To think that my DC’s (7) IQ test results could be wrong?

[Poorboy136]

So my DD has struggled at school in most areas, apart from IT. Can’t stand reading, writing, maths and got 26/40 for the phonics screening test.

As soon as she started nursery the teacher suggested DD could have dyspraxia but she was only 3 years and 3 months at the time and I felt far too young to be labelled as such.

I did take her to the consultant community paediatrician and development nurse as the school had me so worried. They done a SOGS assessment and were like “She’s absolutely fine we have no concerns at all” I even joking said to the developmental nurse that ‘the way the school was going on, I was worried she had global developmental delay...’ She said ‘darling, She hasn’t got GDD she’s just a bit immature don’t worry...’

I felt so much better as the top people had seen him and I felt they had much more of an idea if she had anything wrong with her.

School didn’t really say much, although I got the impression they thought the consultant etc was wrong 🙄

Fast forward 2.5 years and she was getting on at school ok so I was told by the teachers. Then about 6 months ago they said that she’s petered off and not making much progress. Can they get the Educational Psychologist in to assess her? But that it could be a year before she sees DD as my DDs needs are mild compared to most others.

In the meantime I decided to get her assessed privately and pay for a Dyslexia. As her dad has severe dyslexia and there’s a large hereditary component. He also shows aspects of dyspraxia so I thought that might be what it is. The lady that done it is a teacher with extra qualifications in identifying Dyslexia in children.

Had her assessed and it came back she does have dyslexia. I felt so relieved that I had this diagnosis as it made sense. She said she’s a bright chatty girl.

Then...

The Ed Psyc from school assessed her last week and was given a copy of her dyslexia report but didn’t look at it. (Fair enough, I understand she has a job to do and doesn’t want to be influenced etc...)

Basically she said DD didn’t have dyslexia but does have a “Moderate Learning Difficultly” based on her IQ score of 65.

I was shocked and really not prepared for that news. I was crying as you can imagine. I felt very confused as why hadn’t the consultant picked it up? The developmental nurse etc? She met all her milestones, didn’t have issues with language etc... and I thought dyslexia (considering her dad has it) fitted the bill nicely.

Unorganised, forgets things easily, can’t stay focused for too long. (These are DD’s main issues)

I also have a private tutor for DD and have done since before summer. I told her yesterday and she said she doesn’t think that’s right. She said 85 yes but not 65. She said that she taught a child who had an IQ of 74 and he wasn’t as bright as my DD in her opinion.

She asked questions like “How does Santa get to all the houses though, how can he make presents for all the boys and girls in the world?” I think surely that’s pretty clever to question that!

I also spoke to another Ed Psych who does private assessments and she said that DDs still very young and the problem with doing them in such young children is they can’t always be reliable. She advised 8 would be a better age to do a full IQ test. My DD has just turned 7.

So I feel like with what was said by the other Ed Psyc about the reliability at that age...

What her tutor said about finding it hard to believe...

The consultant and developmental nurse being ‘wrong’

And the dyslexia report saying she’s a bright little girl etc...

I’m beginning to think that it could be wrong? Dd struggles to stay on task and keep focused and gives up on tasks very easily. So I think sitting for an hour and a half getting assessed, could she just have given up?!!!

BTW an IQ of below 70 is classed as an intellectual disability 😢

ElectricBlueEyes you're probably better off starting a new thread in SEN, if you would like to flag your post up to EPs.

OP started this thread in AIBU as she wanted a variety of perspectives and opinions.

You will get a narrower range of responses if you post in SEN.

op I understand this has been a shock, BUT, a number in a test does not and cannot change your DD (unless you let it undermine her confidence somehow - please don't).

She still has all the skills, all the intelligence she had before the test, and no test can tell you who your DD is. IQ and all other intelligence develops and changes as children grow. Nothing is fixed and nothing is accurate.

Take whatever support you can get and keep helping your DD develop into the wonderful person she will be.

Rereading some of this thread.

People are massively over-weighting the importance of all sorts of tests.

The purpose of tests isn't to tell you who you are, or even how good at something you are. All they ever do is tell you how much of that particular test you got right on that particular day. Had a headache? Had toothache? Had a bad night's sleep, got distracted? Then obviously you are a fundamentally more stupid person right? wrong.

My DD is doing a spanish test this week, she will do great in the speaking, and totally bomb the written (because she is the world's slowest writer). At 8 yo, she isn't daft enough to interpret this result is her 'being bad at Spanish'. It won't matter if the teacher IS dumb enough to interpret the result this way (though I doubt she will) because DD knows that a test can't tell her if she is any good at something...only how she performed on that particular test.

I beg each and every person on this thread to make sure their children really REALLY understand this. Their lives are full of tests and I teach in a uni where every year we see people drop out and sometimes even harm themseleves because they can't take the exam stress anymore. Please don't let that be your kid.

Sorry HRTFT but OP i think you are focusing on the label of moderate LD. That does not mean that your dd (or is it a ds, you interchange?) won't be able to live independently or get married. It is great that this is identified as early as possible so that s/he can get access to help.

M3lon I agree with what you say, but OP isn't talking about a subject test.

It was a psychological assessment which her dd doesn't and need never know the numerical outcome of.

I don't get the impression that OP is most concerned about how her dd performed on this particular assessment.

She's concerned about the wide-ranging and conflicting professional opinions which don't particularly tally with her knowledge of her daughter and the fact that the school seem very keen to write her off with no extra support.

None of these things are going to help her support her daughter, which is seems very clear is what she wants to do.

I'd ask the Ed Psych for copies of all of the underlying working papers. We had a similarly shocking result for DC1 and it turned out that they had become too upset and frustrated with one part of the test that they just didn't do it.

DC1 scored very highly in other parts of the test but is dyspraxic. Asked similar questions about infinity (wanted to know if it was an odd or even number - referred that question to her godfather who is a physics professor.....). Swimming and music lessons helped a lot.