Got the full report on Emma's testing

[Nakia]

This was testing through the school system. It was very thorough, and I know there is a lot of good information. The psychologist sent me a report that is 19 pages long because it explains every test component. She was given these tests: DAS-2, WIAT-3, GORT-5, KeyMath 3, and I did the BASC-2, Conners 3, and BRIEF questionnaires.

 

This is my summary. Keep in mind that I have very limited knowledge of these tests. I tried to type up a concise summary. I am going Monday to meet with the psychologist once more, along with the exceptional children team.

 

Her IQ is average, but she has a significant discrepancy between her Verbal Ability and Spatial Ability and between her Nonverbal Reasoning Ability and Spatial Ability. So basically her Verbal Ability is Below Average, which makes a lot of things make sense. Her expressive vocabulary is below average which means she understands language better than she can communicate. Again, this sheds a lot of light on her struggles. She even seemed to process information slowly and became quiet and unresponsive when she didn't know an answer to a test question just like she does at home. She sort of spaces out and just stares. :( She scored much better on literal reading comprehension than inferential comprehension.

 

As for math..ugh...she did okay on numerical operations. She demonstrated accuracy in basic calculations, but is significantly slower than peers her age (need to work on fluency) and struggles to put that the calculations with problem solving and applications. I won't go into every detail and test because there are so many (the psychologist did an extra specialized math eval because of the huge discrepancy between her calculation and problem solving scores). She scored well below average on her problem solving ability and applied problem solving. Her data analysis was the lowest (classified as extremely low). Interestingly her "geometry" and "measurement" scores were pretty much the only math areas, other than basic calculations, that she scored average on. I'm hoping that will be a clue on how she learns best and how I can help her.

 

I had to fill out several behavioral forms. On the first she didn't meet any criteria for externalizing behaviors but did have concerns for: anxiety, depression, somatization, atypicality, and withdrawal. These are all internalizing behaviors and warrant follow up. I'm not entirely surprised but this. She saw a child psychiatrist a couple of years ago for anxiety, but that was very hard on her and made things worse. She has really improved over the last two years, but she still has a long way to go. Part of it is just her personality, but of course, I'll be watching her closely. I have to wonder if a lot of it is self-esteem and confidence issues because she struggles with verbal expression and other stuff, as noted above. The next form revealed problems with inattention, executive functioning, and peer relations. The last from revealed difficulty with shift (going from task to task and new situations), working memory (though she did fine on that on the IQ test), emotional control, and planning/organizing. All of those behaviors "should be monitored closely."

 

So we meet again on Monday where I will receive the psychologist's summary. Hopefully, they people at the meeting will put all this together for me, interpret it in real life language and help me come up with a plan. I want to know how it all fits together. I want to know how it all relates. The psychologist can't actually diagnose but so far she did tell me that Emma meets the criteria for ADHD-inattention and "Learning Disability in Math Problem Solving" but that's all she's told me so far. That's enough for now. That's good info and I look forward to more.

 

 

We have an appt with the behavioral ped in April to talk about the possibility of ADHD-inattention. Our insurance will not cover anything related to LD testing so this is what we have to go with for now. Another homeschool mom is helping me find a neuropsych to evaluate the possibility of a processing disorder, which we might have to pay for out of pocket, if we need it. I have to wonder if it's truly ADHD-inattention or some kind of processing disorder. Who knows?!?!?

 

Emma's going to VT, and it's going well.

 

I'm confused. Overwhelmed...

 

Thanks for listening!!

[Tokyomarie]

It looks like you got a pretty thorough assessment from the school. That's terrific! It will be interesting to see what recommendations they make. That's what will be the most helpful. You want to find out what they recommend for types of curriculum and teaching methods, any therapies, and ways of approaching any behavioral issues.

 

Internalizing and externalizing behaviors can be seen as "communication." They tell you that all is not well in the child's world, but don't tell us why. Often, in a stable family situation, they are a child's way of coping with the frustration of not being able to communicate effectively in verbal ways with family and friends and/or the frustration of realizing that their "work" (academics) doesn't measure up to their perception of what adults expect of them. In our family, we chose to work on the processing issues, language development, and our approach to academics. When we got those tweaked, we found that behaviors correlated with anxiety and depression began to fall away. Now, in our case, those symptoms were relatively mild on a spectrum- we were not in any serious mental health crisis, so we had time to figure out if changing our approach to school and life influenced the emotional situation.

