got the triennial reports
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| Wed, 05-10-2006 - 8:32am |
...in advance of Peter's IEP meeting on Friday.
Grrr.
Despite the school psychologist's verbal assertion that she thinks a PDD is Peter's primary issue; the report, which goes back to age 18mos in the "backround" section, makes no mention of an outside DX of Aspergers at 5½, or indeed any of the district's own Autism Specialist's feedback.
There are numerous references to impulsivity, distractability, lack of attention/focus, etc. Both the teacher and parents filled out the Conners, and surprise surprise; the teacher showed clinically significant for AD/HD, whereas mine did not.
The recommendation is to keep him classified as SI (Speech and language impaired),and keep him in a similar environment for next year with the same services (Speech, OT, PT) at the same level, "to address social, academic and behavioral (i.e., distractability, short attention span) difficulties"
I take umbrage with this. I feel they are focusing on addressing his (recent) distractability and not addressing the underlying cause. It's like giving Tylenol to a person who constantly bashes their head against the wall. That wont' fix the problem!
Also I am confused by some of these scores. His academics appear to belie his cognitive skills:
He scores 81 (10th percentile) on the Weschler, but his Woodcock-Johnson is in the 50th percentile for reading, and somewhere 70s (percentile) for Math. I am sure they will tell me this is because they are such fabulous teachers, but I am not so sure. I feel they are missing something.
So I don't know whether to call this school shrink up, ask her why she wrote half a report, and tip her off that all You Know What may break loose on Friday, or wait and let it happen.
and AND. His PT reported that his joint range of motion is normal throughout. Is is normal range of motion to be able to lay your hand flat on the table, take your pinky finger and bend it back about 110 degrees? I know normal is subjective, but come ON.
-Paula

Oh boy,
Ok, first he needs more assessments. Those scores are not because they are fabulous teachers but because for some reason the WISC scores him lower than his ability which is very common for a person on the autism spectrum HELLO!
I want to know the break down of the scores on his WISC if you could Paula. The subtests, the different areas (what do they call that? I forget but they break the scores into like 4 or 5 areas. Including verbal reasoning maybe). Break those down for me and I can give you a better idea of what to do next.
I am thinking that there is significant scatter amung his subtests. I think that you may want to give him a nonverbal IQ test like the C-Toni, Raven Progressive Matrices, or the MAT (?). But not if his visual scores are lower than his verbal scores.
Also, they need to give some sort of autism scale and need to address the autism concerns. This has been a concern of yours for a while. I would insiste they do perhaps a couple including the ASDS and maybe the CARS. I have a link to that one so you can preview how he would do prior to asking them to do it. http://www.weirdkids.com/wierd/autism/cars2.htm
FUnny, they did a Conners which is basically an ADHD scale. Why didn't they do an autism rating scale, hmmmmmmmm? If Cait or Mike took the conners of COURSE they would score in the ADHD range. ADHD symtpoms are often (not always but often) part and parcel of ASD's as are lower than ability IQ scores.
GEEZ! Now I am pissed for you. Can I advocate long distance? I do it for free for our Peter.
Renee
Renee,
Thanks fot that. I got hit with a migraine today, hence the delay in responding. As for the advocate thing: Wat are you doing at 9:40am EST on Friday? My cellphone has speaker capability...
Here are the results. Of course they were not presented in standard format. Some at standard scores, some percentile scores.
WISC IV: (standard scores)
Verbal comprehansion Index
Similarities: 14
Vocab. 7
Comprehension 6
Perceptual Reasoning:
Block Design: 8
Picture concepts 5
Matrix Reasoning 7
Working memory:
Digit Span 9
Letter-umber 6
Procesing Speed
Coding 6
Symbol Search 7
Wodcock Johnson: (percentile scores)
Reading Fluency 53
Passage comprehension 47 (tho' teacher & me think this is falsely high)
Calculation 77
Math Fluency 66
CELF -4 (scaled scores)
Concepts/following directions: 8
Word Structure: 10
Recalling Sentences 7
Formulated Sentences 9
Core language Score: 91 (?)
