Difficulty at school- low RAVENS score

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My dd7 was finally assessed by the school (on the last day of the school year) and has shown a significantly low RAVENS score of just 5% and low score in phonological production speed and fluency, although she has good phonological awareness. Does this mean it’s likely she has dyslexic? She has been so down about school for the past 2 years and often doesn’t want to go in. The school have put her in a smaller group for maths to try and give her more help but this has caused more anxiety and whilst the rest of her class are in comprehension groups, she is still in phonics groups, which only consisted of children from the year below. Throughout the year, I’ve had meeting with the school and they assured me ‘she would get there’ and they didn’t think there was a learning difficulty but did finally agree to do an assessment and suggested private tutoring with her class teacher, which we have been doing. Senco phoned me last week after the assessment and said she will be more supported next year. I’m just wondering if anyone has any experience with children with low RAVENS score and what it actually means?

Ravens is a non-language based IQ test. It is usually done when reading/language is a factor to get an idea of IQ and reasoning. She is currently in the bottom 5% of children of the same age doing the same test. In our school (Ireland) with this score she would not then have been moved on for Ed Psych assessment as it was thought that phonic/reading/writing issues combined with high IQ were the markers for dyslexia but that has now changed and we are now allowed to put these children forward. It could be dyslexia or it could be a more global difficulty. Either way, follow it up and make sure assessment and support are ongoing.

She is still very young though so she may start to progress. How is her language and what is your view on her ability level based on everyday life?

It’s an IQ test. It doesn’t use words so in theory is more appropriate for children and people who may struggle with English.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven%27s_Progressive_Matrices

it means she (currently) is scoring low on IQ.

IQ doesn’t always link with how well someone is doing in school. If you are in the U.K. then she should have done the phonics test in year 1 which will have given you an idea as to how she is doing on phonics.

if she failed then she should have been given extra support in year 2 and sat it again. So you should be able to tell from that how her reading is going.

infants/ks1 in the U.K. is largely about phonics and maths.

if she needs extra support in these areas then little and often is best - ideally daily reading (her reading to you) with phonics reinforcement plus daily maths practice.

Thank you so much for your replies. We are in the UK and she did pass the phonics screaming last year despite her teacher telling us she wouldn’t. However, the rest of the class have now been moved into comprehension groups and she is still in phonics groups with students from the year below, as she is having problems with fluency. Shes a very kind and sensitive child, and comes across as mature and responsible but obviously struggles academically. Her writing is not great and neither is her spelling and seems to struggle with fine motor activity like drawing etc.
maths is where we see her biggest area of weakness as she just doesn’t understand it yet or will just forget how to do something the next day. We read daily together and 15mins of maths before school in the mornings, so it’s definitely not that we’re not trying to help at home and I’m just worried the gap between her and her peers will significantly widen in year 3 as I’ve heard it’s a big step up.

How is she with everyday practical numbers at home? Do you think my suggestion of a potential overall delay sounds right? It's important that she's given the support she needs and plenty of stimulation at home. Be careful though not to put her off reading, as so often happens, (not suggesting you are).
There's lots I can think of that I'd do myself, which you and her school may already be doing. Feel free to PM.

If she’s passed the phonics check then that’s a really good sign.

usually the first bit of advice given to parents if their child is struggling at school is to check eyes and hearing - problems can develop with either and any problem makes learning much harder.

so maybe get an eye test and a hearing test.

after that, if she’s passed the phonics test then I’d be focusing on the maths. At this age there are a lot of ways to hide extra maths practice into things - you can get board games like shut the box or junior monopoly that help with adding and subtracting. You can start giving her pocket money and doing a lot of role play with shops (or actually going shopping at charity shops/pocket money shops and similar).

generally embedding it into everyday life is often very successful.

you can also buy lots of shapes toys and numicon and tens and units to have at home just to play with. It is quite expensive (although you can often get second hand from eBay or similar) and it just increases familiarity with them.

https://amzn.eu/d/dWKfgNv

hundreds tens and units blocks

https://amzn.eu/d/6ucoFaU
numicon

https://amzn.eu/d/gN2m2wZ
multilink

Omg this was me!! Never did get math bit passed. Still cant spell. Fine motor got better. Im 41 and most people cant tell ( well other than i cant spell)
One thing that helped w fine motor was getting that thicker putty and having to dig out little pegs and such

@mikado1It could be an overall delay, I will definitely do my research on it. I appreciate any advice or tips given, thank you so much for the offer.
We are conscious of doing practical life maths with her at home but there just seems to be very little improvement. Her homework a few weeks ago was a worksheet on telling the time which she was able to complete with help but by the next day she had forgotten everything and goes blank when asked what the time is. It’s the same with money- after years of teaching her what the coins are she still doesn’t recognise them individually.

@Octavia64 Thank you so much for your msg and tips. It’s interesting that you mentioned sight and hearing being a problem because she failed the school hearing test that they had in reception so had to retake it a couple of months later and failed it again. She was then referred to audiology and passed their hearing test and they weren’t concerned, however the person who assessed dd last week did say she it’s seemed she couldn’t hear at times or misheard her so advised to get a hearing test. I’ve booked an appointment with the GP about this for next week.

@Kathy34So encouraging to read your msg. Glad everything turned out ok for you. That’s a very good idea, thanks for the advice.

With money could you get her to close her eyes. So 10p largish circle etc.
In terms of maths can she write down the process.

Did she do the y2 sats that are voluntary now?
If not have a look at the past papers to see how much she could do.
I found with my kids young in the year that the way maths is taught in y2 is tricky because instead of column addition its jumping etc. Which can be harder as different each time perhaps.

Cgp workbooks are very good practice. Personally i think many kids would benefit from more flitting between topics than what schools do several weeks on a topic. Which they then forget for a year..
So i would be having mini tests/revisiting much more frequently. As you dont want them to forget things that are hard to learn.

Telling the time can be particularly tricky as its 5 times table however obviously once past 30 it then goes to minutes to. 55 mins past etc would make more sense

I would definitely go for a full dyslexic assessment when she is old enough. In the UK this has now been moved to age 8 minimum for a full assessment. We have just had ours and got a diagnosis after her struggling for 4 school years. It is a long assessment at 4 hours limg but some assessors will do it over 2 sessions.

The full assessment will included a full IQ test.

Have the school done a specific dyslexia screening? They aren't always reliable but sometimes can give an indication.

@BelugaWh That’s a good idea, will give it a go with her. No, her school didn’t do Sats but I will look over some past papers with her. Good idea.

@LuckysDadsHatShe hasn’t had a specific dyslexia screening test yet but I will push for it. Think im going to look into an EP as from I’ve read, they will test for everything. Thank you so much for your msg.