British ability test scores

[Lmt760]

DS recently had an Ed pshyc observe him at school and as such undertook some of the British ability tests. His results are back and show below average and low scores. What do I do with this info tho?! Obviously they sound bad but how bad does it have to be before I can ask for extra support in his learning? Any suggestions or help much appreciated, I have a meeting with his senco next week and want to attend it fully prepared! Thanks 🙏

What were the scores? There should be centiles and standard scores.

Yes it’s out of 100 and he scored 16, 12, 24 (all below average) and 4 (low) plus one average score of 38. They only did 5 tests. Obviously the scores aren’t very good and I think he needs extra support but at the moment he doesn’t have any learning difficulties diagnosed as such (he is on the autism assessment pathway) so not sure what support I can push for?

Hi, it's not out of 100 - he will have got standard scores (which are like an IQ i.e. 100 is average) and centile scores (like the lines on the baby growth charts i.e. 5th centile means 95% of children are taller and 95th means 95% are shorter).
If those are centile scores, they are indeed below average but not a cause for concern - except for the 4.
If they are standard scores that seems a bit unlikely!

Ok I’m confused, it’s my understanding they take 100 children all within a months age difference to my son eg they are all about 5yrs 8months old and the score represents the percentile out of those 100 children. So in a test 96 of his peers did better than him? (For the 4 result) I’m concerned about the other scores too as he’s underachieving for want of a better expression....I just want to make sure I’m pushing to get him any extra support he needs. 😞 If most of his results are below average doesn’t that mean I should be trying to help him reach ‘average’ instead? I don’t want or need him to be a genius but I’m worried if I don’t try and help him now then the gap between him and his peers will broaden and he will always feel like he’s under achieving (he already says things like “I can’t do it as well as (name of friends)” his Ed pshyc report has commented on his low self esteem at school and I’m worried it will grow? I try and remain positive with him and support his learning as much as poss, is it just me worrying? 😕

Yes that's right, so it's not "out of" 100 i.e. 4 doesn't mean you got 4 questions right out of 100 questions.

A score in the middle (e.g. 15-85 or so) is honestly neither here nor there in that you can waver around the middle a lot and it doesn't mean there's something wrong; it's only really low centiles that suggest an actual problem.
So if you have say a centile score of 20, then out of 5 children, 4 can do it better and 1 can do it worse; so a child might be lucky and have that 1 as their friend (and the child is better than the friend) or unlucky and have 1 of the other 4.
And children can have low self esteem around things that they are actually quite good at, too.