Testing for a Disability

amother

Wed, Jan 15 2014, 4:10 am

The teacher recommended that my son be tested for a learning disability. I also think he needs to be tested. Anyone here have a bad experience with this where the tester totally blew everything out of proportion and label a kid with something that he probably does not have. Dh is afraid of this. Is this a reason not to do testing?

amother

Wed, Jan 15 2014, 5:09 am

As a school psychologist I'll tell you that psychologists testing for learning disabilities and diagnoses like ADHD and those on the autistic spectrum all use standardized testing. This means that your child / you / your child's teacher all answer questions that score a certain way and the diagnosis is an conglomeration of the scores.

If you go to a competent psychologist there really is no need to worry about "blowing things out of proportion", they're merely going to tell you the objective "findings" and how psychologists interpret them (there is a specific method of interpretation as well, it's far from a "feeling").

But, keep in mind- if you and your child's teacher feel so strongly about having them evaluated the issue is more related to how to help this child that is needing help (identifying the root cause) than to "making a big deal about it" (to the struggling child, it's already a really big deal). The diagnosis / prognosis is merely a map to success for your child.

Good luck!!

amother

Wed, Jan 15 2014, 5:14 am

Just want to make one point: The degree of cooperation your child has with the test has a direct connection to the results. If your child takes the tests and does not cooperate, the test results cannot be considered reliable.

Please keep this in mind.

amother

Wed, Jan 15 2014, 5:57 am

Please don't scare OP away from an evaluation because her child might not cooperate- a good psychologist understands that about kids and works with it.

Posters, please don't be the reason why a child has to unduly suffer in school... I'm sure you know the percentages of kids who are otd and have UNTREATED learning disabilities... (I don't know them off the top of my head but really high... So sad and preventable). If a child is struggling in school the bottom line is that they need help- the only question is what kind?

amother

Wed, Jan 15 2014, 6:22 am

I'm not trying to scare her away from testing her child. I'm trying to advise her that certain things skew results and that the results are not necessarily Torah MiSinai. These evaluations follow children forever.

I'm sure you are a good psychologist. My family has a regular psychologist who is wise, helpful and has saved my sanity. Unfortunately we have had several unpleasant experiences with educational psychologists doing these tests.