Please help me to understand EP feedback for DS 6 MS

[petersham]

Hello, I'm feeling a bit confused re above. DS is 6 and in MS - had a cognitive assessment - EP said it was the Standard British (?) covering 6 or 7 areas - never really reached 5th centile in any of the categories. She said that she would test again next year as he was distracted/not engaging/ was recently st traumatic physical abuse by his father whom I am divorcing.

HOWEVER... he has been reading Enid Blyton type books since he was 5 and could talk about it for hours so comprehension is there. I know that he is a poor learner in a large class of 30 (dreamy, doodles, disinterested in social stuff) but school and EP have acknowledged that he writes in full sentences and learns well in smaller group, follows instructions etc. I support him a lot at home and I roughly know his level, strengths, weaknesses so it just doesn't make sense to me how he has emerged as being right down there.

Should I ask for a different type of test/different conditions (he is a child who needs hand-holding and guidance to get anywhere academically - the opp of an independent learner)? He doesn't get any 1-1 atm really but surely the results suggest that he would need it?

On the one hand, I know that the test may be meaningless if he was not engaging and I am satisfied that he is progressing from what I can see. However, it has knocked me for six and I now feel as though I was deluding myself into believing that he was progressing so well as surely progress is not just what you can demonstrate at home in a 1-1 situation, though should also be demonstrable at school as well? On the other, should he be entitled to more school support really and if so how much?

Did the school ask for EP involvement or did you?
If he wasn't engaging itprobablyis meaningless, but was his lack of engagement the reason why the test was asked for?

Most LEAs only automatically give 1:1 if you're in the bottom 1st percentile - not bottom 5th.

Not saying he doesn't need it - I don't know if he does or doesn't. Just saying those results won't mean he gets it automatically.

If he's reading well, it doesn't sound at all like he is in the bottom 5th percentile.

I have to say I would be asking what the classroom observations were like with him and how they might compare to his 1:1 testing that was done - if he seems to have problems engaging in the group setting too then alarm bells should be going here and you should be pushing for more help for him in class. Likewise, if you feel he does need help in class more than he gets too. Have you applied for statutory assessment/statement for him. This might be an idea if the school are not willing to deal with this the way you feel is appropriate to his issues. Take a look at IPSEA for advice on statmenting.

but was his lack of engagement the reason why the test was asked for? Yes, they asked for it

Well, he does not really participate much in discussions in class but will come home and tell me loads about topics and friendship groups. There was a time when I recognised that homed ed would be best for him but it is almost treated like a shameful idea in our area. Is there anywhere that I could find out more about the test? Ed Psych thinks that his father's behaviour has greatly influenced the results in her opinion.

She did other tests involving drawing/explaining and DS took her into his world involving all sorts of literary and historical figures; one I am very familiar with from the way he goes on about thesew things at home! It is as though he is hopeless on a practical level though wonderfully creative in equal measure. He enjoys school on the whole and has his favourite people etc. He is just in his own happy, little world a lot of the time.

I don't think he would have learnt anything were it not for my support at home. Infact, the reason why I stepped up the support was because sending him to school seemed pointless. Yet, they are obviously taking all the credit for that now and went so far as to say " well, people like yourself who never experienced any problems at school make the worst teachers'

The EP suggested art therapy sessions with an (untrained) memeber of staff once a week as well as the usual small, discussion groups, friendship groups. To be reviewed in Spring.

I just want to gain some idea as to where we could be heading. Is there an alternative test she could use which would allow more prompting? He is not a competent, independent learner but his current levels surely demonstrate that he is capable of learning. First centile sounds really grim - I wonder whether there are budgetary reasons why they would want the results to stay as they are. EP acknowledged that he writes in full sentences and has good word recognition but said he could only count to ten which is obv where he was at nursery level and seems to ignore the fact that he knows most of his times tables out of context and can weigh and measure etc as well as dealing with three digits, odds and evens etc rather competently IMO

He recd 10 hours 1-1 in the past but this year, there is suddenly no 1-1 on offer to anybody in the class and they are asking the senco to run classes for whole groups of children for part of the day instead

just to clarify it was the BAS test