Results

As posted previously, today was "results day" for Emily's Neuro-Psych Testing. The results were...well, exactly what I thought they would be, and perhaps a little bit more.

To sum it up briefly, Emily's overall IQ was 116. It stands to reason that someone with an overall IQ of 116 would perform at a level compatible with that score. Therein lies the "problem." Her peformance IQ was just below what would be considered average (49th percentile was what the doctor said, she didn't give me an exact number).

Why the huge gap?

It all in the executive functioning. Though I have mentioned executive function many times, this article provides a very nice description of what it's all about.

She can summarize a story that she reads or one that is read to her, almost verbatum. However, when she was given a list of 15 unrelated words and asked to repeat them back, she was only able to come back with 4? Why? Because the words had no connection or organization to them. Organized thinkers would find some way of connecting the semmingly "disconnected" words (say the words were cat dog house tree...someone may remember by saying "I drive my car and pass a tree on the way to my house to see my cat"). Disorganized thinkers don't see any connection at all and don't have the ability to make one. Summarizing a story generally comes easy at the story is already connected, having a beginning, middle and an end. This area of concern also manifested itself when she was asked to write a page long story. The sentences and paragraphs were completely disconnected, there were spelling and capitalization errors, and overall, the story had no "flow." For someone who the doctor said is testing at a 7th grade reading level and an 8th grade spelling level, this obviously made no sense.

The doctor mentioned noticeable changes in Emily's energy level. One minute she was ready to go, the next she would be yawning in her chair. Apparently, this too is related to executive function, which I did not know. She asked about Emily's bedtime schedule to see if there was any correlation between the two, and I explained that she is in bed by 8:30-9 every night but generally does not fall asleep until 10. Basically, the doctor was looking for consistency which is there so she ruled this out as an explanation of her energy level fluctuations.

One of the things that she said was very obvious to her as a concern was her attention span. She just could not stay on task, even in the one on one situation she was in with the doctor. She would be in the middle of something and just start talking about something completely unrelated, or lose track of what she was doing and needed to be reminded about what she was supposed to do. She basically agreed with Emily's neurologist's diagnosis of ADHD: Innatentive type.


The doctor commented that based on some processing tests she did, Emily's processing speed is a little slow. Basically this is literally how fast she can take information in and spit it back out again. She showed me one of the test she did and it was basically set up like this: There was a list of letters, all of which had a symbol underneath it. Below it was a list of just letters and, using the chart above it, Emily had to write the correct symbol under the letter. She was only able to complete 2 rows. An average 9 year old would complete four and five rows.

One of the tests she did was really interesting. She showed Emily a picture which in a nutshell was a square, with various shapes and lines building off of that and asked Emily to draw it(while looking at it). The way the doctor explained it was that an organized thinker would see the square as the basis of the drawing and build in order from there. Emily started drawing in a random spot and when she was done, the picture varied quite a bit from the picture that she was copying from. Lines were going in the wrong direction and an arrow was pointing in the wrong direction. There were others differences too that don't come to mind.

Something that came as a surprise to me (and this was basically the only thing that did) was that the doctor had concerns about Emily's fine motor skills. She had Emily put pegs in a peg board, and told her to do this as fast as she could for 2 minutes. Usually, a right handed person might not do as well with the left hand and vice versa. Emily was slow with both hands. I had never noticed this before, except in relation to her hand writing which could use some improvement. I just thought she was writing too fast, which is probably part of it but the doctor had some real concerns about this so who knows.

Whew. I think that's it. It was alot to take in, but nothing I wasn't expecting hear. Her reccomendations are going to be that Emily be pulled from the classroom 2-3 times a week for writing organization and help with time management and materials organization. She will also be reccomending that Emily continue to sit in the front of the classroom and that her teacher specifically check her bag everyday to make sure she has her agenda and everything esle she needs. There were other things that I can't remember I am sure but this was the jist of it.

I should get a report from her within 6 weeks that I can actually bring to the school when we have her team meeting (which will be held sometime within the next 6-8 weeks). Her testing at school will be done by 2/5 and we will go from there.

Oh, and unrelated, blogger spell check isn't working so apologies if there are any spelling errors and/or typos!

Below: the tests that were given.

Wechsler Intelligence Scale For Children: Fourth Edition
Wechsler Individual Achievement Test: Second Edition (Numerical Operations, Spelling)
Test Of Written Language: Third Edition
Gray Silent Reading Tests (Form B)
Automatized Series
Boston Naming Test
Wide Range Assesment of Memory and Learning: Second Edition
Beery-Buktenica test of Visual-Motor Integretion
Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test
Repeated Patterns
Grooved Pegboard
Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System
Children's Depression Inventory-Self Report