Increase in processing score on WISC

[cintinative]

Same office

2021 score was 23 which is considered low average (age 14)

2024 score is 55 which is considered average (age 17)

Ed psych said not to look at the score differences but to me this is significant.  (the rest were very close to last time).

Between the two we switched ADHD meds and started SLP therapy for language formulation issues and sought mental health counseling.

Is this just because of maturity? 

Thoughts?  

Edited September 25 by cintinative

[kbutton]

My son’s score changed a lot, but he also did tons of music, and musical training has some evidence behind it for processing speed improvement.

Also, he had global processing issues—auditory processing, visual processing, language processing…if it had processing in the name, he probably had it. I am sure that affects even the WISC stuff because the test relies on visual processing for some sections, and coordination issues can make it take longer to mark items on a paper.

What really matters is if you can tell that processing is getting better—if it is, that’s helpful. If not, it’s probably not a big enough change.

I forget the title, but there is a book about kids who have lower processing on the WISC.

[EKS]

I assume those are percentiles.

My son was evaluated four times.  These are his processing speed scores (WISC IV):

• Age 7: 9th percentile
• Age 10: 42nd percentile
• Age 12: 34th percentile
• Age 14: 16th percentile

The range here is a little over one standard deviation (17 points on the composite scale).  In your student's case, the range is 13 points, so a bit less than one standard deviation.  If you were to discount my son's age 7 score (which I am inclined to do for various reasons), the difference is almost identical.

I agree with the evaluator here.

[EKS]

I should also mention that my son's speed on things like tests seemed to get a whole lot better once he entered a traditional b&m school, which was after that age 14 test.

[kbutton]

I found the book title: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/bright-kids-who-cant-keep-up-help-your-child-overcome-slow-processing-speed-and-succeed-in-a-fast-paced-world/9314349/item/24885307/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=high_vol_frontlist_standard_shopping_retention&utm_adgroup=&utm_term=&utm_content=698403107263&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADwY45ilAGE69EC7gjYvdfGlLdBq_&gclid=Cj0KCQjwr9m3BhDHARIsANut04ZdW5wD6HCkklpDONn_JUC7W9vYSqeePvj_rUPpczPixau_MBpL8KoaArTEEALw_wcB#idiq=24885307&edition=8662239

I haven’t read it, but I am nearly positive I heard the author on a podcast several years ago.

The psych also might be trying to emphasize that the processing speed is a hindrance in some contexts relative to other strengths and therefore the number is not as important as accommodating it when necessary.

[kbutton]

4 hours ago, EKS said:

I should also mention that my son's speed on things like tests seemed to get a whole lot better once he entered a traditional b&m school, which was after that age 14 test.

I would like to know how this presented if you don’t mind trying to describe it. Mine transitioned to school two years ago, but it was a school with a lot of “universal accommodations.” It had good points and not is good points. Now he’s in a vocational school, and I am always trying to pin down what is maturity and what is environment, usually for IEP purposes. They do treat students like mostly adults, but in a mentoring way vs. the kind of passive aggressive way that his previous DE teachers did or the “of course this will work out” way that his old school did. 

[kbutton]

It looks like the author has done a lot of podcasts, but Apple won’t let me post links from my iPhone; it just wants to open players. I would have heard her on Blog Talk Radio’s Coffee Klatch Special Needs show. The podcast is not making new episodes, but the old ones are still available.

[Halown63]

I've seen similar changes in my child's processing speed after switching ADHD meds and working with a speech therapist. The improvement felt significant to me, especially when it came to daily tasks and schoolwork. Maturity could definitely play a role, but I think the therapy and medication adjustments had a big impact. It's hard to separate everything when there are so many factors at play, but seeing those practical improvements made the score differences feel like they reflected real progress. 

[EKS]

On 9/27/2024 at 12:15 PM, kbutton said:

I would like to know how this presented if you don’t mind trying to describe it.

Sorry, I meant to respond to this before.

When my son was at home (age 7 to 15), it took him 3x longer than it should have (and often more than that) to do anything.  His evaluator at the 14yo visit said that he should be given double time for tests, and that's what both the private high school he went to for a year and the CC did.  Right from the start he was able to finish within the allotted time.  This told me that it wasn't that he couldn't do it at home; it's just that for whatever reason he wasn't doing it.  Then he was granted only 1.5x time on the SAT and ACT, and I was worried.  But again, it was fine.  In college, he found that taking tests in the testing center was a problem because if he had a question there was nobody to respond, and, even more of a problem, if the instructor made an announcement about something to do with the test, he didn't get to hear it.  This happened enough times that he just started taking the tests with the class.

Looking back on it now, I think that there were two issues.  The first was that he just wasn't motivated to work faster when he was at home.  But the other was that to keep him engaged, I needed to keep the level pretty high (he is 2E), so he was working at a conceptual level that was well above his fluency level.  He refused to do the work needed to get his fluency up (I'm mostly thinking of math here, but writing was a problem as well) because according to him he could do whatever it was, albeit slowly.  

[kbutton]

Thanks, @EKS! Some of this is stuff I probably need to keep in mind with my kid, but I wouldn’t have been able to articulate some of these points because my son is not excited about discussing this stuff if things are going decently.