Inconclusive results post Dyslexia screening - Y6 DD

[shamelesshackney]

I've posted on here before about DD. She is in Y6 and it's come to light that the school thought she could be Dyslexic and so they arranged for an Educational Psychologist to come into the school for a full report to be made (DS had the same so we're familiar with the process.)

The SENCO has called me today to say they (school and EP) have asked for the report to be scrapped as it doesn't correlate with DD's work and her attainment at school. They didn't give me too many details but that her IQ score was so low and if that were the actual case then there's no way it would have gone undetected until now. They spoke to her teacher who really also disagreed with the report. They all said her processing skills were much, much lower than they thought they would be. Her vocabulary and reading skills have always been really good

The EP said DD was really nervous and that she 'looked like a rabbit in headlights' and she thinks this affected her performance. DD can get very nervous and quite anxious so this sounds like something that does sound feasible.

The SENCO has suggested we do it again and I've offered to go along with DD but I just feel really worried about this, she's off to secondary in September and I'd really like to get her whatever help she needs before then.

Any help or advice would be great. TIA.

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I think you may need to look at what tests the EP has actually done and under what conditions. Not all testing is equal and not all EPs have the same level of specialisation. In your position I would ask for a full re-assessment by a different EP who specialises in dyslexia, dyspraxia and possibly ASD as any of these can cause underperformance in IQ tests - which aren't quite the gold standard they are made out to be.

Alternatively, unless you have the pots of money it takes to go private, make the best of a piss-poor job, tear up the clearly invalid results and get the school to take a 'needs led' approach, i.e. try out suggested interventions with her learning, find out what works and see how she does. It's how we're dealing with DS, who clearly has something, but it doesn't fall into any clear category. Bit frustrating not having a diagnosis and I think it'll be uni before he gets one, but we're making the best of it.

Thanks for replying. It's really frustrating. We've never had any concerns with her before Y6 and now they just keep coming. Aghhhh.

I am just going to comment on the processing speed, it is very possible to have a low processing speed with good reading skills and vocabulary. These children will have had coping mechanisms that tend to stop working in year 5/6.
My DD is 15 now, but in year 6 she had a reading age of 14 and a spelling age of 8 with a visual processing score of 75. She was in top sets for everything. Now she has been assessed for access arrangements for GCSE processing speed still low she will get 25% extra time and the use of a lap top. She is still result wise a top set girl, but due her slow processing she finds the speed of the top set too fast so she is placed in set 2 to help with the processing speed.

This is typical spiky profile of a twice exceptional child.

Lonecatwithkitten Thanks for replying. That's really interesting. My DD has done so well until Y6 and I've been amazed by her coping strategies to get this far with nothing being picked up (by us or school) I know so little about it so I need to investigate more.

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