PACE test results? What do they mean?

My take on the PACE assessment is that it is very helpful prior to PACE to determine whether processing issues are involved with academic difficulties. I personally found the results to be very accurate (in terms of biggest strengths and biggest weaknesses) when compared to extensive private testing. I think they are basically helpful post-PACE to determine whether improvement has been made in a particular area, but the real test of improvement is the day-to-day functioning of the child. I don’t put a whole lot of stock into the years above or below the actual age, but rather look at them as comparative strengths and weaknesses.

You are certainly right that the PG intensive could lead to strong results in the Word Attack. I would take that as your child “getting” the connection between letter/letter combinations and sounds and having the ability to blend them. The high level would just mean that the child knows not only the basic codes but also the advanced codes.That’s good!

And, just because your son scores high on word attack skills (I agree it’s probably because of the intensive PG), it doesn’t mean he’s able to apply those skills to reading. Processing problems can interfere with application of knowledge. For example, my dd was able to learn basic decoding skills easily with PG, but still had very dysfunctional reading fluency because of her inability to process visual information sequentially with accuracy and speed.

Mary

Hi Connie,
Thanks for sharing your experience. What confused me about the test results is that the provider told me my son doesn’t need PACE. I was thinking that his extremely high word attack skills (15 years) and Auditory Analysis (11 years) could have “brought up” his other scores (8 and 9 years). There were no low scores, so I have no answers. I don’t know why my son is the “lowest” reader in his class and could even be a “reading group” unto himself.

My biggest frustration is that every single year since my son has been a toddler there is always some teacher or professional telling me there’s something wrong and that I need to have him tested. Every year he gets some type of test and the test scores are always normal to high.

That might sound like a good thing, but where it leaves me is that if there’s something “wrong” (and soo many people have thought there is) I need to catch it now while he’s young. It’s really frustrating.

Maybe I should concentrate on those areas that are lowest, even though they are slightly above target with regard to age. Maybe that’s the answer.

Now this one is perplexing. Is it his oral reading that is so poor or is it comprehension? Have you looked into attention issues? One of my sons also tested very high on PACE, but he has attention issues that really reflect in his slow reading and poorer than average comprehension.

Hi Connie,
It is oral reading skills, or fluency. He reads very slowly and reading over a length of time is very difficult. But he is making improvment so that is good. Overall I can’t say there’s an attention issue, except with reading! When reading (especially difficult reading) he sqirms and moves a lot. Sometimes will “play games” like whisper the words, add his own endings, or say the opposite word (for example if it reads “slow” he’ll say “fast”).

When involved in a task he enjoys, he has exceptional concentration.

But just in case, how would one determine if the problem were an attention issue?

I’m no expert in this, but I’m kind of feeling my way right now. First of all, it sounds as if your son is really bright. I’ve seen the same kind of gaming behavior with two gifted kids with whom I’ve worked. As for the attention issues, I’d take a look at two books, “Driven to Distraction” and “Healing ADD.” They really helped me understand ADD and its various forms and headed me in the direction of having my son assessed. Your line, “His attention is exceptional when he’s doing something he is really interested in” is actually quoted in the book as one of the most commonly made remarks by parents of kids with ADD. As I said, I’m no expert, but you might want to check it out.

As a practical suggestion with the reading, you could have him read something he’s fairly comfortable with and have him read it to the beat of a metronome..at about 100 beats per minute. I’ve found that kids who had trouble learning to read have learned all kinds of bad habits in terms of fluency. The metronome teaches them to move it along instead of inserting the pauses.

I’ll try to take a look at those books. I’ve heard about Healing ADD and was told it was a great book. My son really doesn’t have too many of the characteristics that would indicate ADD, but I should probably do more research regardless.

Do you happen to know if there is an accurate test to determine ADD? Perhaps some type of neurological test?

I’m pretty certain my son is not gifted. His IQ is within the average range. Although he is very bright in certain areas (patterning, building, and games). For example. He devised a pretty clever reward system for his PG work (and he did this completely on his own! I didn’t even realize what it was until he explained it to me). He took the back of a paper and organized this system. For completing a particular amount of work (1 page or 1 exercise) he gets a star. For five stars he gets a “mark.” Each mark is worth one piece of candy and a total of 10 marks gets a toy (in place of the candy). Stars are organized at the top of the page and are crossed out when five are completed. Marks are located at the bottom of the page (4 marks with a strike through the center for each 5).

This reward system that he set up has really helped motivate him. Sometimes he asks to continue working so he can finish off a certain amount of stars.

Thanks for the suggestion about the metronome. I’ll have to pick one up. We used to have one, but it was quite old and stopped working about a year ago.

Hi Laura,
What I would do is celebrate! Your son may not need anything now, but to read. As he reads, he will become better at it. Have him read with inflection in his voice maybe that is something that he can work on, but all children could. I know that this will be hard to understand, but your child may not need anything else except to live as a normal kid. Now concerning the professionals, if they look hard enough at any of us, I would imagive that they would find something that we would be lacking cognitively. This is a real problem these days, particularly in light of the state tests. The state expects all children to be good at every subject and this has really affected not only the kids but parents, teachers and the special ed rolls. We expect our children to be excellent at everything. If they aren’t good at everything, they must be learning disabled in what they aren’t good at. You know, I have always thanked my lucky stars that they didn’t have labels when I was growing up, because I have always thought that I had math anxiety, and that is a disability. I wonder how low my self-esteem would have gone if I would have had a label. All I received was low grades in math, and I am forever thankful. Maybe the answer is to tell your son how well he is doing and relax. Don’t look for more problems. If he is in special ed, get him out of it. Don’t you wonder why no matter what, those who are in special ed never get out? They are still in it when they graduate, mostly with an IEP diploma or a modified one. Sorry for the soap box, just enjoy your son, don’t look for more problems. By the way, my “dyslexic” (reads her college books) daughter is on the Deans List at Kent State and she still can’t spell (2nd grade) and her grammar isn’t that great, but she is doing well and uses spell and grammar check and sometimes someone helps her edit her papers, but she is far from disabled. Again, congratulations to your son and you, enjoy! (This is meant to be a pep talk!)

Hi Shay,
Thanks for the pep talk! It is really nice to see my son start to read. I KNOW the high scores are due to PG and our intense work this last month. And although he needed more than phonics, I think the years of phonics did help too. When both my kids were young I taught them the letter sounds along with the alphabet. I took them to the library every week, read books daily pointing and sounding out words. I even stuck board books in their cribs!!! (I have an M.A. in English so good books and literacy is important to me). Yet it is interesting how that even in an environment rich with reading and literature, to my son reading made no sense. Earlier in the year when he was starting to fall behind, I remember pondering over just how to teach him. Looking at reading from his perspective, I could see how extremely difficult it is. So much doesn’t make sense. So, by the middle of the year it was as if my son was regressing. He was so confused he practically lost all reading ability.

This almost sounds like a commercial, but thanks to this board and all the knowlegable people here who have shared their experiences, I’ve learned how to help my son.

I’m extremely curious to see if his teacher and the teachers in the reading lab notice the difference. He is still “shakey” with his “new” reading skills, but I feel that if we continue to practice and work hard he is going to catch up and may even overtake many of his peers. I can’t even express how exciting this is!!! Gosh, it makes me want to help more kids! ;-)

We’re going to continue aiming for “the top.” I think it’s much easier than having to catch up. My son may always have to work a little harder, but hard work is good for building character so that’s more a positive!

Thanks again for all your help!!!
L