Can anyone help me to make sence of these acessment scores??

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, I was hoping someone could help me to make sence of these test results for my daughter. She's five and a half and is due to go into year 1 in September. She has SEN's and speech problems. She loves to chat but it's very hard to understand what she's saying. (Even for me sometimes)

Anyway, she was asessed by the EP and these are the results:

Block building- 10th percentile = below average.

Picture similarities- 1st = very low

Verbal comprihension- 24th = below average

Naming vocabulary- 4th = low.

It says that she has a general cognitive ability of 72. (Does this mean IQ ?)

I'm not sure what to make of it. It's a lot lower than I thought it would be. Is there any posibility that she'd catch up in the end? I suppose it's hard to say but these scors were quite depressing.

Maybe repost on the SN board?

Oh, O.K. I was hoping there might be some teachers on the education one, but I'l try the SN one as well.

bump

Have you asked the school to help you apply for a Statement of Special educational Needs?

The EP report may help your DD get a statement.

I think the general cognitive score is probably the overall general IQ score and the other are subset scores, I believe if there is a great variability in the subset scores then the overall score is not reliable. Did th scores come as part of a report. When my DT2 was assessed a couple of years ago the EP said his score should be viewed with caution as he was all over the place during assessment, However in order for him to access the cirriculum and to maximise his potential he was awarded a statement, However we are in NI and from what I have read here it seems that you dont have to be as far behind in NI to be awarded a statement , although I could be wrong. i think that to be categorised as having MLD, an IQ score of between 50 and 70 is whats required and a statement is usually granted in those cases. I wrote about my DT2 on one of your other posts previously so I'll not bore you again but if I were you I would try and get the school to apply for a statement and if they refuse apply yourself, I also thnk you should post in the SN board. You will get a greater response. Good luck!

We work off the percentile scores and standardised scores
while your daughter's scores are low but not very low in all areas you really need to chat to the EP about the findings and provision

we look at scores below the 1st centile when considering a statement

The EP did say that the verbal comprihension score would have biased the overall score and should be taken in to account.

He has given a list of things which will help her in the classroom. He said she wouldn't get a statement in any school.

make an appointment to discuss the findings of the report with her new teacher and the school senco.

ask them to use the ep suggestions to form a meaningful iep with 'smart' targets to be used this year (and updated six monthly as she older than 5 - they may do it termly if you ask nicely, but don't have to)

was she on an iep last year?

do school have her on sa+ already due to her speech etc?

she's still quite little so can improve with some good support.

ensuring that you track the iep this year will give you some evidence to apply for stat assessment later this (school) year if you need to.

i do like the beginning of the new school year as it gives you a chance to sit down with the new teacher and discuss the best way of putting support in place at home and school. a 'working together' emphasis.

has she had ot before mummyloves? i can't remember, i think you were involved with slt.

oh, on that note - you also need to get her slt to visit the school (at the same meeting if you can wangle it) so that they can be involved in the target-setting for the iep.

I can't speak for other LAs but she wouldn't be considered to need a statement in my authority but she should get SaLT support and at 5 she is still very young. Children develop at different rates and there are lots of things schools (and you at home) can do to help her even without a statement. What would normally happen here is that she would be reassessed in two years to measure progress and review findings.

Is your dd still in her academic private school? I ask because is she being compared to the average in her class or the national average?

i assume this was wechsler testing? (or whatever the age appropriate option is - dd2 did it at the same age)

I would assume the EP used WPPSI-III given her age rather than WISC-IV
but both are standardised tests

normally the report would look something like

WPPSI-III Test Scores
Scale Score Percentile Range Qualitative Range
Verbal (VIQ) 88 21 Low Average
Performance (PIQ) 110 75 High Average
General Language (GLC) 91 27 Average
Processing Speed (PSQ) 119 90 High Average

yes, that's how ours were, think the ep used the wisc as well though, can't remember why. does the wisc usually go from 6+?

WPPSI goes up to 7.5 years and WISC starts at 6 years
there is also the WIAT test which is often used alongside

Yes, she's still at the private school but the tests were based on national average.
The school are going to follow the advice of the EP and she's going to be spending some time in the class below for extra phonics practice etc.

I'm not sure about IEP's and SA+ but they each have their own targets etc and it is a small class, so hopefully she'll be fine.

Is there no way she can stay in her own year group for this extra work? I remember you sayign there was only something like 8 children in the class or have I misremembered?

Yes, there were 8 children. There's only 7 in september now, but they combine years 1 and 2, so there will be 15 in her class.

I think the phonics sessions are quite lively, and they sing and do actions ect. It would be hard for her to do all that when the others are writing their storys etc.
She has been going to the younger class for these sessions already and she does enjoy it. She goes with another girl who is the youngest in the class and needs some extra phonics.

I would expect Y1&2 to be doing phonics too

oh, ok. is there an issue with slt having access to the school?

i'm not sure how it would work in the private sector - we decided not to pursue private as it can get too complicated with sn!

i'm not convinced about removing her from her peer group though, tbh. i think it can work well in the other direction, but could be problematic going 'down' for classes. not sure.

Well, she's used to it and seems to enjoy it. It is tricky with SALT as they'll only occasionally go to the school. They don't have to because of it being private.

The other children in the class have learned their phonics and are now writing stories etc. It's quite scary to be honest. They might still do some, I'm not sure. Lucy does need a lot of help with this as she dosn't seem to be able to hear the difference between say a y or a l. She says y for l and can't hear a difference. I think she might have an auditory processing disorder but we won't know until she's at least 7. She also takes quite a long time to process what is being said to her.

Sorry mll if the school thinks the other children have learnt their phonics by the end of reception they really don't understand phonics. There are 150+ graphemes to teach and master before moving onto prefixes and suffixes and the effect they have on the way the phonemes are written. Phonics instruction should definitely continue to the end of Y2 and beyond

The school haven't said that, that's just what I presume as their reading and writing are so good.