IEP Assessments

I recently wrote an article on Understanding IEP Assessments for Bright Hub and thought I'd put some comments here as well. I've always found the assessment score portion of Gus's IEP to be more complicated than deciphering the Dead Sea Scrolls, but I've come to gain a little better understanding of them. They're not quite as complicated as I thought (very close, but not quite). The odd thing is that the keys to understanding these things seem to be some nationally guarded secret – none of our service providers could ever give me a solid explanation for what it all meant. So here's my attempt at demystifying the matter.

The first things you need to understand are the terms and acronyms. Most of the assessment scores will be expressed as one or more of the following:

• SS – standard or scaled score. This is the score of the assessment itself. For instance, the SAT has a different scale (200-800) than the AP exams which are score on a scale of 1-5.
  
• Percentile – the percentile shows where your child falls within the range of other students being tested. A score in the 98^th percentile means your child scored in the top 2 percent of students tested, or better than 98 percent.
  
• AE/GE – age or grade equivalents tell where your child's skills are in comparison to kids of different age groups or in different academic grades.
  
• Raw Score – I've never seen this on our IEP, but it's useful to know just in case it comes up. The raw score is the actually number of successes your child has on each of the different test components. For example, your child might get 8 correct responses on one test out of a possible 10.
  

Many assessments use similar scales, but some have their own (just to keep parents hopping and guessing, I'd imagine). If you find out what assessment tool was used for your child in each area, you can try to find out what the scale is and take it from there. Some common tests are:

• General or Comprehensive
  
  • The Brigance Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills (CIBS)
    
• Speech/Language
  
  • Oral and Written Language Scales (OWLS – they're not just for wizards anymore)
    
  • Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)
    
  • Expressive Vocabulary Test (EVT)
    
  • Educational – Woodcock Johnson III
    
• Motor/Physical Skills
  
  • Bruininsky-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency
    
  • Peabody Developmental Motor Scales
    
• Behavior
  
  • Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales
    

The article goes into a little more detail about scoring and interpretation, so if this is a topic that tends to confuse you (like it did me) by all means, check it out! And if you know of any assessments that I can add to the list, by all means, please share! Have a great day!

Asperger's Q & A

A commenter had some questions for me, and instead of responding just in a comment, I thought I'd post the answer here in case anyone else was interested. I may do this periodically if anyone's got a question that requires more than a couple of lines of reply.

Q: How old was Gus when you found out about him? Did you know before he was born? I ask this because I don't know how you learned to be so good with handling him. Was it all learning as he aged?

A: Gus was about eighteen months old when we noticed that he wasn't taking much interest in other children. I'd pick him up from day care and see him at one end of the play yard while the rest of the class was at the opposite end. At home when we'd take him to the park, he'd always gravitate away from other children. That was what gave us the first inkling that something was different about him. However, he had sensitivities right from birth. He was always hyper-alert and extremely sensitive to noise. I'm sure plenty of people thought I was a complete, overprotective psycho the way I insisted on total silence when I was trying to get him to sleep, but it was necessary. He was always fidgety and in constant motion - it's largely the way he processes information. Things like fine motor development were delayed, but since he was my first child, I had no point of comparison. I didn't think of anything as 'problematic' until that toddler stage. Another thing that tipped us off around that time was that Gus had been acquiring language and vocabulary at a remarkable rate, but then he stopped for a while. That was the point when we started to see a lot of tantrums, and I started having trouble managing his behavior. But once he got into Early Intervention and was given some communication tools, the meltdowns became much less of an issue. So to answer that part of the question, we didn't know anything before Gus was born, there were signs almost immediately after he was born, but we didn't definitively know that he'd need some special help until he was about 2.

As for handling him (I'm not sure I always handle him so well), it's all been a learning process, and I've had a great deal of help. One thing that made a big difference for us was that my husband and I made the decision that I would spend the majority of my time at home with Gus (and later MM). This allowed me to really learn who he is and how to meet his needs. In addition to that, we've been very lucky with the professionals who have worked with Gus from teachers to pediatricians to therapists. When Gus was in his uncommunicative stage, a parent trainer (social worker from our school district) worked with me to help me manage my own reactions to his behavior. The support of family and friends has been a great help, and the network of autism bloggers I've come across over the past few years has been wonderful resource for information and support as well. So I can't take all the credit for learning how to deal with the challenges of Asperger's - it's been a real group effort, and I'm always refining my approach because my amazing boy changes constantly.

I hope that answers the question! If you have questions or would like to share similar experiences with your child, please feel free to chime in! Have a great weekend!

Thankfulness Thursday

Good afternoon, reader! It's a beautiful, rainy day here but that will not stop us from being grateful that we're still breathing, right? Of course not! Here's what I'm feeling thankful for today:

• I am thankful that my finger is almost better (at least I'm telling myself it is because then I can ignore all the people who keep advising me to get it X-rayed). I've been able to get it out of the splint for long periods today. It keeps swelling back up, so that's probably not the best idea. Using it to type seems particularly problematic, but...well, take my word for it - it's almost better. That's the story I'm sticking to. Moving on...
• I am thankful that I am sometimes just as quirky as Gus. Not only does it help me to understand him, but it also gives me a good excuse when I do things that other people might give me strange looks for. The example would be how I spent part of my morning: gardening. What's weird about that? It was raining. Not just drizzling or pouring, but it was fully raining - drops bouncing off the blacktop and everything. My neighbor came out to get his newspaper and gave me that look that said, "what the hell is she doing?" I was planting. It occurred to me that a lot of people do their planting when it's nice out, but then complain when they get all hot and sweaty because the sun's beating down on them. Anyway, I planted some flowers that I bought this morning (before it rained) and transplanted my tomato plant. I found out that they are Better Boy tomatoes, by the way. It helped that we have a pretty deep overhang on the house, so I wasn't getting drenched, but I could see myself planting out back if it wasn't raining too hard as long as I had a raincoat and hood. What do you think? Would you garden in the rain or am I nuts?

• I am thankful for the Magic Tree House series of books by Mary Pope Osborne. I've learned some interesting things from these books. The latest Monday with a Mad Genius was all about Leonardo DaVinci.
  
  
  
  
  
  Osborne mentioned DaVinci's mirror writing, and now guess who's interested in learning to do that? Anything that helps my kids, who both have trouble with fine motor skills, to gain strength and control with their hands is a good deal. Sure, I'll be building confusion with letter direction at the same time, but really, let's just look at the positives for now!

Clearly, I'm feeling a little silly this afternoon, but a little silliness is good for the soul especially on a rainy day. What are you thankful for today?



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