ER- low perceptual reasoning

[cillian]

Hi- I am new here and I have just been given my 7 year old's ER.

His Perceptual reasoning in the Wisc is 75. His other scores float around the average range with his processing speed at high average.

He has been pulled to work individually with a SPED teacher all year at my rquest even thouogh he was not identified. He has benefited from this and grasps concept and reading better in small groups.

So I have a few qs- what should I ask for at this meeting?
How can I improve/compensate for his perceptual reasoning?

[healthy11]

Welcome, cillian! First thing I'd like to ask is whether your son has any coordination difficulties, and if he's had a thorough vision evaluation, not just a screening. Sometimes, perceptual reasoning problems are more a result of eyes not tracking well or focusing together, and you want to find out if there's a physical difficulty that needs to be addressed that might have impacted your son's scores. (For example, a child may score low in block design because he has language limitations and doesn't understand the instructions given him as to what he's supposed to do, or he might score low because he can't see the design he's supposed to replicate clearly, or he might have a motor-impairment where he can't manipulate the blocks properly, or he might really have a perceptual processing problem and can't figure out what to make of it.)

I know it's sometimes difficult to navigate a new site, but if there is a way for you to type out your son's evaluation results in more detail (listing all the tests and the subtest scores) it would be much more helpful. (You might try doing it in a word doc, and then copy/pasting here.) Often, it's not just the overall score, but the spread between individual scores that can be revealing as well... What other tests did the school administer? I would hope they did achievement testing, as a minimum, in addition to the IQ testing... Also, what areas do you see him having problems in at school? You mention that he does better in small group reading, but how are his math and spelling and writing skills? Does he have siblings/friends in the neighborhood, and how does he get along with them? The more you can share with us, the more we can try to give you specific advice to help.

[jdeekdee]

If he's not identified and doesn't have an IEP plan, the sped teacher can stop this help at anytime. And, it might not be done next year.

[michellea]

Hi cillian and welcome!
I second what Healthy has suggested - if you could give us more background information about how he does in school. socially and in other areas along with more info about his test scores, we may be able to give you more help. At the very least, we will probably be able to give you questions that you should ask at your meeting.

As jdeekdee says, while it is good that he is getting help from a sped teacher this year, the school could pull this help at any time unless he has an IEP (individualized education program) that spells out his services. For this reason, it is important that you feel prepared for the meeting so that you can advocate and help the team find him eligible for special ed.

Was he given an OT evaluation? Often times kids with lower perceptual reasoning often have visual spatial difficulties that make handwriting, co-ordination and visual processing difficult. How was he with his gross and fine motor milestones? Is he able to ride a bike, swim, hit a baseball?

[cillian]

Thanks everyone- a little clarity.
I had him tested privately in a teaching school (cheaper) because I felt strongly there were issues. They administered DAS II, WJ-III, KTEA-II, QRI-IV, PAL-II and Basc. I had some concerns about his performance at this testing- it was a male student and my son is not very easily engaged with men- the guy was a little strange to boot!
The district had this initial report and did follow up testing- the WISC-IV, WIAT-II,

In the school district's eval Verbal Comprehension: 99
Perc Reasoning: 75 (- on Similarities: 10
Block design: 3
Voca: 11
Picture Concepts: 9
Comprehension: 9
Digit Span: 7
Coding: 17
Letter-number Seq.
Symbol Search: 9
Matrix reasoning;6
(so a big drop for abstract reasoning over concrete visual )

Working Mem- 91
Processing Speed: 118
Full scale IQ- 92

They also did the Beery Buktenica test and yielded a 76-81.

In the prior eval his working Mem was 129!
The psychologist specifically noted that she feels his full IQ is not indicative of his potential but feels his Perceptual issues are very real.

In K. he had issues with letter recognition, colors, sequencing (days of week etc). Most of that has dissipiated and now he has issues with putting his thoughts on a page in an organised way, his spelling/ writing is awful and he is probably about 6 months "behind " in his reading.
Also history of dyslexia in my family.

I hope this clarifies. I have had his eyes tested but not as thoroughly as you suggest. In retrospect I feel he had sensory integration issues as a child that I overlooked.....

[healthy11]

I do think a comprehensive vision evaluation by a developmental optometrist would be wise to schedule.
Can you double-check your son's WISC scores (especially coding & letter-number sequencing) and also let us know what his WIAT scores were. (I gather you don't trust any of his testing by the male at the teaching school, otherwise it would be good to see those results, too....) Has anyone ever done testing like the CTOPP (Children's Test of Phonological Processing)?

[cillian]

Hi everyone- we have not done a full vision screening - just a regular one.
My son does gymnastics but has no real interest in sports. He rides a bike with satabilisers but seems no more klutzy than my other two. He is the eldest - has a competitive love/hate relationship with his 4yo brother and seems to love his 1yo sister pretty unconditionally.He does not swim but that is because he has fear of water. He is pretty social but is more friendly with girls and all things girl(but that is for another thread...). Some shyness but I think he is pretty popular.
His writing is getting better but was pretty illegible until recently. He has issues with spacing his words and often mispells words. He has issues organising his thoughts. He is incredibly creative in his play and does not especially like computer games- am thinking this may help with his PR though.

His cognitive and academic testing indicates that he is all over the map and that some scores may not be truly indicative of his abilities- he is quirky and can turn on and off on a dime!

Subtest scores clarification:
Letter-Number Seq.- 10
Coding- 17

They also preformed the Berry-Buktenica Dev. test
This yielded a standard score of 76--81.

Wiat II
Early reading skills- 91
Reading Comp- 76
Math PS- 76
Alpha Fluency- 112 (he scored Below average on this in other testing!)
Sentence Comp- 72
Word Reading- 78
Pseudoword decoding- 71
Numerical Operations- 75
Oral exp- 85
Spelling-86


IN the Woodcock his decodinig skills lags behind his reading skills.

Letter ID- 98
Word ID- 102
Word Attack- 80
Word Comprehension- 95
Passage Comp- 106


His reading Comp in KTEA-IIwas 83 but was 106 in Woodcock.