Evaluations. Academic Tests. The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-III. Cognitive Testing (WPPSI-III). The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency. And the list goes on …
 
Have you ever read an evaluation report sharing the results of such tests? What is desperately needed is evaluation results that are written in PLAIN ENGLISH. “Plain English” is a generic term for communication styles that emphasize clarity, brevity and the avoidance of technical language.
 
Academic evaluators should be required to report their results in Plain English. I have been through two rounds of full evaluations of my son. While I basically grasped the learning issues that my son has – I have never fully understood the results of these tests. Why? For some reason, the evaluators keep the language in the report in their academic context and do not report the results in plain English. I understand that verbal memory is the retention of the spoken word and a relative percentage score associated with that. I do not understand a scaled score of “4” on digit span!!
 

I have a dear friend who is a speech therapist. She works with children with head trauma, cochlear implants, and all kinds of children with language development delays. She tells great stories. And I always chuckle when she uses an academic term like she is ordering a hamburger with ketchup. I never fail to stop her and say “what is that?” in mid-sentence as she is telling her great stories with fanfare. In most cases, she could have used a word that I would have readily understood. With her, I find it highly entertaining. When trying to understand the obstacles facing my son, I do not.
 
Recently we had our son reevaluated by a doctor at our local children’s hospital. He broke down the most recent tests our son had taken through our local school district into logical sections with one sentence definitions. It was like the clouds parting and the sun shining through.
 
He started out by explaining quite clearly that the comparison is on a scale of 0% to 100% with our son’s results being compared to other students of his age. I understood that previously at a certain level but the way he presented it made the concept crystal clear. He also had a simple graphical chart where he wrote down the evaluation area (spelling, verbal memory, visual-motor integration) and put a point on a scale of 0% to 100%. His visual representation was great further reinforcement and deepened our specific understanding of where our son’s issues are. All evaluators should present their findings this way.
 
He broke the test results down into three main areas and integrated the various test results into these areas and made sure each test result was presented on the 0% to 100% scale.

1. Achievement: An assessment of our son’s current academic skills.

Word Recognition

Spelling

Reading Comprehension

Math Computation

Math Reasoning
 
2. Memory

Verbal Memory – Retention of spoken information.

Visual Memory – Retention of visual information important in memorizing information that is
presented as a picture.

Attention/Concentration

General Memory – The aggregate of the three memory skills listed above.
 
3. Processing

Visual-Motor Integration – The accurate visual perception of a geometric shape and then the
integration of that perception with a precise fine-motor movement
in order to copy it.

Phonetic Decoding – Perhaps THE most crucially important reading skill.

Phonological Awareness – The realization that spoken words are not one sound, but
are made up of several sounds.

Fluency (Rapid Naming) – Research shows that rapid naming of a series of letters and
numbers is a powerful predictor of reading achievement.
 
 
I realize that these categories are age and grade specific. However, by having the information grouped into categories and then broken down into specific areas with one sentence definitions, I was able to understand my son’s issues at a much deeper level than I have ever been able to before.

Previously our Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children IV (WISC-IV) results had been grouped into the following categories: Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory, and Processing Speed with no further explanation into the sub-categories. In several categories, the testing results were presented as a “scaled score”. I still have no idea what that is.

Who else feels the same way about special needs test results? If you do, email me at kgriffithgryga@lipstickwisdom.com and tell me your stories and ideas. Now how do I get started on this Plain English movement?