No abstract
In my Dyslexia Consultancy Service, which includes advising parents of suitable schools for their child's individual needs, I see many reports of assessments by Educational Psychologists. If the IQ results are average or below average, I give that child either Raven's Coloured (Rav. Col.), or Raven's Progressive Matrices (Rav. Prog.). Time and again, these tests give a very different picture of the child's intellectual ability.Recently, Debbie, at the age of 11 years, was refused entry from her junior school into the senior school because not only was she dyslexic, but also had a merely average IQ on the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) WISC III. It was explained to her parents at their appointment with the Head of the Senior School that, although she could get support from their dyslexia specialist, Debbie's IQ was on the low side compared with the other children in the school. Consequently, it would be unfair to put her under pressure. This, of course, was considerate.Debbie's scores on WISC III were Verbal IQ 100, Performance IQ 96, Full Scale IQ 98, all sub-test scores were 10 and 11, except for Coding, 6 and Arithmetic, 7.However, on Raven's Coloured Matrices, Debbie scored 34 out of the possible 36 points. This put her at the 95th percentile (95%ile), or 'intellectually superior' grade. Raven's Matrices is a test of observation and clear, logical thinking, sometimes referred to as the g-factor. Is not this type of intelligence an important factor in life? When the Headmaster realized Debbie's ability in this area, he accepted her.The WISC and British Ability Scales (BAS) are biased towards testing potential academic ability and this, of course, is relevant to the school curriculum. The scores on the sub-tests and the Educational Psychologist's comments give a wealth of information, but often, it is the Verbal IQ and Performance IQ-and sometimes merely the Full Scale IQ -which determine a child's future educational path. A high score will indicate the ability to get good grades in O and A levels, followed by possible entrance into University. Schools, though, have subjects other than the so-called academic ones-Art, Games, Design Technology, IT, Business Studies, Music, Drama and more . . . and for a child to be deprived of entry to a senior school because of the tendency to use the WISC or BAS results as the only yardstick of intellectual ability is not only unfortunate, but inappropriate.Debbie is not the only child with average or below results on the WISC and BAS, but with high scores on Raven's Matrices. The following are merely a few that I have seen.
No abstract
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