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Wolf Smarts
Oct. 19th, 2005 01:00 amso... life is not terrible, but there has been an awful lot going on, and i'm feeling both down and overwhelmed. coming down with wolf's cold tonight probably isn't helping.
the school ran a bunch of tests on wolf to determine his learning disability status, and i have to admit i'm upset by one of their "findings": they gave him an IQ test, and even though i KNOW IQ tests are flawed, they're limited, etc... and i even questioned them all at the meeting i had with his IEP "team" of 5 women of various specialties (speech therapist, learning disability specialist, psychologist, teacher and school principal) how can an IQ test be accurate when some of the main skills the tests measure are specifically the things he has learning disabilities with, ie short term memory and language, they all looked at me like i was, well, dumb, and said, "oh, we have absolute confidence in the validity of the findings... blah blah blah."
uh... that paragraph got away from me... but anyway, what upsets me is that the results claim wolf's IQ is 92 - barely within "average" range. and their basis for determining whether or not he qualifies for special help with learning disabilities is to find a 15 point gap between his IQ scores and his achievement scores. meaning, that although many of his achievement scores were low, because they find his IQ to be not much higher, they don't feel that he'd benefit from much help (beyond speech and handwriting, and certain accomodations in the classroom, such as, receiving different spelling words that are more obviously related to each other and build on each other, and having the teacher be careful to not give him more than one or two directions at a time).
the women in the meeting were all extremely nice, caring people, and they all feel that wolf has something called "central auditory processing disorder" or, CAPD. the teacher's own youngest son has it, so she is very familiar with what it means and how to deal with kids who have it. i've filled out a form to allow wolf to be tested for it by an auditory specialist. i asked the women, "if wolf turns out to have this CAP, which obviously is a language disorder, does that mean he will then qualify for language therapy (which he currently doesn't qualify for by 10 points above the cut off)?"
and they all said, "oh no, no, it's just something that's useful to know about him, but doesn't change the help he'll get."
sigh. anyway... no, i'm not going to accept the results of the IQ test (not when the help the school offers him is based on it). and i've ordered a couple of books on central auditory processing disorder. i've also been reading "Driven to Distraction" about ADD, which both wolf and i might have, and might be tested for (i've already turned in a questionaire for wolf to be scored, and still need to turn in my own, but have been too distracted to finish it ;-) ).
maybe i'm delusional to believe wolf is smarter than just low average, i dunno... but i don't see how it can hurt to try to stimulate his brain a little more than i have been.
so far, some changes we've made are that he can only watch an hour of cartoons, and the rest of his tv time is spent watching educational tv (luckily he likes it, though can't sustain interest throughout a show), like discovery channel, tlc, history channel, news, etc..., and i've started explaining the meaning of words while we're talking, reading or watching tv, because one of the categories that he scored lowest on was "oral vocabulary" - meaning, his "ability to define or describe a word given orally." well... duh. that fits in with his language disability, and is why IQ tests can't be accurate when given to a child with a language disability. I KNOW he knows what the words mean, and he has a pretty impressive vocabulary, he just can't figure out how to express what he knows.
lastly (so far)... another thing we're doing is to make sure he gets a multi vitamin every day, along with fish oil for its omega 3's, which have been shown to improve short term memory and attention span in children, and especially in kids with learning disabilities.
ok... on the positive side, we've signed up for sign language classes, which wolf does well at, and today he had his first after-school tae kwan do class, offered at the school for $20 for 7 classes. one of the other kids in the class is the one who was bullying and even starting to beat wolf up, but, ever since i talked to the principal and she talked to the boy, he's been nice to wolf. will wonders never cease... :)
the school ran a bunch of tests on wolf to determine his learning disability status, and i have to admit i'm upset by one of their "findings": they gave him an IQ test, and even though i KNOW IQ tests are flawed, they're limited, etc... and i even questioned them all at the meeting i had with his IEP "team" of 5 women of various specialties (speech therapist, learning disability specialist, psychologist, teacher and school principal) how can an IQ test be accurate when some of the main skills the tests measure are specifically the things he has learning disabilities with, ie short term memory and language, they all looked at me like i was, well, dumb, and said, "oh, we have absolute confidence in the validity of the findings... blah blah blah."
uh... that paragraph got away from me... but anyway, what upsets me is that the results claim wolf's IQ is 92 - barely within "average" range. and their basis for determining whether or not he qualifies for special help with learning disabilities is to find a 15 point gap between his IQ scores and his achievement scores. meaning, that although many of his achievement scores were low, because they find his IQ to be not much higher, they don't feel that he'd benefit from much help (beyond speech and handwriting, and certain accomodations in the classroom, such as, receiving different spelling words that are more obviously related to each other and build on each other, and having the teacher be careful to not give him more than one or two directions at a time).
the women in the meeting were all extremely nice, caring people, and they all feel that wolf has something called "central auditory processing disorder" or, CAPD. the teacher's own youngest son has it, so she is very familiar with what it means and how to deal with kids who have it. i've filled out a form to allow wolf to be tested for it by an auditory specialist. i asked the women, "if wolf turns out to have this CAP, which obviously is a language disorder, does that mean he will then qualify for language therapy (which he currently doesn't qualify for by 10 points above the cut off)?"
and they all said, "oh no, no, it's just something that's useful to know about him, but doesn't change the help he'll get."
sigh. anyway... no, i'm not going to accept the results of the IQ test (not when the help the school offers him is based on it). and i've ordered a couple of books on central auditory processing disorder. i've also been reading "Driven to Distraction" about ADD, which both wolf and i might have, and might be tested for (i've already turned in a questionaire for wolf to be scored, and still need to turn in my own, but have been too distracted to finish it ;-) ).
maybe i'm delusional to believe wolf is smarter than just low average, i dunno... but i don't see how it can hurt to try to stimulate his brain a little more than i have been.
so far, some changes we've made are that he can only watch an hour of cartoons, and the rest of his tv time is spent watching educational tv (luckily he likes it, though can't sustain interest throughout a show), like discovery channel, tlc, history channel, news, etc..., and i've started explaining the meaning of words while we're talking, reading or watching tv, because one of the categories that he scored lowest on was "oral vocabulary" - meaning, his "ability to define or describe a word given orally." well... duh. that fits in with his language disability, and is why IQ tests can't be accurate when given to a child with a language disability. I KNOW he knows what the words mean, and he has a pretty impressive vocabulary, he just can't figure out how to express what he knows.
lastly (so far)... another thing we're doing is to make sure he gets a multi vitamin every day, along with fish oil for its omega 3's, which have been shown to improve short term memory and attention span in children, and especially in kids with learning disabilities.
ok... on the positive side, we've signed up for sign language classes, which wolf does well at, and today he had his first after-school tae kwan do class, offered at the school for $20 for 7 classes. one of the other kids in the class is the one who was bullying and even starting to beat wolf up, but, ever since i talked to the principal and she talked to the boy, he's been nice to wolf. will wonders never cease... :)
