Hello! Since this forum was revamped, I have had numerous problems trying to access it. I currently cannot respond to a thread. All I get is a blank page, so I am responding to your thread by starting my own addressed to you. Argh! Will someone please fix this website :)?
O.K. I take it by what you wrote that this IQ test is part of a three-year reevaluation? Are they saying your child no longer qualifies for services because there is not a severe discrepancy between IQ and achievement? If that is where you are, I would demand an IEE. This significant of a drop in IQ (35 points in FSIQ!!!), when a child is in a Special Educaton program, is very serious and needs to be addressed. I am quite disappointed that there was this significant of a drop, and the evaluator did not perform another IQ test for clarification. Giving your son other IQ tests, both verbal and nonverbal, such as the Woodcock-Johnson III (WJIII) Cognitive Battery and the Universal Nonverbal IQ Test (UNIT), was called for for clarification, and it was not done. For some reason, your son may have great difficulty taking the WISC-IV, and only by testing him with other IQ tests will you know whether it is a problem with the WISC-IV or whether your son is suffering from the Matthew Effect, which is a drop in IQ as a result of poor or no remediation for a learning disability.
Hi Mava,
Thank you for your reply.
The psych who tested said that they couldn’t do the test over because it would be “teaching the test”. We would have to wait a year to have the test repeated. He did not offer to have other tests done. We rec’d the info on the IQ from the resource room teacher late Friday afternoon - the IEP meeting first thing the following Monday, we didn’t have time to prepare or explore options, and of course, we were just devastated.
My son’s services will remain the same. He will still have extra help in math, rec’ OT and speech language therapy.
The strange part is that his achievement scores are much better than what one would expect with a 75 IQ. Do children with a 75 IQ read/comprehend 1 full grade above? At age 9 1/2 wouldn’t he be farther behind in math than 6 months. Wouldn’t he be falling further behind rather than making progress?
This year his grades in the classroom in reading/math weren’t good, but if he isn’t doing poorly on his achievement tests doesn’t that indicate he is still learning despite some “interference”?
At first I was happy that he does not qualify to get into a special class…then the horror of this dawned on me. If he really does have a 75 IQ, then his progress in the classroom will just drop and drop, along with his self esteem, not to mention what the other children will do to him.
I plan to research this on my own. I will get him independently tested, and I will address the Auditory Processing issues independently as well. When I asked the speech teacher what I could do to help him with auditory processing, she said when I ask him to do something, I should have him stop and draw a picture of what I am asking him to do! Does that seem like practical intervention to you? “Go brush your teeth, get your coat, hurry so we don’t miss the bus - no wait - let’s draw a picture of this first!”
This was a long post, sorry. I appreciate any imput.