Reading Comprehension Testing

Because I kept hearing about Collin's struggle with reading comprehension but just know that it's not because he is lazy or not smart, I put my foot down and found a Language Specialist to interview and test him so we can figure out what Collin needs to work on for this school year.  We should have started it sooner so we would have the information already, but at least we are starting. 


We met with a specialist on Tuesday afternoon.  She did immediately have some insight she shared with us which did include that he is NOT lazy, is motivated to learn and possibly does have attention issues.  She recommended that we have Collin tested...so we did.  He came back the next three days for testing at 2 hours each time.  I cannot believe he was not more tired than he was after the final test Friday during lunch.  After each testing session, she came out to tell us a few of her observations but wanted us to know that she has to score the tests and then summarize the findings in her report before we really will know what we need to do next.  We will be able to give this report to his teachers/school and let the teachers know information that will help them with Collin during this school year.


Here are the specialists' comments about Collin so far:

• He is very smart
• His vocabulary is EXCELLENT for his age.  She was really surprised especially because of the struggle with reading comprehension.
• He is motivated and wants to do well
• He has an immature brain for his age.  She had to keep reminding herself that he was almost 10 (in 2 days!) and not 8 or 9 like he was operating at
• He does have some noticeable, minor ticks when he is concentrating
• He is VERY anxious when he starts to read or has to write.  I think this is from the homework environment and struggle with the reading at home.
• Here is what she suspects we will need to focus and work on:
• Hearing or auditory assistance
• Attention
• Working memory - short term possible too
• Putting things together - patterns, sequence order, getting things out of order or skipping right to the last task.  No wonder he has trouble with math word problems!
• Strong difficulty following directions.  Needs to hear one direction at a time before moving to the next one.
• Have accommodations for Collin at school. She explained this to mean that could he have extra time to take a test, have some questions read to him, etc.  We will have to check on this but it will likely not happen plus his friends will notice he has special treatment and he does NOT like to be singled out.

We have a follow up appointment with the specialist on August 31 to hear the report and discuss her recommendations.


This mom is so happy we are making progress even though it's a few small steps at a time.  This will not go away on it's own or Collin will not outgrow it as has been said previously.