the waiting room and said he was done. I thought that seemed pretty fast? He had what appeared to be an achievement test booklet and he was happily doing math questions in it. The tester told me he had had enough and was done with testing. She said he has a lot of potential and all of his K-transition stuff, including her results, will be mailed to me around mid-April.

She said that he didn't cooperate well, he made the sounds of the letters for her, but refused to name the letters. I'm not certain what all he completed. He said there was a test where she asked him to memorize pictures and then find them, but he said he got one wrong on that section and she said he had to do a different section. He didn't talk about it other than that.

So, is it possible that all of the testing could be done in half an hour with an uncooperative kid? Her recommendation is for a special small classroom next year with inclusion for gym, art, and music. She said that if he continues to show signs of dyslexia they would test for that in 3rd grade, when most kids grow out of reversals and such. I asked for the social testing I was promised by our coordinator and she said all it would be is a questionnaire for me to fill out and they would rate it. She said it isn't really useful at this point because we know that he has social challenges.

I guess I just wait and see what the results look like in 2 months? I don't think they did much of any achievement testing, certainly it seemed they didn't ask him to read anything. I thought this kind of testing would go as far as he could go, but it just seemed to be another test of mastery of age level material? If she had paid attention while we talked she would have seen my son fill in an impressive number of the math questions (although he did add when the symbol called for subtraction, but he often needs a reminder to double check).

Oh, and when I asked about dyslexia, she said kids his age aren't expected to read anyway, so they don't test for it. But he is 5 now, I thought most kids read around 5 these days? I worked in a K program a few years ago, and I know that by the end of the year the kids were divided into 4 groups, from the strongest readers at least a grade or 2 ahead to the 3 kids who could not read at all (they were also all ESL). I'm assuming the strong readers were reading around 5 and the others learned as older 5's. So, isn't reading a 5 year old skill?

I think something like 1% of kids entering kindergarten can read (this was from a paper maybe 10 or 15 years ago I think).

Mid April seems a long time to wait for scores. We tested a while ago - I think we got ours in 1 or 2 weeks.

When DD was tested at 7, the tester suggested that the test could be spaced out over several sessions, even on different days, because it's a lot for a young child. They had excellent rapport, DD was super cooperative, and they went for several hours (if I recall correctly). This was the WISC IV.

I did make a point of telling DD beforehand that the way the test worked is that the questions got harder and harder and that the whole idea was that eventually she wouldn't know the answer. That they got so hard that hardly any grownups would even know them. I was concerned about perfectionism and anxiety.

We received our results within a short time (a week maybe?).

Well, there are only six subtests in the WPPSI-IV core battery, which could be completed very reasonably in 45 minutes. You or your son described three of them (Block Design, Matrix Reasoning, Picture Memory). I suppose it's not impossible that she got through the whole thing in half an hour...

It doesn't sound like she did true achievement testing. Probably more like some informal academic screening. The social skills testing at this age usually does consist of a parent rating questionnaire. The primary function of doing it at this point would be to provide a baseline, for monitoring progress over time.

If the psych is recommending a self-contained special ed classroom (I assume for social delays), there is the possible benefit of fully-individualized academics.

Typical milestones for reading development:

http://www2.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/reader/part9.html

Sounds like your poor wee man had a rough time! Don't worry too much, I remember though our tester saying that the child has to lead the way. Can you call her and ask if your son actually completed the test, and if not can you reschedul for hime to finish it?

My dd took 5 sessions to finish her WPPSI (which included a session of no testing, just DD talking the whole time). It does sound like a very short test but we would have to know which test it was. My DD is nearly 5 now and not reading btw and she did very well on her test. I know from her report that she too just named the sounds rather than the names of the letters.

My son's WPPSI at age 4 took 40 minutes - they did 4 subtests only and he was super cooperative - so, if your son got 3-4 subtests, the time it took sounds approximately right.

Most 5 year olds I know can read, including the ESL ones but they are already in kindergarden. Some of them could "read" before entering but we are talking simple phonics books.

