Testing

The IEP is done, and so is all the testing that goes with it. I'm sometimes not sure how much I believe test results. None of the tests are standardized for deaf-blind kiddos anyway. But I think things are fairly accurate this time around. I have been told that the age equivelant scores aren't the best ones to look at, but I'll take what I can get for now. Here's the deal...


Sensory Profile:
Noah scored "more difficulty than others - probable difference" in the visual and behavior sections and "much more difficulty than others - definite difference in the auditory, movement, and touch sections. He had a definite difference with registration and seeking and a probable difference with sensitivity and avoiding. If you don't know what any of that means, be thankful. Sensory issues are not fun.


Sensory processing measure:
Noah didn't score typical in any area. He scored "some problems" for social participation and "definite dysfunction" for vision, hearing, touch, body awareness, balance and motion, and planning and ideas.


I think there is no doubt based on these results that Noah still has pretty significant sensory issues, but surprisingly this is actually a huge improvement from where he was a year or two ago. His OT made tons of sensory recommendations (in addition to the huge AT workup she did a few months back). She definitely is a keeper as a therapist and it stinks that we'll lose her when we go to the new school district.


CASSLS test (simple sentence):
36-42 months for language structure and use
30-36 months for use of questions
24-30 months for conversational skills
4.5-5 year old for listening skills (using the complex sentence test)


Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale:
40 out of 40


TACL-3
4 years 3 months vocabulary
5 years 3 months grammatical morphemes
3 years 9 months elaborated phrases and sentences


Bracken Basic Concepts Scale
4 years 8 months school readiness scale
3 years 3 months direction/position
3 years 9 months self/social awareness
3 years 4 months texture/material
less than 3 years quantity
3 years 7 months time/sequence


TOLD-P
less than 4 years picture vocabulary
5 years relational vocabulary
6 years oral vocabulary
4 years 6 months syntactic understanding
5 years 3 months sentence imitation
less than 4 years morphological completion
could not test* word discrimination
7+ years phonemic analysis
less than 4 years word articulation

* This test involved Noah stating whether words were the same or different. While he was able to accurately repeat each word pair (indicating that he heard the differences) he doesn't yet get the concept of "same" and "different" so he wasn't able to answer the questions accurately.

Notes from Noah's therapist: Noah is an excellent user of his cochlear implants [yay!] and auditory skills are his strength. Noah demonstrates the unusual pattern of a significantly stronger expressive vocabulary than receptive vocabulary. Vocabulary items related to descriptors are particularly challenging, and this is largely attributed to Noah's limited vision.