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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Primary education

OK Neale Accuracy and comprehension 1 year below age and Wordchain score in 20 centile?????/

13 replies

watfordmummy · 30/11/2010 20:30

Son has been assessed at school and we have got the report back tonight.
His reading age is 5 months above his age, his spelling age 2 month behind.
Math test 7 month ahead of age.
In 87 percentile in Ravens
74 percentile in Letterchains

but as I said in title both Neale test scores about a year below his age and his wordchain score was in the 20 percentile.

We don't have our meeting to discuss what this report means until the 8th of Dec. so wise MNers... what does it all mean?

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watfordmummy · 30/11/2010 20:35

help pls

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Panzee · 30/11/2010 20:38

Why is he being assessed? Do you think there is a particular problem? Have I missed an earlier thread? :o How old is he?

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IndigoBell · 30/11/2010 20:40

I'm not an expert (I hope someone comes on soon) but as far as I know those scores all seem very reasonable. 'Average' is normally 25th - 75th percentile. So 20th percentile is 'a bit below average' - but nothing significant or to be worried about.

Normally it's only the bottom 5 - 10% which is a concern.

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watfordmummy · 30/11/2010 20:42

No sorry no previous thread to do with this, he's 7 and at our last parent's evening his teacher said that they had assessed all the class (all 9 of them) and that they felt that ds2 score was not what it should be. So they wanted him to be assessed by the school SENCO teacher.

Have no experience of this at all. DS2 has always been slow to do everything, and often just doesn't GET things IYKWIM. I think we will be told he has dyslexia.

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watfordmummy · 30/11/2010 20:43

indigo thanks for that, don't care if he is dyslexic but want help for him

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IndigoBell · 30/11/2010 20:46

I don't think those scores indicate dyslexia.

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IndigoBell · 30/11/2010 20:47

Which doesn't mean you shouldn't help him. It means you should focus on what his problems are, and work out what can be done to help.

A dx of dyslexia won't tell you what his problems are or how to help him. It will only tell you what his symptoms are.

What does he struggle with?

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watfordmummy · 30/11/2010 20:51

He struggles with tbh school! no he tries really hard but finds all very hard. He reads but doesn't enjoy it, he learns his spellings one week and then when he free writes his spelling is awful, and his mental maths is well just don't go there. Still has to use his fingers for basic number bonds to 10.

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IndigoBell · 01/12/2010 08:09

Ask him if his eyes hurt when he reads.

Its very common for kids to get words right in a test but the wrong when they use them later. How bad is his spelling? Can you understand what he writes?

His scores really seem very encouraging to me. His Reading, spelling and maths scores were all fine.

Is thsi a very academic private school which has unrealistic expectations?

If you sit down and teach him his number bonds to 10 does he seem to 'get' it? And then forget later? Or is he unable to remember them even while you are working with him?

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Emmaroos · 01/12/2010 09:12

There's a bit of contradiction with the results he's been given. Assuming that the 'Neale' is the Neale Analysis of Reading, if he scored a year below chronological age in two of the three subtests (accuracy and comprehension) I don't understand how his reading can be 5 months ahead. The third subtest is Reading Rate, so he'd have to have been impossibly quick! If they used two different different reading tests and got two very different scores they should be trying to work out why. An average percentile score is 50. Percentiles aren't like standardised scores where there is a very wide 'average band'. Having said that, I'd be unconcerned about one child performing on the 20th percentile if I felt that that was commensurate with their ability and that they were making steady progress, but I might be deeply worried about another child who scored on the 20th percentile if I felt that that score might indicate a particular area of difficulty in an otherwise academically able child (which is pretty much what a diagnosis of dyslexia/dyspraxia actually means).
Also, some kids could do the same tests on three different days and get three totally different results, or take a test with an unfamiliar adult and be a bit freaked out and under-perform, so don't get too obsessed by the numbers themselves, but see them in more general terms as an indicator of performance.
For now don't panic. Nothing much will happen in a week or two.
If I were you I would want the SENCO to get as much information for you as possible, because the clearer a picture you have of what exactly is causing him to struggle, the better. It could be something simple such as poor working memory, and once you know you can take steps to help him to devise strategies to compensate. All in all it sounds as if he's not loving school (or at least the academic part!) and the longer that continues the more likely you are to end up with a frustrated disaffected child. If he can get to a stage where he understands his own strengths and weaknesses, my experience is that the outcome is a lot better and the process is a lot more emotionally manageable for the child. I would make sure that you present the intervention of the SENCO in a really positive and matter of fact way to him. If he thinks you are upset by it he will internalise that. Let him know that you know how hard he tries and that the SENCO may be able to help him find tricks/strategies to help him do some of the stuff he finds hard.
If he does have dyslexia or some other identified issues and you post again I can add some strategies and resources that I have found to be successful, but it sounds as if the school is really on top of things so you may come back from the meeting totally reassured that things will improve.

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ClenchedBottom · 01/12/2010 12:50

Hmm, I'm confused by your comments about his reading age and the Neales Analysis scores?

Interesting that they used Wordchains - I personally would never use this with a 7 year old - basically the discrpancy between his scores suggests that he finds reading words more difficult than simply processing the differences between letters - but then, I think that's too sophisticated an approach to use for children of that age.

By far the most important thing is what school say they are going to do to ensure that your DS makes an adequate rate of progress.

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maizieD · 03/12/2010 00:25

Why doesn't he enjoy reading? The children I encounter who don't enjoy it usually don't enjoy it because they find it difficult.

I'd do a little gentle probing...

Learning spellings for a test is not the best way for some children to keep them secure. How does he learn them? Is it by trying to memorise the letters in them? Can he make a good, phonetic attempt at spelling unfamiliar words or does he just look helpless and say 'I don't know that one'?

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watfordmummy · 03/12/2010 14:32

thank you to everyone here for their encouraging comments. We are due to have our meeting next Wednesday, so will let you know what they say.

He is at a private school and there are only 10 in his class so we believe that they should be able to help us/him.

He knew he was being tested and have fedback to him how well he has done, he really doesn't want to spend anytime with the SENCO teacher, so we will cross that bridge if we come to it.

Since it as been raised as an issue we have been spending more time talking and doing things together and DOH it makes a difference!

Will let you know what the meeting delivers.