My general policy is not to raise concerns until the student is in mid 1st grade but if you do see signs of reading-related challenges, it's never too early for intervention.

I guess the school I worked in (in a totally different area) was just really high achieving? Our local school my son would be attending gets a great schools rating of 2. Yep, 2. This is yet another reason I am so against the public school.

I guess I felt like they would test everything they could to get a good idea how to help my son with his difficulties. I didn't even know you could do so few things and still get an IQ score? I got the impression that they would not be doing anything special academically for him.

The tester said that in a regular classroom my son would be labeled bad and so they want him in a less busy room so that he has a better chance of behaving. Not a word was said about enriching material. The tester did express outrage at our current IU OT situation. The OT refuses to do anything for sensory needs as she thinks that his behavior is all attention seeking and/or oppositional.

No one (other than me) seems to think it might be possible my son is acting out due to a cognitive mis-match. I can tell you he is great with adults and older kids, he even loves babies. But in a class of 20 3-5 year olds he fails completely. I know he has social issues and sensory issues and is hyper, etc. But isn't it possible that he would be happier if he wasn't stuck in such a boring environment? He just loves academics and when he gets upset at school they give him his workbooks to focus on to calm down.

I also thought the IU was all about least restrictive environment these days? We tried an IU preschool for 3 months, but I pulled my son after he kept coming home with bruises and bite marks. He was terrified of going there each day. They gave me a ton of hassle about how pulling him out wasn't the best decision for him. His behavior at his regular preschool actually deteriorated while he was going to the IU school and he was terrified to get on the van to go to "second school". They didn't cover any academics in that class (4's and 5's), just behavior and "problem solving" as they called it.

My son actually greatly enjoys learning and I hate to send him to school all day and then have to teach him at home in the evening so that he keeps learning about the things he is interested in. I also don't like it when they say he has potential. I don't like that term for any kid. I mean, they all have potential. Plus, I think my son is already a wonderful human being who is already meeting his potential. IDK, just a bad feeling I got about that word.

I'm going to call next week and every week after to see if she got the results in. I'm not waiting 2 months to find out how he did. I just hate the attitude everyone seems to have that he shouldn't be doing work many grade levels ahead and so they shouldn't need to change to accommodate him. I don't think you can make a 5 year old enjoy multiplication or learning how many zeros are behind a nonillian, they either are into it or they aren't. Right now, just for fun, my son is writing out a plus 2 minus 1 pattern on some scrap paper. He is so happy. And he just paused from that to count by 4's because he noticed a pattern to the multiples of 4 on his paper, so he's predicting where all of the multiples of 4 will fall as he continues the pattern. Am I supposed to make him stop doing that?

I just want my son to be happy. I'd rather have him go to play groups and social skills groups and maybe join some clubs than sit at a desk and learn his letters 4 years post mastery.

Having a kid wasn't supposed to be this difficult. I always figured I'd find my kid a great private school and they would go there and do perfectly well, but not exceptionally, while I went back to work. Now I find myself in a horrible district with an very unusual special needs kid who can't seem to control his behavior well enough to succeed. So frustrating

I think I would try to get a full exam from a university or medical center with a neuropsychologist/evaluation team.

You may have read this elsewhere on the forums, but wrightslaw and the book From Emotions to Advocacy are helpful resources, as is NCLD, Understood.org, ADDitude magaine, and 2e newsletter.

The information at the above links can guide a parent to accessing needed support services for their child in school.
More info at this link to Wrightslaw Game Plan: writing S.M.A.R.T IEPs. In general, parents may find it most effective to list out:
1) each specific skill deficit to be addressed,
2) ways in which the skills may be acquired (taught/learned/practiced),
3) measures which will indicate progress or mastery for each skill.

While parents are not in the classroom learning environment to ensure these techniques are utilized in the school setting, coaching and support from parents who are aware of the specific approaches, techniques, and strategies can be helpful for ongoing consistency and reinforcement at home. From that perspective, having online resources and/or a book on hand to refer to can be helpful.

Davidson Institute for Talent Development ( DITD ) also offers an Educators' Guild to help raise awareness of gifted issues among teachers.