We have some information from Emma's testing

[Nakia]

After Emma was diagnosed with convergence insufficiency a few weeks ago, we entertained the idea of not having her tested through the school system for LDs, etc. But we prayed about it and really felt like knowledge is power, so we went ahead with the testing. The school psychologist, who is doing the testing, is amazing. I could not have asked for a better experience, so far.

 

Emma has completed two days of testing (total of almost 4 hours). The psychologist wants to do one two mores tests in January, and then we will have a meeting to discuss all the results and recommendations. But she went ahead and sent me a brief summary of her results so far. There are only a few surprises, actually, but to see it all written out by a professional is just...disheartening, as I know you all understand. No one wants to watch their child struggle. I know Emma is bright, kind, and wants to do well. She is a hard worker, and I know we can continue working through all of this. But honestly, I just don't know how. I also did a learning profile that a momma here recommended, and it provided a lot of valuable information, but I'm having a hard time processing it all. She learns very differently from me and from my oldest, so I have a big job ahead of me to figure out what she needs. There is a really great part of the learning profile about teaching models that I think will be especially helpful!

 

I won't bore you with all the details, and she did do well with a lot of things. In summary of her struggles: she has poor verbal ability compared to her nonverbal and spatial ability. She scored low in expressive vocabulary (not even sure what that is). There were problems with inattention and lack of effort. She is well below average in math problem solving and math fluency. She knows her facts, and that's about it. Oh, and she did well with patterns. Some of the stuff she struggled with, we just haven't covered yet, so I can't hold that against her. Some of it we've covered no less than 20 times, and she just doesn't get it. :( Her word usage, sentence structure, and mechanics were also well below average. Her writing is also below average, but I'm not going to worry about that. My oldest was a slow writer, and suddenly caught up in about 5th/6th grade.

 

She tested in the average range for listening and reading comprehension, which is a surprise because she struggles so much with that at home. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that she had no significant problems with working memory. I was very concerned about that. The bigger problem was inattention.

 

I feel overwhelmed, and we haven't even finished. We also have an appt with a behavioral pediatrician, but it's not until April. We'll be starting vision therapy in January. I'm ordering TT at the advice of lots of mommas here. It's interesting because the learning profile strongly recommended a math computer based program with sound! How cool! I don't know what to do with the grammar...things. But I think we must take it one thing at a time. We'll plan to do VT, math (TT), writing (WWE 3), and reading after Christmas. History and science will be fun bonus things, if she's up to it with the VT. I know she needs more time for free learning. She loves art and design type things so I want to give her lots of time/resources for that.

 

I wish I had a consultant to sit down with me and review all the results and make recommendations and help me get it together. The psychologist will do all she can, but she is limited in what she can offer. Our insurance won't cover any academic testing, so the behavioral ped appt will strictly be to discuss the possibility of ADHD-inattention. I think I'm on the right track though.

 

Sorry I know this is a very disjointed post. I am thankful for all the knowledge we have now, and for all that is to come with the further testing. That's what I wanted: knowledge.

 

Thanks for reading, if you made it this far. :) Writing all this out really helps.

[Faithr]

It can be very overwhelming but I think knowing what needs tackling is half the battle. So it is good to get things pinpointed. Vision therapy was miraculous for us! Hope it is the same with your dd. Hang in there!

[Catherine]

Ditto on VT here. It honestly helped more than any of the ideas that ds's evaluation yielded.

[Angie in VA]

I hope VT brings good results, and you find answers.

 

I don't know if you want a grammar program like TT, and I have never used this, but folks say Grammar Key is like TT.

 

http://www.grammarkey.com/

 

HTH.

[Tiramisu]

You may want to look around for an educational consultant. I know there's one where we live who is supposed to be very good at putting together a big picture of what the test results mean in real life and how to deal with them. I personally haven't used her for that, but I know her name is in the phone book under educational consultant. If you could find someone like that and bring them the results of all the tests, it could be helpful and less expensive than. Perhaps you VT person knows someone they could recommend.

 

I know you're overwhelmed, but I remember your first post here and from my side what I see is a mom who loves her daughter and who is doing her best for her. It's beautiful.

 

For now, take one day at a time. I think your educational plan sounds great.

[PeterPan]

Hmm, in your case I think the psych eval is turning up some very important things. That's awesome that the psych is taking so much time and being so thorough! Sounds like by the end of it she's going to have some things sorted out for you. Personally, although it's hard, I would just wait and not try to guess the labels. She's given you some bits, but just let it pan out. And yes, sounds like you made the right choice going ahead. VT alone is not going to solve these issues. Not even so much that they're problems, but you needed information to know exactly what it is. No shooting in the dark.

