Help here too please! First encounter with SEN.

[Molio]

Is there anyone who can please help explain what processing difficulties are, what causes them and most important of all, how they impact on a young person?

School has phoned to say they think one of my youngest DC may have these difficulties but I'm not at all clear what they are. He's in the sixth form and no-one has ever flagged up anything whatsoever before. He learned to read and write easily, passed his 11+ easily, scored fine at GCSE with 12 A*/A (although was significantly short of his predictions) but there seems to be an issue now. Not that I've noticed anything at all, and as far as his GCSEs went I assumed he might have undershot purely because of age (he was 14), coupled with grade deflation. Objectively of course his results were completely fine so I merely said the results were great and never dwelt on it. He's got plenty of friends and seems happy but one teacher seems to have picked up a problem which they say disguises his ability - in tests and exams where there's any data or info to process. It seems not to be an issue with maths. The school (a state school) is advising an assessment. Does this sound familiar to anyone? It's all new territory for me, and I'm worried. Are there wider implications beyond timing difficulties with exams? I assume that because the school is advising an assessment it's serious but I really don't have a clue. Thanks in advance for any help - much appreciated.

[LIZS]

Depends what they are highlighting as issues? Does he struggle with noise and bustle, speed of writing, need extra thinking time, recall of facts? He might benefit from using a laptop, for example , for which you wouldn't need a formal assessment as long as he uses he from now on or other exam access arrangements for which he would need to meet specific criteria and have documented support from teaching staff. Tbh with those gcse results you may find little benefit from an assessment as he could well not meet the requirements.

[Molio]

LIZH, from the phone call it seems that they think he's more able than his current tests and exams show. So speed of writing and thinking time I guess. Large chunks seem to be missing from his exam papers and there seems to be a mismatch between those, and how he performs orally in the classroom. Apparently he seems to have 100% accuracy on what he does write down but scores relatively low because of the missing chunks. I don't have much more info than that, but one of the very experienced teachers has flagged it up and got together with all the other subject teachers and there seems to be a pattern, except in maths. Since the school has suggested an assessment and since they have to pay quite a lot for it I think, surely there must be some purpose? Why would his raw score GCSE results matter? Thanks for responding.

[LIZS]

The main purpose of access arrangements is to level the field not give the candidate any advantage. The processing scores do have to be alarmingly low to trigger concessions.

[Molio]

No LIZS I quite understand the point is to level the field, so why would his GCSEs matter? You said they might mean he could well not meet the requirements, but the school said he'd be taking a separate test to assess him, sometime next month.

[Tissie]

Until my very recent retirement I have been doing assessments and applications for extra time in exams. I have come across 6th form pupils who, because of their strong work ethic and high level of intelligence have done OK up to A level. At A level the increasing complexity of the work, reading demands and essay writing can show up processing difficulties. Previous GCSE results need not matter. Test results and teacher comments on his work with examples will form the basis for an application.
My school has just had its JCQ inspection of applications for exam access and passed with flying colours. These were all my applications and the school have asked me to go back next year to do the testing/assessment/applications for next year.
Processing difficulties can include:
poor short term memory
slow reading especially for comprehension
difficulty planning and executing longer written answers including essays
problems breaking down longer questions into component parts
difficulty maintaining the thread of a piece of work

In tests the scores are based on standard age scores where 100 is the median. A score below 85 is needed for exam access. Ths is low but I have experience of several pupils with this sort of score achieving good A levels.

[Narvinectralonum]

My DD1 was evaluated as being dyspraxic (GP referral to Ed Psych) back in Y4. She had another test in Y9 prior to sitting her GCSEs where she was again evaluated as being (very) dyspraxic but not qualifying for extra time because her scores were 'just inside' the cut off despite being massively below where they 'should' have been given her ability. Many of her dyspraxic traits were deemed as not being relevant to exams (and to be fair, they probably aren't - luckily nobody has included being able to walk through a door successfully as part of a GCSE). She has just been evaluated again (post 16 evaluation for the purposes of further education) by a university SpLD department using the criteria they use for all their students (essentially a much more far reaching set of tests than the ones used in school for exam extra time qualification - much closer to the very searching Ed Psych evaluation she had in Y4, in fact) and again has had the dyspraxia diagnosis confirmed, apparently qualifies for extra time (we were surprised when she didn't in Y9 but assumed the person used by the school knew what they were doing...) and a range of additional support as a result of this evaluation. She is also being referred for an AS diagnosis (apparently this is pretty certain to be forthcoming but the university team can't make it themselves, they can only refer). I think what this underlines is that there is huge variability in diagnoses depending on the person doing the evaluation and the focus of the evaluation (we were not seeking or expecting any recommendation for extra time, given the results of the previous (under 16) evaluation which was only about extra time - we were concerned more about support, but nevertheless the results included a strong recommendation for extra time). It's a very frustrating process though, I must say. Luckily DD1 is bearing it with equanimity. I think she is quite pleased to have it confirmed that while she may not be NT she isn't unusual, as such. And that wherever she ends up at university, she will get the support to which she is entitled.