Gross motor scores is the 7th percentile, stanine (?): 2
Visual motor skills (garner)
Motor age: 5-3 (he's 7-8)
I am kind of surprised that the verbal stuff came out so high. Mr H said that he had been teaching the kids some test-takig strategies, and he thinks the little bugger used them to score some surprising results in his W/J reading and comprehension tests.
-Paula
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
kk, well here is my thoughts (remember I am not a psychologist. Just a mom and special ed teacher who has an interest in testing results).
First of all I am not terribly surprised at his higher language scores if you look at the CELF. The CELF is a pretty intence language scales and he did pretty ok on that too. Average on all but recalling sentences and that was just below. Also, I am willing to bet based on the 14 in similarities in the verbal comprehension subtest that the verbal comp score is higher as well. You may be looking at here a kid who has kind of that typical Aspie/NLD score profile where the verbal scores are higher than the nonverbal scores.
The similarities subtest is really high for the rest of his assessment. I would wonder why that is. What does that test. Why is that so high. That one particular test is in the gifted range where the rest tend to be in the average or low average range. It is something to make you go hmmmmm.
What are his other scores. The compiled ones. Ya know the ones they put that aren't full scale but listed like the should be around 80's and 90's. I think the verbal comprehension index will be nearly 100 or over with that 14 in there.
I think you will find a fairly significant split between his verbal comprehsion index and say processing speed. The lower processing speed scores are where they may be getting the ADHD stuff from. Or at least in part.
I still would be interested in where his nonverbal IQ scores would stand. The matrix subtest is right dead center of his test but the block design is fairly strong. I would just be curious but if his verbal reasoning is stronger a nonverbal IQ may actually not be a good scale for him.
Passage comprehension - Cait scored really high on that too. The test sometimes gives other clues or is really concrete. There is no way she comprehends at the level the test says. However, all the scores are either right at average or above which would lead me to believe that either he is of average IQ at least or one of the tests are wrong.
I think what I would consider here is his visual processing skills and visual motor skills. To me those would be areas of concern or worth looking into. I would look into possibly vision therapy or something of that sort of therapy. If you look at the scores. His visual motor scores as well as gross motor scores are much lower than his other scores. Also in his IQ test his subtest of picture concepts are lower than the rest of the scores. I would like to remember how picture concepts are tested and what it tests.
Overall what I am seeing is a boy with pretty much average to low average abilities in most areas. His langauge abilities seem to be higher than his other areas and there are some concerning scores in the visual areas and related that would make me wonder.
I would request further testing in the area of autism rating scales and vision processing.
Also, has he had testing yet for occupational therapy? They are doing a triennial as well right?
So far that is my I haven't slept and am beat responses. As a matter of fact, I am not sure it makes any sense what so ever. lol
Renee
Thanks.
There is a medical thread we are following on the physical -and maybe visual front, but I will request both of those to be tested more.
Sorry I left out the indices:
verbal comp. SS: 95, %ile: 37
Perceptual reasoning: SS: 79, %ile: 8
Working memory: SS: 86 %ile: 18
Processing Speed: SS: 80, %ile: 9
Full scale IQ: SS: 81, %ile: 10
no details on the VP thing, which was an OT assessment.
-Paula
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
As I thought, there is a 16 point difference between his verbal and perceptual scores. Please tell me they noted that in the report. That is a significant discrepancy. Often seen with AS or NLD type kids. Like I said, I do wonder at the visual skills and if help in that area would bring up his scores.
More than telling us a childs IQ, which is innaccurate for this kind of kiddo anyway. I think that psych testing can tell us about thier learning profile and how to teach them/what their needs are.
Don't forget to have them do some sort of autism scale. I think that they really need to address that area. I don't care if he doesn't look like a typical autie to them, if his brain works like that of an autistic then that he how he learns. He will need work broken down for him in a way he understands and learns and if they deny that he thinks and learns like an autistic it is going to be harder to teach and reach him.
Renee