MAKING SENSE OF YOUR CHILD’S PSYCHOLOGICAL REPORT

Many of us probably don’t take a second look at the psychological report after we received it from the educational or clinical psychologist, or we find that there are too many technical jargons in there that are beyond our comprehension.

How do we make sense of the FSIQ, what’s my child’s ability in the areas of verbal reasoning, visual spatial, fluid reasoning, working memory and processing speed? Is my child evaluated using the WISC-V IQ test? How do I read the results?

I mentioned before that for a dyslexia diagnosis, a child’s IQ needs to be at least average. However, a below average IQ may not necessarily indicate the absence of a learning disability. Looking at the subtests would more meaningfully help us interpret the result. Ron Davis was labelled as “uneducatably mentally retarded” at the age of 12 but was later discovered to have an extremely high IQ of 137.

Here is an article that helps us understand IQ test scores. It’s important for us to know not just where our kids stand intellectually, but also what are their strengths and weaknesses. There are links to other articles at the end which provide additional reading materials if you are interested to know more.

---