Ed pysch visit at 2pm...pls help me decipher this report

[Ben10WasTheSpawnNowWeLoveLego]

DS was assessed at 6.1 years using the BAS II. He has dyspraxia and suspected Asperger's Syndrome.

The EP says that the general conceptual ability was 110-123, the verbal cluster 116-132 and the Non verbal cluster 112-129. He says that they are above average but are they just a bit above, a lot above etc?

I'm trying to figure out really what he should be able to achieve with the right support IYSWIM. That was the whole reason for me asking for the EP visit but he seemed to think that we were banging on about getting him a statement. We weren't (will do in a couple of years though

The scores were

Word definitions T score 65 Percentile 93
pattern construction 38 12
matrices 58 79
verbal similarities 66 95
quantitive reasoning 67 96
recall of digits forward 44 27
recall of digits backwards 55 69

Word reading standard score 125 percentile rank 95

Thank you. I really should have looked at this in more detail earlier. The man is so infuriating and has written in the report that DS is our only child and inferring that we are trying to find something wrong with him that isn't there . I obvsiouly don't - who would?

Okay, the percentile readings are the most interesting. Anything above 75% is above average, anything below 25% is below average. This seems on that basis to be a very spikey profile.
I would be asking questions about the low score on pattern construction, "hat difficulties can this lead to?" "How should we try to compensate?" and so on. He also seems to have quite good language skills, so you could ask about this, and how these could be used to compensate for his other difficulties.
I would also push for a statement now if there is a chance he could get one, as it does come with more money.
He is also probably being cautious as lots of people do seem to want to discover their child is a genius (as if to make up for their other SEN).

Thank you Mummytime. The EP has said that Ds lost interest during the pattern construction but was able to do it later but due to the testing rules, he wasn't able to score it.

So I need to query the spikey profile...

I can't get past the horrible man who it feels as if I am some sort of Munchausens by proxy mother......

His end of year scores were writing 1B, reading 1A and maths 1A so above average but I don't know whether they are what he should be achieving with his percentile scores. He says that they are broadly in line with what should be achieved.

Well the scores are definitely above average, but then you knew that. If it helps, a score of 118+, if achieved on 11+, would probably mean that you would pass the grammar school exams in Trafford (near me) although you would not necessarily get a grammar school place as this depends on other factors such as local postcodes and distance from school, numbers applying etc.

It's not an exact comparison of course but I used it as it might give you an overall feel!

IMO the scores you quote would be for a very bright ( but not super bright !) child. The percentile scores show what % of children of his age would be below that score. So a 95 percentile score means he is scoring above 94% of children his age in that area of assessment. Mummytime is right though in pointing out the spiky profile. You need to be finding out how to support the problem areas (could maybe be auditory procession or short term memory difficulties?) so that he achieves his best. I'd also ask what the EP thinks the reason could be for such a big discrepancy in the digits forwards and backwards score

I think digits forward tests auditory memory, and digits backwards tests working memory.

So I think they are saying he has a lowish auditory memory (but not low enough to be worrying)

I also think that these scores are a bell curve, with 100 being the middle and a standard deviation of 10.

Ie average is 90 - 110.

So a score above 110 puts him in the top 15% of the population.

And a score of above 120 puts him in the top 2% of the population.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_deviation

I agree Indigo - that's how I understand it too. (Just couldn't remember what the relevant % were!!)

Just having checked, I think each standard deviation is 15, so that would give a score of 115 to be in top 15% of population and 130 to be in top 5%.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient

Did you mean the DAS 11, Ie the differential ability scales.

An interesting articles here, which suggest children on the spectrum often have a spikey profile.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1201493/

General info on the DAS 11

alpha.fdu.edu/psychology/DAS.html

Thank you ladies.

I guess my main concern as I know that it is for most people is that my child achieves his potential. I don't care about going to Grammar school (the expectation would be too much for him) or Oxford. I just want him to achieve what he should despite any other problems that he might have.

So I need to talk about:
Spiky profile
Discrepancy between digits forwards and backwards

Anyone want to say whether they feel that his end of year scores what would be expected for him? I hated last years teacher as she was very unsupportive of me so I'm not surprised by some of the comments in the report where it says that the parents and the school don't agree on the level of DS's needs.

Like I said - digits forward tests auditory memory, and digits backwards tests working memory.

So there is no problem with there being a discrepancy. No reason for them to be the same (that's why there are two tests).

All you need to ask is what they will do to support his poor auditory memory.

And I agree with EvilClown - all kids with his dx will have a spiky profile.

Just concentrate on understanding what his weaknesses are, and what you and school can do to help with those weaknesses.

I think 1bs and 1as for the end of Y1 for a kid with his dx is reasonable.

Yes if he had the same IQ without the dx he might be doing slightly better. But he's doing pretty bloody well. And he does have problems in the classroom.

As you and school get better at managing his dyspraxia and ASD he will do better in the classroom environment, and get better test results. But it takes a long time to sort all this out.

Which doesn't mean I have low expectations for your child :)

I fully expect him to leave Y6 working to his potential.

But there's going to be a lot of hard work between now and then for that to happen.......

I know Indigo :)

I have lost all faith with this EP so I needed to get some sensible viewpoints as I feel that I have lost the ability to be rational with him.

Now to work on getting him a friend...

When I had ds tested I was told by the ed psych that the higher the IQ the more spikey the profile is likely to be.

Looking at his scores, it isn't that spikey, all his scores except for two are above average with two being below. It might be that the pattern consruction was the first subtest administered and he was slow to warm up which may account for the relatively low score.

the higher the IQ the more spikey the profile is likely to be. - do you know if that is for kids with ASD? Or for all kids?

All kids, but I have heard that ASD kids often have certain subtests that are higher/lower.

IIRC these are block design(high) and comprehension(low)

This is from the link above

The lowest mean score was for Word Definitions, which was significantly lower than the mean score for Similarities, Matrices, and Pattern Construction. As compared to the DAS normative sample, individuals in this sample were significantly more likely to have a discrepantly high score on Pattern Construction

Thank you all. Meeting had, I made my point that I felt that he was saying that we wanted there to be something wrong, he apologised :) I'm happy with his progress and what they are doing for him. Can't ask for more at the moment so lets hope it continues like that :)