Hello,
I hope some of you might be able to shed some light on what might be happening here.
My son’s IQ score went from 110 to 75. First test was the WPPSI - he was 6 1/2 - and the it was used because he was (and still is) speech language impaired. His performance IQ was 119 and his verbal was 106
The next test was at 9 1/2 was the WISC IV. I don’t have the Verbal/Performance breakdown - I was too stunned to ask - but the psych said that the performance had dropped (obviously).
BUT according to his achievement tests he reads 1 full grade AHEAD, and is only 6 months behind in math (last year he was a full year behind in math). So he has made progress this year.
He rec’s OT and speech/language therapy. He has known issues with auditory processing, fine motor and visual perceptual issues. He has low tone which bleeds into everything. He also fatigues quite easily. He has been in early interventiion since birth.
His resource room teacher does not agree with the IQ results - she says he would not be getting the achievement test scores he does. She says he doesn’t present like a 75 IQ. She has 25 years experience as a resource room teacher. Another psychologist thought that something must be wrong/ a different test should be given. The psych who gave the test said that we would see everything go downhill now - not his exact words, but in a nutshell. But he did say that my son’s attention and motivation on that day could have affected the testing.
He gets 100’s on his multiplication and spelling in class, but his teacher says that he does lose focus and will drift off when more complicated things are presented. But according to his achievement scores, he is learning something.
Maybe it is just that I don’t know what a 75 IQ looks like. I just feel like I had the wind knocked out of me.
Thank You
Please help - son's IQ dropped 35 points!
Chances are good that your son’s IQ did not drop as the test scores apparently show. At worst he did not lose ground but rather stayed where he is while the age-peer norms advanced. However I do agree that if he has processing problems using a test designed for neurologically typical people is probably as much to fault for the drop as anything else.
My boy is autistic. When he was a small fry and we were first going through the initial diagnosis, etc., he was tested using common instruments by two different professionals and got an IQ score ofmid 30’s. Based upon this, he was labeled MI by my LEA and dumped in a warehouse program with older kids with mixed problems.
We pressed the issue because the information we were reading on teh net from parents and adults On Spectrum led us to understand that my boy needed services specifically designed for autistic children. As part of this challenge to the LEA, we got another evaluation by a different independant professional, who duplicated the mid 30’s results with the common instrument, but then the Leiter-R, an instrument designed to be used specifically with non-verbal people was used, and suddenly his IQ was found to be high 70’s, just over the MR threshhold.
We next pushed our Ped to test my boy for metals, which had not been done previously (my boy was at this time 5). He was found to have elevated lead (and we later discovered other metals as well), and we began treating him with DMSA, a chelation agent which has a long, successful history of reducing body burden of metals. After just 3 rounds we had a followup evaluation and his IQ was found to be low 70’s using common instruments and mid 90’s using the Leiter R, a significant improvement. In truth, his IQ is actually a bit higher than that, and I often “jokingly” tell people that he is the smartest of the litter (I have four kids total).
I am not saying that your son is exactly like what we experienced with my boy, just that my experience illustrates how the testing process is at best imperfect, and that factors not directly related to your child’s actual level of intelligence can skew the numbers down. I strongly encourage you to have a test administered which is not reliant upon proper verbal language skills to see if there is a contrasting score which can help better show not only his place on the Bell Curve, but which can point to where the significan deficit is which is apparently holding him back.
Since you know he has some degree of APD, has he received any services designed to address that? AIT has shown good results with many people who have APD.
Good luck to you and please let us know how things turn out.
Because of his language deficits, you may want to request testing that takes that out. There are tests that look at non-verbal abilities, where your son seems to have his strengths. This may give a truer idea of what he is capable of.