LUCID testing - which one checks processing?

[tpmumtobe]

DS12 is in Year 8. He was diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia in Year 4 (age 9) and is also currently being assessed for dyscalculia.

His original diagnoses indicated he would need up to 25% extra time in exams due to his processing speeds, which are very slow. School said he'll need to undergo their own tests to determine whether he qualifies or not and that they tend not to do them before Year 9 because of limited resources (they're a very SEN heavy school).

In the meantime though, his English teacher raised concerns about his writing speeds, so they've just done a 'LUCID Exact' assessment for him to see if he would benefit from a laptop. It showed his writing and typing speeds are both the same (just about average) so a) he doesn't need a laptop right now and b) his speeds aren't slow enough to qualify for extra time. Though his writing speeds fall off a cliff after 15 minutes so I'm not sure if they take that into account...

Problem is, they seem to be suggesting that this means he won't get extra time, end of. But my basic understanding of these Lucid tests is that writing speed one is just one element of it, and there are other Lucid tests he can do which should show processing issues more accurately. The WISCII type tests that he did in his other assessments don't match this Lucid Exact bank of tests, for example.

Am I right? Can anyone help me pin down what tests he needs to do? If he genuinely doesn't meet the thresholds then fair enough, they've said they can build in other stuff like rest breaks, to help with the tiredness (from the dyspraxia) and anxiety which is great. But if he does need extra time I want to make sure he gets it and gets used to using it before we hit Year 10.

If it helps with context, he's been placed in top sets and has stayed there despite consistently underperforming in his assessments so they obviously recognise his ability and can see that he can't demonstrate it on paper for whatever reason.

Thanks you!

You can read the access arrangement guidance here. You are right about speed of writing being just one element. Rather than focus on the specific tests, because there are different ones testing different things, I would focus on asking for DS’s reading and areas cognitive processing to be assessed. Some access arrangements require any formal assessments to be undertaken after the start of Y9 so the school may be reluctant but they could informally give extra time, perhaps changing pen colour, prior to then.

Thank you. I've got no issue with them waiting until Year 9 for the wider tests, but they've said for now there's no evidence for extra time based on just his writing speed and I think they're missing a trick.

The guidelines say he needs to have 2 SS scores of <84 (or 1 <84 and 1<89) related to speed of working, so I'm just trying to figure out which scores in which tests are considered as 'speed of working' scores...

If you look at 7.5.12 it lists the different areas of cognitive processing that count alongside speed of writing and speed of reading. There’s lots of different tests that test the different types of cognitive processing so rather than mention specific ones I would mention the area(s) of cognitive processing because you won’t know what ones the school have access to.

@JustKeepBuilding Thank you, that's exactly the bit I was hunting for. I feel armed with the right info now at least. Appreciate the help, thanks!