Bush Infant Check (Test)

[lljkk]

I got an IEP for DS2 today, and it mentioned he scored 39/60 on the Bush Infant Test. I have tried to figure out how average that makes him (or not, perhaps?!).

Did anyone else get this test for their DC, would you like to share what the score was, or do you know where I can read more info about what the results are supposed to mean?

TIA.

I think you may mean the Bury Infant Check which is a check children commonly have in reception.In our LEA we have to administer it. Schools often offer extra support if a child scores lower than 47. It checks things like counting, memory, language, concentration, copying shapes (sorry, can't think of technical word for this). It's not definitive but can be a good indicator of children who are likely to need an eye kept on them, although it's not too reliable as it doesn't really take in to account the difference in children's ages. If your child is in reception it is good that the school have identified he needs some help this early on and are doing something to help your DS.
HTH

Can you clarify - is this test only done for children with an IEP?

Oops, Sara---h, I did type that wrong, you are right!!

I have the impression the BIC is done for all reception children at our school. AAack! So 39/60 is worse than I thought (boohoo). He has a speech problem, but I thought he was doing fine in other respects (boohoo).

OK - don't panic!Children hardly ever get 60 by the way - most of my top scores have been 55. His speech would account for some scores being dropped as this does make up some of the points. (Don't have it to hand so can't remember exactly how many.) However, although this 39 isn't a high score it doesn't mean he's doomed forever! FWIW many of my class this year have a "low" score but I know there'll be fine longer term. Many are just young for their year and / or immature. Many children have some level of special need at some point in their school lives. Doesn't mean he will have or need an IEP for ever. What is on his IEP? I think the school seem on the ball to have given an IEP this early. That's good - although it may be useful if you get them to explain the areas he struggled with on the BIC? Or perhaps they are highlighted on his IEP?

HI Sara....h -- thanks so much for replying.

Almost all that's on his IEP are my notes from an informal meeting he had with a speech therapist (she was giving her opinion about whether to get him referred, and the formal appointment will take months to come thru). Logically I know he seems to know as much (letters and numbers) if not more than his older siblings did when they started school (and they are doing well now, years later). DD even had similar speech problems, but she was oldest in her year unlike DS who is one of the youngest so just the ordinary classwork on phonics sorted her speech out.

There's pretty nothing else on his IEP except the speech-related work, so that's good, I guess.

No problem Well, phonics work often does really help with speech. So that's a good thing - helps even with children with significant speech disorders in my experience. If the only thing that is on his IEP is speech related I think I would probably ask what else he had low scores in. I don't think the speech ones would account for all the score. Also significant is when they carried out the BIC - I haven't actually entered scores for all areas yet as I don't feel I know them well enough to judge. (Some are about attention span and attitudes to learning.) If your DS is young for the year I would expect him to score lower than older children.

Try not to worry too much. I often say two things to parents of children in my class who are worried about IEPs.

1. It's a bit like when they were tiny. Children of same age aren't developmentally the same. My 6 month old DD is crawling - her little friend who is only 3 weeks younger isn't mobile at all, but you wouldn't say my friend's DS is behind and won't get there would you?
2. In 10 years time you won't remember this at all and it will seem much less significant. Seems to help keep it all in perspective!

Good luck to your DS and hope he is enjoying school. That's the most important thing after all.

Ta again. Do you know where online is the list of points they checklist? If I looked at the questionaire, I could probably figure out pretty quickly where else he scored low.

He hated school for the first 2 weeks or so, was acting up in all sorts of ways, so maybe that could be another reason why BIC score was on low side?.