Quinn's going to big school!

We went to Quinn's Educational Psychologist Evaluation Feedback session today.

We had a very interesting discussion, and I was impressed that the psychologist was happy for us to sit and talk for a full hour - there was no sense for urgency or having to rush or finish up quickly which was nice.

What is also nice is that she explains her evaluation processes wonderfully and goes into the brain and thinking mechanisms used and required for various skills. She also demonstrated how being good in one area does not imply being good in another similar area due to differing areas of the brain being triggered and having to cooperate to achieve the result etc.

Quinn scored on the high end of average/low above average in most areas of his JSAIS test.

He had one area where he scored lower, and that was 'story memory', where he didn't listen to a story well enough to recall details of it afterwards, and/or he would guess or extrapolate what he thought the answer should be.

He was consistently in the above average range for verbal skills and was astonishingly above average in 'Number and quality concepts' and 'Memory for digits'.

She said his overall assessment is above average.

She also highlighted that he was very good at sustaining focus and concentration during a task and was strong on recognising rhyming sounds.

His downfall, which I have noticed at home as well, is not LISTENING carefully. In the school readiness test negative marking is used, and it has skewed his result in this test, because although he has got almost everything right it is not strictly correct because he didn't listen to ALL the instructions. She was clear that it was a case of jumping in before processing the full request rather than not understanding or being able to understand. This was a bit of a concern for me, but she said we can work on this and she doesn't see it as a big or long term problem for him.

She suggested we start him with some kind of music activity as this will fit in well with his strengths, rhyming and numeracy, and will help his rhythm and concentration skills as well.

Interestingly she also gave a long explanation of ADD and ADHD. She explained that as he is above average we can expect him to cope pretty easily at school and achieve well (at least at an average level if not beyond - if he is stimulated and has the drive). She told us to watch out for any under-performance, where the performance doesn't match his potential because that would indicate a problem. This could be a learning disability (which she says she can pretty much rule out already), or an ADD/ADHA issue, or of course a teaching issue.

She says she wouldn't diagnose him as ADD, and some of his attributes are in fact non-ADD, but the not listening to instructions fully and being easily distracted from a given task can be indicators of it. However she believes a certain amount of conditioning (teaching the child to listen through practise and positive feedback), and dietary attention (omega 3 acids etc) can help to improve or alleviate this.

All in all she has recommended that we do send him to school next year, and she expects that he will cope well. She also said she found him to be happy and confident

We will keep practising mazes and stories and listening activities for the rest of this term and hopefully that will help him to tune in and get his short-term memory focused.

I am afraid he may get this problem from me though as I distinctly recall tuning out in class to startle when the teacher said, 'Right get on with it' and I would have no clue as to what we were meant to be doing, and I would always have to ask my friend to tell me what it was we were meant to be doing. :) Hopefully Quinn will have a nice and obliging friend who does listen like I did! ;)

I am getting excited about getting all the school uniforms and what not that he'll need now :)