British Ability Scales ...what is it? would it help in detecting mild learning difficulties in an asd child?

[genieinabottle]

Hi,
me again with a question

Well basically EP is coming to see DS (4.11, asd) in his MS reception class in 2 weeks, for observations.

I'm not holding my breath about it, as EP was quick to make a decision last year that DS would not get a dx of ASD as his traits and needs were far too mild iho.

Fast forward to 4 months ago, DS was officially dx with austim and sp. and lang. disorder by Camhs team.

DS is supposedly on action+, but teacher doesn't seem to understand or see his difficulties and Senco is a chocolate teapot.
Apparently she has spoken to EP on the phone who has told her that DS 's SEN needs were always very mild anyway (grrr... and she hasn't seen him for a year!)

So i'm already expecting that nothing much will come out of the 30 minutes she has booked in to observe DS.
No assessement of any sort have been mentioned.

I'm wondering how i could go about it for getting DS assessed by EP as opposed to doing a simple observation which may not flag up much as DS is very much on the passive side.
Would this test (the BAS) be any good for flaging up DS' s difficulties with learning?

Thanks.

yes. It's a good test. However, the EP won't like to do it. They never like baseline assessments because it makes everyone more accountable.

Still, put it in writing so the EP has to write back with a very good reason as to why not.

Also ask for the Vineland.

And GARS.

Thanks Star.

We've had the GARS done last year by Bibic, and as DS already has his DX, i expect she'll defo going to no to that one.

But i'll ask in writing about the others. Do i have to write to her directly?

Sorry i just don't know much about all this.
Thanks.

What good reasons could i give on the letter as to why i would like these tests?

Obviously i know why i want them, it's for the reasons i mentioned in my OP. But i can't give her that sort of arguments can i?

Because you would like to know his level of cognitive function and his strengths and weaknesses.

We had these tests but then the results were reported without analysis really so I don't see how far they got anyone.

My son had this, with 2 different EPs. (One showed major problems with expressive language and one with receptive, with the other category v.high each time - the EP who said his expressive was the low score clearly didn't check which score was being written down for each category) I thought it was a good test in terms of being IQ-y but also practical.

There are different elements to it. DS was certainly not tested for language problems.

He was tested for:

Word definitions/Matrices/Verbal Similarities/Speed of Information Procvessing/Recall of Digits forward and back.

The results were reported together with an indication of whether they were 'average' etc. There was then an assessment of how they fitted with current attainment.

There was no attempt to analyse how they difficult areas would impact on future performance e.g. he scored very poorly for working memory.

I also thought some of the test results were questionable e.g. verbal similarities 90%??? He really struggled (despite prompts) to process the verbal information and link it togetehr. I even remarked upon this to the EP. How he got 90% is beyond me!! Although, I don't know what it is supposed to signify?