Saturday, January 26, 2019

My first student for 2019 (Part 4) - PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT REPORT



PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT REPORT
Date of Assessment : 08.01.2019
Chronological age : 9 years 7 months
Emmanuel was referred by Dr. Fauziah (Gleneagle Hospital) due to his learning difficulties and to ascertain his cognitive functioning and whether he is dyslexic.
He is able to read one-syllable simple English words and a few of two-syllable Malay words. He is also slow in writing and when asked to copy, he made mistakes easily. However, he is good at memorizing. With regard to his academic activities, Emmanuel is easily bored, but he can spend many hours playing the computer games.

My comment: I was a little disturbed when the father told me he could not read in Malay. However, I had that cleared when he told me that the first language Emmanuel learned was English. If Emmanuel had learned Malay as his first kindergarten language he will not have a problem in reading in Malay.
I don’t expect anything other than being easily bored. How would he feel when all his classmates can read but not him?

In the recent school examination, he failed in most of the subjects except for subjects that did not require reading, such as Art, Physical Education, or oral test.
He speaks well in English with the examiner as it is his usual language of communication with his father. His speech was clear and fluent.

My comment: I told the father that I will get Emmanuel to read in less than 4 months of 3 hour tuition per week simply because I have taught more than 70 such kids. I don’t have any scientific method of assessment. The fact that he spoke good English and read out the sounds of alphabets wrongly was all I needed to be confident I can teach him.

Emmanuel was assessed using the Comprehensive Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (CTONI), Child Behaviour Checklist and Dyslexia Screening Test.
Emmanuel scored 129 for Nonverbal Intelligence Quotient (NIQ). He is categorized as superior in nonverbal intellectual ability involving spatial relationship and nonverbal symbolic reasoning. He scored 124 for the Pictorial Nonverbal Intelligence Quotient (PNIQ), which indicates that his problem-solving and reasoning in representational pictures of familiar objects used in the test formats is superior. He scored 130 for the Geometric Nonverbal Intelligence Quotient (GNIQ), which indicates his problem-solving and reasoning for an unfamiliar design that was used as stimuli is also superior. Summary of CTONI Emmanuel has superior performance in the spatial relationship and nonverbal symbolic reasoning, discriminating, sequencing, detail recognition, problem-solving and pattern completion as tested using the Comprehensive Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (CTONI).

My comment: When the father came to see me he said that he was looking into getting an OKU (Orang kurang upaya) or disability card so that he may send his son to a school having dyslexic kids. I replied to him that Emmanuel is a very intelligent kid and it would be wrong to admit him into such a school. 

An IQ of 130 is very intelligent as proved by the assessment.

The Dyslexia Screening Test is a screening instrument to profile the strengths and weaknesses that are often associated with dyslexia.
The overall 'At risk Quotient' was 2.2   This is in the lowest 2 percent for children of this age and is considered a 'Strongly at risk' score.
There are five signs of dyslexia, namely: - At Risk Quotient (ARQ) is 2.2 - Strongly at risk; - Spiky skills profile; - Weak literacy (mean 1.25 - in the lowest 5 percent). - Discrepancy of 2 points between fluid IQ and phonological skills - Weak phonological skill (mean 1 - in the lowest 5 percent).

My comment: As I have mentioned many times, I don’t like the term dyslexia as it means nothing to me. It is of no help to any parent who has his child diagnosed as a dyslexic or a slow learner.

Conclusion Based on the information obtained from the current evaluations, Emmanuel is functioning at a superior level of intelligence with strongly at risk of having dyslexia.

My comment: It is the intelligence in my first student in 2004 which aroused my curiosity. He could not read a single sentence when he first came to me in 2004. Today, he is doing a double degree in accounting and finance in Adelaide.

With the information obtained from this assessment, the recommendations are as listed: 1. He may remain in the current school, but to discuss with the school if Emmanuel can choose not to take the Chinese subject and to observe his academic performance. If he is still struggling, might consider a special school with dyslexia classes. 2. Regular tuition/coaching by a special education teacher to train his fluency in spelling, reading, and comprehension skills.

My comment: I recommended to his father to remove him from the Chinese school and place in an ordinary school where he does not have to learn Chinese. He can always pick that language up like I did.

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