Dyslexia, dyscalculia etc and poss APD - do EP WISC assessments change over time?

[KOKOagainandagain]

My DS was seen by the CPOC Vision Training clinic in 2008 (age 7) and had various problems (auditory processing, ocular-motor functions, hand-eye sequencing, retained reflexes etc). At school his attainment was above average (2b, 2a and 3 in Yr 2 SATs) but he did not work at all independently - blends into the wallpaper rather than disruptive. He was seen by the LEA Ed Psych in 2009 using WISC-IV who had no concerns about cognitive functioning - all but one of the subtests scored between the 50th and the 93rd percentiles, only the digit span was low but when combined with the symbol search score which was on the 50th percentile, overall working memory was on the 27th percentile.

I will skip the many battles over the last four years to private assessment by an independent EP in September 2011,using the WISC III, in which 5 of the subtests (both verbal and performance) were between the 5th and the 8th percentiles and he was diagnosed with three SpLD - dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia and possible inattentive ADHD (although Conners screeing tests sent by the Comm Paed were negative). He has been referred to the APD clinic at GOSH. At school he is still unable to work independently - doesn't even write the title and date without prompting and is unable to work at all on some tasks (eg writing an advert) without full and continual 1:1 support. On teacher assessment he is still working at level 3 - learning gaps have developed and increased year on year. In recent SATs tests he has scored less than level 2 (0% - 12%).

He was assessed again by an LEA EP in July 2011 but she carried out Nelson Insight assessment as the situation at school had led to a transfer of primary schools on medical grounds (school phobia) and the development of numerous tics (blinking, coughing, snorting, sniffing, facial grimaces etc). Whilst this is useful in collecting data on the damage caused to children by educational failure (!) we expected that she would repeat the WISC-IV carried out 3 years earlier. She said that the assessments remain the same over time. She also said that DS was not dyslexic as he could 'read and write' and appears to have reversed the findings of the Comm Paed so I am questioning the reliability of what she said. Can anybody help? Perhaps Dolfrog?

I was told that the WISC IV would stay the same as well I think. But I don't trust our LA EP so don't know if that is correct.

I think that you need to apply for a statement - based on the recent SATS scores and his difficulties in so many areas.

Post this onto Special Needs Children and you'll get lots more replies.

In terms of actual help with is difficulties do you live in the South east? I can recommend a fantastic therapist who offers INPP and brushing treatment but not at INPP costs!!! (Although he is fully INPP trained).

Hi. My daughter was diagnosed with APD at GOSH a few years ago when she was 8. She has dyslexia and a language disorder. I like Tony Sirimanna very much and he was great to diagnose the issue, but my problem with the entire process is once diagnosed there is nothing offered to mitigate or correct the issue for the child. So for example, they offer headsets, but our EP felt it would make our daughter "tune out" as she would hear a lot of communication directly in her ear not related to her (for example, if the teacher answered a child's question, etc. or reprimanded someone) and would tune out eventually. Our EP felt the headsets might work when our daughter was older and classes are more formal, but not when young.

GOSH suggests FastForward, but a meta-analysis done by the University of York indicates most of the studies used to promote FastForward are not valid and the ones that are show no improvement. See as follows: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02329.x/full

Fastforword is incredibly expensive and requires a lot of time each day. Our headmistress told me she did want our daughter doing it as plunking a child in front of a screen is intuitively not the best idea for children with this challenge. I feel Fastforword is a money-making enterprise more than anything. And I think if they market in the UK it should be in British English not American English...these children struggle enough without having to navigate a completely different way of speaking on top of it.

So although I am grateful to know that our daughter has APD, as I believe you cannot defeat a problem you cannot define, it did not provide any solutions for addressing her needs. I took a step back and realised...what matters here?Reading first. Writing second. Maths third. So I found a brilliant tutor for her who is focussing on reading, writing and maths...her teacher speaks very clearly to her and compartmentalises her work. She is making great progress this way - it's old fashioned, it's not a magic bullet but it's tried and tested and it's working in our case. It's so easy to get blinded by science, and think that once you know your child's issue the experts will have the means to solve it, but we didn't find that. What we did find was a means of slowly but surely making things right for her, and that was down to the school, her teacher and head, a tutor and my husband and I, not GOSH or a technology programme. They can diagnose the issue, but not the means of turning it around, which is disappointing.

I don't know about APD, but ds1 recently had WISC iv assessment by private ed psych. She also said that you would not expect the scores to change significantly over time, and that the test itself if pretty bombproof, which was echoed by the SENCO at his school.

My youngest son had 2 private ed psych assessments (WISC) with 2 years in between. His IQ went up 19 points in those 2 years.
Changes up or down (or no-change) in IQ depend on whether effective (evidence-based) action is taken by the school or parent to remedy any deficiencies.

Usually stays the same, but can change a bit through random variation (which is why there are 'confidence intervals' either side of the reported IQ.

Obviously it can truly change if the child's abilities change. Imagine a severe head injury, or a child who'd been unable to understand how to do the subtests, or one who had been effectively treated for a specific impairment.

Also affected by attention, motivation, concentration, mood etc
Which is obvious if you imagine trying to score well on an IQ test when drunk, unwell or sleep deprived.

My DSs IQ scores have moved upwards continually. In primary he was scoring average -the lower end of normal (IQ AVERAGE 92), 7 years on he is above average (3/4 yrs above average on all subtests apart from 1 verbal one). These tests vary depending on the IQ tests used. WISC/BRITISH ABILTY SCALES.
He has done 2 CATS tests in secondary and these have also leapt upwards from end yr 6 to yr 9. Now his Non verbal reasoning scores on the 97th percentile and maths 90th percentile. Verbal test remains stubbornly within the average on the 48th percentile. He is dyslexic and seems to be a late bloomer.
I would go with your own instinct, I have always been very sceptical of the IQ tests,
Ed Psych seem to interpret them differently , some average all subscores others refuse to average and look at the sub score scatter. On the BAS the Ed Psych left out the processing speed test (didn't retest it)as we already now this to be his weakness, so it didn't drag down his overall score iyswim. All very confusing.
Of course in primary he was labelled by these scores, which meant he was dumped on Low ability table and left to feel the dumbest in the class.

My DS seems to be drawing on his visual-spatial skills these days and can memorise things as pictures, a compensatory mechanisms which has turned into his strength. He does very nicely in Secondary school who have realised his skills.