 

Well I'm just glad for you that you're getting information, even though it feels overwhelming at the moment. Enjoy your holiday, and in January you're going to jump in the stream of things! And yes, expressive language is something they can break down quite a bit and test. She may have some referrals for you after she's done testing, which is why I'm thinking you just chill, enjoy the holidays, and let it all come together.

 

On the grammar, Shurley or Winston Basic. I haven't used Winston, but it seems pretty sensible. Shurley was our mainstay, and it is for grammar what TT is for math. It's not on the computer, but you don't need that. You want to pick it up, do 5 minutes, and stop. We did ours like that. Sometimes we spread one level over two years. It's just this drip, drip, but it made it work for her. I'm scratching my head a little trying to think if that would be the most important thing though, with expressive language issues. Let her report come out. There's quite a bit you can do for that in the realm of therapy and therapy play. I have a cute game I've recommended on here before that has a spinner and parts of speech with words. You build sentences. Then you're going picture to word (expressive language) and getting in your grammar. Grammar just wouldn't be quite as important there, kwim? You can get grammar later, no problem. Main thing is the expressive language. She probably has breakdowns she'll give you. With my ds the SLP did some testing and they could differentiate word recall (length of sentences he could spit back) from ability to name things from ability to communicate relationships. And some of those things are language skills you'll recognize from typically elementary worksheets that a lot of homeschoolers miss. So that kind of stuff you'll be able to work on (via materials you buy and use, via games, via paid therapy, whatever).

 

Well that's great that the psych is so helpful. Rest up and enjoy your holiday. :)

[Nakia]

Thank you all so much. It feels so good to be able to come here, be honest, and know that I'm understood and supported. You are all so very kind.

 

One thing that is confusing me is the fact that the SLP said Emma's eval was completely normal when the psych said her verbal ability was "well below average for her age." I will research that a bit because, honestly, I don't know what that means exactly.

 

Other than doing that research and ordering TT, my plans for the holidays are to relax and enjoy life!

 

Thank you all sooooo much!!!

[PeterPan]

Might mean the SLP didn't run the tests the psych ran. There are tons of different tests an SLP can run. Sometimes their evals are extremely short. Ours wasn't, but that's because we went to a specialist. We got a 2 hour eval. I've read that many regular evals are a work in progress, where they sort of get a baseline diagnosis, figuring they'll find the rest and test further as they go. At least that's what I've read. But yeah, that's weird and annoying since you had this gut sense something was wrong.

 

BTW, on the SLP thing, I don't think they really think like a psychologist. A psych wants to figure out who the dc is and whether he's performing at his ability, whether he's blossoming. An SLP seems more to compare the dc to the 50th percentile. If he's there, he's ok. So like last Christmas we tested, and my ds was at the 50th percentile for motor control, meaning ethically and reasonably the SLP could let us take off for the winter. We did, and after a few months he was having these huge spurts where he was TRYING to say stuff and needing to grow (IQ, growth, blah blah), and his 50th % motor control wasn't going to get him there. This year he's 75th percentile motor control, and she said the same thing, that ethically she could let us drop for winter. However on the preschool skills tests, he actually tests 95th percentile on everything not directly limited by speech. So that tells you that his POTENTIAL is much higher, and it explains why we still have the sense that he's talking around his disability.

 

So it's screwy. Your SLP may have been looking at standards and saying she's ok, and the psych is looking at scores relative to potential. Or the SLP didn't run tests on those things. Or the SLP wasn't very good (which happens, grrr).

 

We're cutting back for the weather but not totally dropping this year. It's all relative to potential, and that's something you sometimes have to kind of fight for. I had mentioned it last year and the SLP thought I was nuts. This year she doesn't think that. So no matter what the SLP says, get what it takes for her to blossom to her *potential*.

 

PS. Someone who's actually an SLP may read that and have a totally different sense. It's just what I've seen in our small realm of experience. May or may not extrapolate out well to the vast world of speechdom.

[DyslexicParent]

Where did you do the learning profile that was recommended? I did a simple online test, and DD seems to be an auditory learner.

I also did a learning profile that a momma here recommended, and it provided a lot of valuable information, but I'm having a hard time processing it all. She learns very differently from me and from my oldest, so I have a big job ahead of me to figure out what she needs. There is a really great part of the learning profile about teaching models that I think will be especially helpful!

[Nakia]

Where did you do the learning profile that was recommended? I did a simple online test, and DD seems to be an auditory learner.

 

It's called a Learning Styles Profile, and it's on sale right now at Homeschool Buyer's Co-op for $19.95! Totally worth it!