[PeterPan]

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[Nakia]

It looks like you got a pretty thorough assessment from the school. That's terrific! It will be interesting to see what recommendations they make. That's what will be the most helpful. You want to find out what they recommend for types of curriculum and teaching methods, any therapies, and ways of approaching any behavioral issues.

 

Internalizing and externalizing behaviors can be seen as "communication." They tell you that all is not well in the child's world, but don't tell us why. Often, in a stable family situation, they are a child's way of coping with the frustration of not being able to communicate effectively in verbal ways with family and friends and/or the frustration of realizing that their "work" (academics) doesn't measure up to their perception of what adults expect of them. In our family, we chose to work on the processing issues, language development, and our approach to academics. When we got those tweaked, we found that behaviors correlated with anxiety and depression began to fall away. Now, in our case, those symptoms were relatively mild on a spectrum- we were not in any serious mental health crisis, so we had time to figure out if changing our approach to school and life influenced the emotional situation.

 

 

Thanks for the support! I'm excited to see what happens at the meeting tomorrow. I do think a lot of the internalizing behaviors are coping mechanisms. I do have to use caution with that because we do have a significant family history of mental illness including anxiety, depression, etc. I myself have bipolar disorder. I'm watching her closely. Like you, we're not in a crisis so I feel like we have time to see how changes will affect her behavior.

 

 

 

 

Ditto what Marie said. I'm so glad for you that they're being thorough and giving you so much help! That's a ton of good info. That's kind of weird that the psychologist won't/can't diagnose, since ours sure did. Is it a school policy thing or a masters vs. phd thing? And yes, like Marie, we've had that experience where the behaviors were because of the communication problems. Definitely don't assume stuff is personality and immovable that could improve as you improve that ability to communicate. Hopefully they're going to talk with you about therapy things you can do to help her. If they don't and it's a budget thing, then I suggest you ask what you WOULD do if money were NOT an issue. You want to hear that discrepancy. Good therapy with someone who's experienced and can dig into the heart of the problems can be life-changing. So definitely ask that question.

 

Well good for you. That's a ton of info to process, probably will take you a while. So the follow-up meeting is Monday? When we did ours, someone on the boards here suggested I write out all my questions. I did and left space to write the answers. Turned out to be very good advice. Hope your meeting goes well. :)

 

 

You've been a gem to me through this. I really appreciate you! The psychologist said she can't diagnosis because she's state employed in the school system. I don't know...guess it's a school policy. I'm not sure.

 

I'm waiting to see what happens with the behaviors and watching her closely. I've seen her come out of her shell soooo much over the last two years. It's been amazing. She's still quiet, easily frustrated often, anxious, and kind of a Debbie Downer often. I think she's such an Eeyore sometimes. :(

 

I have great news about the neuropsych testing!!! I called my insurance, and they now WILL pay for testing for processing disorders with a neuropysch. This is a new benefit, and I'm so excited. When I called in the fall, they said they did not pay for it. First I found out they will pay for VT and now this. I feel it's Christmas, lol. I called our ped and got some recommendations for local neuropsychs, and I'm going to call those offices on Monday to try and get an appointment. I don't know what all a neuropsych tests for. Would you mind to give me more information on that? Or give me a link I can look at? When I googled, I got confused quickly. I feel like I'm processing soooo much info at once!

 

I'm trying to formulate questions I have for the school psych tomorrow. Working on that tonight. :)

 

Thanks to both of you soooooo much!!!!

[DyslexicParent]

What are the recommendations for Math? DD was also given the KeyMath 3 assessment. Her results were three grade levels below her grade 6! :cursing: She scored in the bottom 5th percentile in all the subtests, including being in the bottom 1% for Numeration and Basic Concepts. She was only one year behind in the KeyMath 2 assessment last year, so nobody knows why she suddenly regressed so much this year.

 

What is the best math remediation program for LD children?

She was given these tests: DAS-2, WIAT-3, GORT-5, KeyMath 3

:

As for math..ugh...she did okay on numerical operations. She demonstrated accuracy in basic calculations, but is significantly slower than peers her age (need to work on fluency) and struggles to put that the calculations with problem solving and applications. I won't go into every detail and test because there are so many (the psychologist did an extra specialized math eval because of the huge discrepancy between her calculation and problem solving scores). She scored well below average on her problem solving ability and applied problem solving. Her data analysis was the lowest (classified as extremely low). Interestingly her "geometry" and "measurement" scores were pretty much the only math areas, other than basic calculations, that she scored average on. I'm hoping that will be a clue on how she learns best and how I can help her.