(no subject)

[kcobweb]

Yesterday Elena had a pre-school assessment (through the school district). It was a mixed bag.

I was a little anxious about the whole thing, really. She is so shy - and so reticent in strange situations - how would she ever do anything they asked? It turns out, I was partly right. First was the developmental section. She whispered her name (finally) but flat out refused to say her age. Since her birthday last week, she's been very excited about being ~*3*~ so it was so weird. She did about half of that section, but wasn't focused well, and refused to do much more (and, in fact, wanted to leave). The examiner was about to give up on her, and then she randomly walked the length of a line on the floor. Examiner said "oh, that's another part of it. See if you can get her to stand on one leg." With a lot of cajoling, persistence and encouragement, we got her through most of the rest of it - stacking blocks, identifying pictures, copying shapes, naming colors, that kind of stuff). She ended up with 89 points out of 100. (And some of those points off were for things like not saying her age, which she does know.) It was *painful* to sit there and listen to these questions, and know that she knows the answers, and that she just wasn't answering.... :) The examiner was nice, and clearly had no problem with the shyness, though. And she wrote that E has wonderful skills and there were no concerns.

Then we went into a vision and hearing test, and she just did the first little part of the vision test and wouldn't even touch the headphones..... The nurse just turned to me and asked, "Do you have any concerns?" and I said no, and she checked us off and we moved on. :)

Then the language assessment, with a speech pathologist. I liked this woman - she was at least more patient than the nurse. Elena started out okay, but quickly trailed off. She did all right on the bits demonstrating stuff like knowing how to add -ing to a verb, for example, but would not answer questions like "This girl in the picture is very tired. What should she do now?" So... she failed. Which was just so *weird*; I totally wasn't expecting that. I said to the woman that I actually have no concerns about her speech and language - if anything, it's her socialization. (She was in a strange room, with a strange person, asking her weird questions about these weird pictures - how would *you* respond?) She acknowledged all of that, and said she'd talk to the other examiners, but it sounded like they'd be in touch with us for an "in-depth assessment".

After some thought (and a few self-righteous moments of how-dare-they-criticize-my-child!), I've come to realize that duh, this is a very good thing. They can come and assess her in a more comfortable environment, and they will find one of two things: she is normal (or she's brilliantly gifted! okay, that's the remotely-possible third option), or she has a few issues and we can work on those. You know, either way - I'd like to know that, and so I'm glad we're plugged in to the system, blah blah blah. galagan pointed out that while Elena is very good at repeating back sentences she hears, she doesn't put together a lot of her own sentences or combine words in ways she hasn't heard before. Which is kind of what that bit was testing. So if there's a problem there (I think this would be the opposite of receptive language - but I can't come up with the right term. A tiny bit of googling suggests productive or expressive language skills - something like that), that's okay, and we'll work on it.

I still mostly think she's okay, and that their test just didn't make enough allowances for cranky tired confused shy toddlers. But I'm hanging on her every word now, wondering if she isn't clear enough, or if I should be asking her probing questions or something. A follow-up assessment would certainly make me feel better at this point.

I know, I know - she's fine. And they didn't even touch on letters and numbers, which she knows backwards and forwards. Every kid does their own thing at their own pace. In other words, don't feel like you have to comfort me. This is mostly just brain-dump.

In other news, I did manage to procure a babysitter and go to my book club meeting last night - woot! Also, did you locals see that Geordi LaForge is the baccalaureate speaker at the Mothership this year????

Comments

[ailbhe]

I failed my 2-year-old test; I failed hearing, seeing, speaking, moving, you name it.

But in the end they had to pass me anyway; as the tester was retiring to the sofa to write up her notes, I asked my mother (totally ignoring the tester), "Mammy, what's that lady writing?" which showed, er, a lot of what they were looking for.

The testing of tots is a delicate matter. Mine don't get tested; in this area it's not usual to test them.

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

I don't know how many places do this testing - my town is, but I don't know about the other towns around here (and it was optional, I think). And I figure, you gotta take these results with quite a few grains of salt. That said, it was interesting to see how they dealt with a reluctant child, and to see how she interacted with them. And I'm hoping she's getting into a pre-school program, so these things will start coming up regularly.

[ailbhe]

I think it's funny that they do these tests and then have to apply a sort of fudge factor "well, this is a small child we're dealing with, so our margin of error is about... 80%" thing to them.

I had to actually ask for Linnea to get a developmental check at 18 months because I had a funny feeling.

Speaking of salt, Rob salted the spaghetti this evening. We don't usually cook with salt. He figured it was like sugar.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

This is fascinating. Did you request a screening, or is it standard in MA to test all three-year-olds?

I have no idea how Alex would behave in a similar situation. So much would depend on her mood, and what she thought of the specific tester assigned to her, and a million other things. At this age, I honestly think that parental checklists or interviews are a better source of information about children's capabilities.

