diaperjoys Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 One of my sons is, I think, a visual learner, and does poorly with auditory info. As I've been administering the IOWA test to him (2nd grade) this week, it seems that so much of the test relies on info that comes to him through his ears. Do visual learners do poorly on the IOWA? Is there another test I should consider using next time? We've also added on the Cogat to this year's testing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 One of my sons is, I think, a visual learner, and does poorly with auditory info. As I've been administering the IOWA test to him (2nd grade) this week, it seems that so much of the test relies on info that comes to him through his ears. Do visual learners do poorly on the IOWA? Is there another test I should consider using next time? We've also added on the Cogat to this year's testing. After a certain level, the ITBS is all written, nothing is read aloud anymore. I do not remember which level the change occurs at. I think it is level 9, but I am not sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spock Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 One of my sons is, I think, a visual learner, and does poorly with auditory info. As I've been administering the IOWA test to him (2nd grade) this week, it seems that so much of the test relies on info that comes to him through his ears. Do visual learners do poorly on the IOWA? Is there another test I should consider using next time? We've also added on the Cogat to this year's testing. My youngest son has a lot of trouble with auditory comprehension (scored at 15th percentile on listening skills on his 2nd grade Iowa test, for example). He HATED that most of the test at that level was read aloud to him, and it did lower his scores somewhat. Last year he took the 3rd grade Iowa. Much less of it was read aloud--and for the most part even the parts that were read aloud also had the questions in print to read. I have given all the other levels to his older siblings, and starting in 4th/5th grade (I don't remember which) nothing but the instructions and samples are read aloud. The students are expected to have good enough reading skills to test independently by that level. His poor listening/auditory comprehension skills should be less of a problem each year. I do worry about my son's ADHD interfering with the test, though. It has caused a LOT of problems with teaching and learning this year, to the point that I will probably get him an official diagnosis and medication before the end of the school year. So, returning to your son, he shouldn't have any trouble with the other levels of the Iowa test. The 1st and 2nd grade tests have a lot of sections that are read aloud to help children who are not fluent readers yet. By 3rd grade it is expected that most children will have become sufficiently fluent in reading to read their own test questions for the most part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 One of my sons is, I think, a visual learner, and does poorly with auditory info. As I've been administering the IOWA test to him (2nd grade) this week, it seems that so much of the test relies on info that comes to him through his ears. Do visual learners do poorly on the IOWA? Is there another test I should consider using next time? We've also added on the Cogat to this year's testing. The CogAT is an ability screening test, and with my visual learners has been ridiculously inaccurate (when compared to private actual IQ testing). In contrast, the ITBS is an achievement test. One of my visual learners recently took the ITBS but we don't have the results, so we'll see. It is a timed test, and some visual learners (the kind that come with weaknesses ;)) may have processing speed issues, so the ITBS would not be my first choice if that were the case for your student. My favorite non-professionally-administered achievement test is the MAP by NWEA - we've had more accurate results (when compared with private psych achievement testing). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diaperjoys Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 The CogAT is an ability screening test, and with my visual learners has been ridiculously inaccurate (when compared to private actual IQ testing). Does the CogAT give a false high or a false low for your visual learners? I'm curious, because we just finished today with my son that I suspect is visual. The math computation section of the IOWA was terrible, and I'm anticipating our lowest scores there. The CogAT, on the other hand, was a breeze, and I think he aced the quantitative section, and scored very high throughout the rest. I am really struggling to figure out this kiddo - math is very, very difficult, yet I don't think it is inability - somehow I'm not reaching him in this subject. But if I can't figure out what is awry I can't fix it - kwim?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 Does the CogAT give a false high or a false low for your visual learners? I'm curious, because we just finished today with my son that I suspect is visual. The math computation section of the IOWA was terrible, and I'm anticipating our lowest scores there. The CogAT, on the other hand, was a breeze, and I think he aced the quantitative section, and scored very high throughout the rest. I am really struggling to figure out this kiddo - math is very, very difficult, yet I don't think it is inability - somehow I'm not reaching him in this subject. But if I can't figure out what is awry I can't fix it - kwim?? Falsely low in my ds's case, dramatically so (and in his brother's case too). However, I doubt that many kids score inaccurately high by more than a few percentiles. (I suspect that the situation at the very top, say the top 2%, may be a little skewed. The top percentiles are such a small group that the number of students scoring "inaccurately low" for whatever reason, if they had "correctly" scored in the top percentiles, would push down to a slightly lower percentile some small portion of the persons in the very top percentiles. If that makes any sense at all :tongue_smilie:) In your situation, I think you first have to wait for the scores, because your perception of how he did on the testing might or might not be reflected in the actual scores when they come back. If it turns out that the ability score is much higher than the achievement score, then you can start thinking about why the lower score on the achievement, whether you observed careless mistakes, whether it was an issue of sufficient time, or whether he has simply not been exposed to math concepts commensurate with his ability, or whether your math curriculum is not teaching to his VSL strengths (e.g., I would not use a traditional math curriculum that focuses on rote procedure and voluminous practice; I'd choose one that focuses on concepts; I've never seen CLE, but from reading about it here I'd consider beefing up the conceptual angle a bit when you teach lessons). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5knights3maidens Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 What about the Peabody test? I just heard about this, this year and my 8th grader and 8 year old did this. They did a great job. It is visual and no writing. I know it is used a lot with kids and disabilities but I found it to be less stressful for my 8th grader and my 8 year old...(adhd/pdd/asd). By no means is it an easy test. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 I know this is a late bump, but I just got my kids ITBS and CogAT results back. My oldest is a visual learner. She has a (no joke) photographic memory and amazing visual spatial skills. My ds I would have said is a visual spatial learner, as well. They topped out most of the sections of the tests and their results were consistent with our expectations. My oldest VSL tested very high on nonverbal skills on the CogAT:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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