Hope for a child with an 80 IQ?

[Anonymous]

I've been struggling to digest the results of my child's psychological eval.
She's in third grade and has never been a fast learner. She has the basics down, but is far behind in things like problem solving, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. She can sound out words fairly easily, and solve math calculations that are somewhat on grade level. However, she failed both of her reading and math state tests this year.
Her school evaluated her and stated that she doesn't have a learning disability- just a lower IQ. Her overall score was an 80, and all of the subscores were kind of around that area as well, ranging from 77-83.
I'm pretty devastated. The person who tested her said that she will likely just struggle, and that they will give her some specialized instruction due to her ADHD, but that comprehension may never be her strong point.
What do I do?

[Anonymous]

Keep working on reading and expose her to lots of different enriching experiences so she organically absorbs context.

Some IQ is context dependent. The more she learns about organically, the more she will know in the real world outside of school. That will help her when random academic knowledge does not.

Does she have a late birthday for her grade year? This may also be a factor.

[Anonymous]

Introduce her to lots of things. She will find her strengths. I hope she is social - that will help too.

I hope you are patient! Knowing she will struggle will help you not push her too much. Encourage her in other ways and boost her self esteem.

There are so many things to do in this world - so many! My son is average IQ, but struggles academically. He has other interests and I know he will find some sort of career that interests him as an adult that he can be successful at.

[Anonymous]

My son has a similar IQ. It’s hard to teach him things like don’t brag. We did ASDEC for years and it has been incredibly helpful.

[Anonymous]

Doesn’t iq change every time you take the test?

[Anonymous]

I would get her evaluated privately. The school has an incentive to find “just low IQ and not a learning disability,” because then they’re not on the hook for services.

[Anonymous]

My son has a lower IQ than your daughter - low 70s. He’s an adult now. The way I viewed it early on was kind of wait and see. No predictions. No expectations positive or negative. Just make sure he had lots of supports and lots of opportunities to be successful and wait and see.

He did not learn to read until 6th grade and that was the result of private services and a special program at school. The school did want to place him in the certificate track which I did not allow because it takes a diploma to get a job. It took a lot to get an IEP because there was no expectation of success academically with that low of an IQ but I was able to find support at school to get him what was available even during the years when he didn’t have an IEP.

He now has a great career in the trades, thanks to vo tech and a two year post high school program with a full scholarship from a trade union. He earns decent money (almost $35/hour). He has health insurance and a pension. He has paid sick leave and paid vacation and is earning double time and a half working today because it’s a holiday.

One thing I will say is this. It is a lot of work as a parent to make this happen. Getting an HS diploma meant I didn’t get a day off from working with him to pass his classes ever. I worked with him daily for months to study for every certification test he’s ever taken and still do when he needs to recertify.

Anyway, good luck to you and your daughter. I hope you find a path that brings you peace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would get her evaluated privately. The school has an incentive to find “just low IQ and not a learning disability,” because then they’re not on the hook for services.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would get her evaluated privately. The school has an incentive to find “just low IQ and not a learning disability,” because then they’re not on the hook for services.

+100

Whenever I come on this board it takes a second before I become disgusted by the negative attitudes towards the school.
IQ scores cannot be "made up" and "just found" and the person who is evaluating your child does not have an agenda. If anything, the school psychologist is probably upset to find out that your child had this lower IQ, and was glad that she could be qualified under a different category.
I'm a school psychologist (with a clinical license, and I've worked in both sectors). OP, I would recommend requesting a re-test in a year or so, especially if your child is recently diagnosed with ADHD. ADHD can significantly depress cognitive scores in an artificial way. In addition, I completely agree with the poster who recommended you keep exposing her to new information and be patient. Now that she has acquired the basic reading skills, she is in a great position to be successful! I'm sure she has many wonderful strengths that will aid her going forward. Keep her feeling positive, successful, and enthusiastic about school as much as you can.

[Anonymous]

My daughter scored 83 in 5th grade. She has ADHD.

She scored 90th and 92nd percentile on her iready benchmarks and she passed her end of grade testing for 7th grade math.

She's been recommended for high school math as a rising 8th grader.

She is an intermediate level piano player, does swim team, as well as dance.

We worked HARD! She went to mathnasium in 5th and 6th, Lindamood Bell summer before 6th, and did reading tutoring once per week in 6th and 7th.

Do EVERYTHING. All the tutoring, all the extra help you can afford.

[Anonymous]

The negative attitudes on this board are a result of negative, poor, inappropriate treatment by the schools. So you may not like to hear it , but it is a reality in a lot of different school systems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son has a lower IQ than your daughter - low 70s. He’s an adult now. The way I viewed it early on was kind of wait and see. No predictions. No expectations positive or negative. Just make sure he had lots of supports and lots of opportunities to be successful and wait and see.

He did not learn to read until 6th grade and that was the result of private services and a special program at school. The school did want to place him in the certificate track which I did not allow because it takes a diploma to get a job. It took a lot to get an IEP because there was no expectation of success academically with that low of an IQ but I was able to find support at school to get him what was available even during the years when he didn’t have an IEP.

He now has a great career in the trades, thanks to vo tech and a two year post high school program with a full scholarship from a trade union. He earns decent money (almost $35/hour). He has health insurance and a pension. He has paid sick leave and paid vacation and is earning double time and a half working today because it’s a holiday.

One thing I will say is this. It is a lot of work as a parent to make this happen. Getting an HS diploma meant I didn’t get a day off from working with him to pass his classes ever. I worked with him daily for months to study for every certification test he’s ever taken and still do when he needs to recertify.

Anyway, good luck to you and your daughter. I hope you find a path that brings you peace.

Just wanted to say that you and your son are both amazing. Peace and love to both of you and thank you for sharing this.

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP with a daughter that scored 83. I'm also a SpEd teacher.

The approach I took (and continue to take) is that it is not the school's responsibility to *make sure* that my kid learns. Not anything. It is mine. Yes, she has had some good teachers and not good teachers.

Every summer we do workbooks. I bought a subscription to IXL and brainpop. We look at Crashcourse kids videos on youtube as well as MysteryDoug. We go to museums, zoos, conversations in the car. Exposure to any and everything that I think will be beneficial and that I can reasonably afford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The negative attitudes on this board are a result of negative, poor, inappropriate treatment by the schools. So you may not like to hear it , but it is a reality in a lot of different school systems.

NP. But that is not a guarantee that by obtaining a private assessment, the score of the school psychologist will be obviated. I have seen it happen on an IEP team where the family refused to believe the IQ score and accused the school psych of incompetence, went and got a private assessment, and the IQ score from that one was even lower. It created quite an awkward situation unnecessarily. There is every right to obtain a second opinion and I would do so myself, but maligning the school personnel and calling their competence into question should be left out of it and the possibility that the results are accurate should not be reflexively dismissed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The negative attitudes on this board are a result of negative, poor, inappropriate treatment by the schools. So you may not like to hear it , but it is a reality in a lot of different school systems.

NP. But that is not a guarantee that by obtaining a private assessment, the score of the school psychologist will be obviated. I have seen it happen on an IEP team where the family refused to believe the IQ score and accused the school psych of incompetence, went and got a private assessment, and the IQ score from that one was even lower. It created quite an awkward situation unnecessarily. There is every right to obtain a second opinion and I would do so myself, but maligning the school personnel and calling their competence into question should be left out of it and the possibility that the results are accurate should not be reflexively dismissed.

And I’ve seen numerous instances of the school saying it’s just a low iq - often done with a school “psychologist” who isn’t anywhere near qualified - and then on private testing with an actual neuropsychologist, learning disabilities are discovered.