It's funny what they do and don't include, too. I don't think Alex could copy shapes. She can sometimes draw a person (the exact same person every other preschooler draws, with long arms and legs coming right out of an enormous head), but most of what she does with crayons/markers/pencils is still scribbling. And I know for sure that she can't stand on one foot. (Is a three-year-old supposed to be able to do that? Is that a "preschool skill?")

Mostly when I think about it I just keep coming back to "I have no idea if Alex would cooperate with any kind of exam at this age." And you'd think that most kids this age would be similar.

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

When we signed up for the lottery for the district's pre-school program, they called us. I don't think it was exactly mandatory, but I was curious. :)

The developmental part was the Brigance Pre-school Screen (here (http://www.medicalhomeinfo.org/training/materials/April2004Curriculum/SS/Appendices/App%20P%20-%20Preschool-Brigance%20Screening%20tool.pdf)). This examiner was the most patient, and tried multiple approaches to get answers - if Elena wouldn't answer her directly, she'd draw her a picture and start asking about it, or say "hey, I have these great toys here. Can you point this green fish at your knee?" or things like that. Elena did the best on that one, mostly because she was so patient and flexible.

Part of what I was curious about was how they would cope with a shy reluctant child. I mean, I can't imagine a 3-year-old walking into that situation and being all like "hi, stranger! Yes, my name is ___ and I'm 3, and that shape is a circle!" I'm sure those kids exist, but I just can't picture it.

[ailbhe]

Linnea is often - usually, in fact - one of those kids.

It's hard to believe she's related to me, in fact.

But if they ASKED her, she'd refuse to answer. She'd walk in and volunteer it alright. At nursery, they're amazed at what she draws unattended but her produced-to-order stuff is crap; if anyone says "draw a tree" she will draw a line, say it's a tree, and walk away.

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

Grey would be that kid. You'd think he'd be past the introducing himself to random strangers phase, but... no. "Hi! My name Grey. G-R-E-Y Grey (Lastname)."

Now if only I could get him to stop hitting.

[heef.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I doubt I'd pass half those tests.

She's fine :)

[kouredios.livejournal.com]

You know Cassie would have been the same way, for the same reasons. And she could do all of those things with us if we asked her to. :) No worries.

[journeywoman.livejournal.com]

Those tests sound pretty interesting. Some of them got covered at our 3-year well-child check up, like standing on one foot, which the boy is perfectly capable of doing but refused to do until we got home (this is the outlandishly coordinated child that does jumps and walks backwards on the balance beam).

I don't think our local school district does a preschool program other than for kids with developmental issues. There was some kind of hoohah on the Underwear Drawer where most people said they'd never heard of public preschool, so it must not be very common?

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

I don't know too much about it yet, but the school district has this program (mornings, afternoons, or full day) and various groups are given priority: children with developmental disabilities, children who have older siblings in the program, teachers' kids, and then everybody else (that would be us). The everybody else portion is determined by lottery. And there is tuition as well - set by the school district each year. Someone told me it's less than what the area private schools charge, but she wasn't sure what the general range is.

[pseudosilence.livejournal.com]

That's actually really cool, and I'm glad they at least attempt an assessment. Go Massachusetts!

[allthatjazmyne.livejournal.com]

A couple of years ago, some friends of ours took their son, who clearly has some developmental problems, in for an assessment. They did all kinds of tests, most of which he failed, and the teacher was telling Jessica (the mom) that clearly, he had autism, and there were all kinds of programs the school district and the state offered, and a lot of things they could do, but based on the tests, he didn't seem to be very highly functioning- blah, blah, blah. While she was talking, Aidan walked over to the chalkboard, drew a flower, and wrote "FLUR" above it. The teacher turned around, looked at him, and said, "Ok, I don't know." While I think autism is a fairly clear diagnosis for this kid, I think part of the problem with assessments is that if the kid isn't in the mood, the test isn't going to happen.

I vote that she's brilliant and talented. You know, just in case it was a votable issue.

[nyssa23.livejournal.com]

Wow, a preschool assessment. That sounds...stressful. I'm sure Sarah would breeze through something like that but Hunter would totally freeze up. He's not so much with the answering questions from strangers thing; he'd probably just want to hide behind my leg and then they would think something was wrong with him.

[scottahill.livejournal.com]

The word "test" brings up all sorts of connotations: it might suggest a college exam, a measure of self-worth and diligence where failure is shameful; or it might suggest a test for some disease, like "you tested negative for strep". It sounds like a little bit of both connotations have crept into your interpretation of the screening. I'd guess it's more like a diagnostic tool for you. It doesn't matter if she didn't demonstrate certain skills to the tester, if you already knows she has them. What the testers can do is test for skills you might not even think to check, to tell you how she "stacks up" statistically with other three-year-olds, and point out possible deficiencies which you can test further yourselves.

It's a lot better to have an expert doing the assessing, then just reading a book that says "At six months, babies tend to react to their own names", and then wondering if your six-month-old is really responding to her name or just to the sound of your voice, and if it is a normal variation if she doesn't. :)