One low score on an achievement test

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post #1 of 6

8/1/12 at 5:16am

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282 Posts. Joined 8/2003
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My 2E 9-year old is in private school, where they take a standardized test called the ERB once a year. We just got his scores back and he is in the 99th percentile in all categories except "auditory comprehension" where he was in the 50th percentile. I am a bit concerned about that huge differential. He has had a couple of IQ tests over the years and we've never seen anything that far off the rest of the scores. No sign of learning disabilities at this point, but because of his other special needs, that is always on our radar.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

He has Aspergers/PDD (depending on the day and the evaluator!). He is fairly subtly affected -- in a mainstream class, no supports, just private social skills work. He had a full neuro-psych eval when he was diagnosed 4 years ago, but he has only had stand-alone IQ tests (as part of research studies) since then.

A bad day is possible, but I spoke with his teacher and she didn't notice anything off. She, too, was surprised by the difference. I just want to intervene in some way if I should and I want to relax about it, if that's the better course of action. I just feel unsure about how to incorporate the information.

post #4 of 6

8/2/12 at 7:34am

805 Posts. Joined 3/2011
Location: Northeastern Nova Scotia, Canada
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My oldest son (12) has Asperger's, and we've had some wild variances from one IQ test compared to the other in the past years. If the teacher isn't noticing auditory comprehension issues in class, I wouldn't over-think it, because there is the possibility that with your son being on the spectrum, if he had an "off" day, it would probably show on something very sensory processing oriented, and auditory comprehension can be. Just my opinion. You could always do a re-test at a later date, and giving the teacher a heads-up helps.

My youngest (8) has auditory processing problems and there is always the possibility of poor auditory comprehension. We have an adaptation that the teachers are to double check he correctly understood any complicated directions, and to give him written notes (he has strong reading and reading comprehension). If you are concerned maybe he's missing some things that aren't detected, maybe you could have the teacher do a little check-in .

post #5 of 6

8/3/12 at 10:10am