#67 Dyslexia Testing for College & GED Documentation

If you need to learn more about disability testing for a learning disability, dyslexia, dysgraphia, or dyscalculia, then this episode will be able to answer many of your questions.  You will find out the process involved, who might be able to test, and where you might be tested in your state.   You will get an insider's look at what many colleges expect.  You will also learn how to arrange accommodations and testing for a GED if your child decides to pursue a GED rather than a high school diploma. You will also get several links to GED regulations for your state, and you will get a contact list of places to get tested in every state and the approximate costs of testing in your state.

Documentation Guidelines for all disabilities to use for GED Accommodations.

 Lower Cost Testing Clinics Throughout the  United States
 
 Documentation Guidelines for Evaluators For GED Testing Service® Test Accommodations (Reasonable Adjustments) for Learning and Other Cognitive Disorders

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College & Disabilities: 9 Changes from High School Every Parent Should Know

Transcript

Mickie  0:00  
Do you find yourself confused about disability testing? When you're testing for a learning disability or dyslexia? What kind of tests do you use? How often do you test? Where do I get testing done? And how much does it cost? What does it all mean? These are some questions that a lot of people have about testing. So today I want to touch on testing, talk about testing as it relates to determining if your child has dyslexia or learning disability. And if that is the case, what might be available to you when you go to take a major test, like the GED test. So we're going to check into all of that today and talk about that today in try to get a good handle on exactly what that kind of testing involves. So welcome to college disabilities, and success. Episode 67. Dyslexia testing for GED and college documentation. By Mickie Hayes opinions in this podcast are my own, please reach out to your college physician or legal services for additional information.

Mickie  1:09  
If you suspect that your child may have a learning disability or a dyslexia, dyscalculia, something like that, you've probably been told that your child will have to have a test a psychological evaluation, a neuropsychological evaluation is usually the the title they use for that test. But if your child needs to have a psychological evaluation to determine if they have a learning disability, there are some things that you should know. First of all, when testing is done in the elementary school, the person who does the testing will have a battery of tests that they use, and the battery of tests depend completely on the school psychologist who's doing the testing and what the specific issues are that your child is showing. And so the testing a lot of times is determined based on academic difficulties that the child is presenting to the teacher to the parents into the tester. In general testing consists of an intelligence test, an IQ test of some sort, there are several and academic tests that show the relationship between the IQ and the child's ability to do the academics. There's also oftentimes a cognitive test that is also used to show the cognitive issues that the child has as compared to the intelligence test as well. So good testing will generally show an intelligence test, and then academic and cognitive testing. Compared to the intelligence test, the bigger the gap between the intelligence test, and the academic and cognitive testing usually is more indicative of a bigger disability issue. Once testing is completed, the psychologist will then write an evaluation, a summary verbal summary of what was found. It usually includes the test scores with a narrative of the issues and some suggestions for addressing those issues. When a child's testing is done for a disability, they will compare the test scores that your child got on the test to normative tests, other children of the same age and the scores they present. And then they use the child norms in order to determine the extent of the disability. And this is the basic framework for psychological evaluation testing. Now, a school districts all do their own thing, and they all give you some sort of a test and testing report. But you may find that your school district does things a little bit differently. That's not unusual. Just inquire as to exactly the kinds of tests that your child's going to have during this evaluation, and you should get a good sense of what the school is going to use. When a child's testing is completed. There's not usually a very specific disability listed on the tests with a DSM or an ICD diagnosis. At least most of the ones that I've looked at that had child norms on them did not identify a specific disability. Just that there is a learning disability reason to suspect a learning disability but they're not usually labeled as such with a DSM or an ICD diagnosis. When your child is tested as an adult, they are a young adult, they are given tests based on adult norms and adult norms then use the DSM or ICD test numbers and codes to identify a specific disability. DSM stands for a diagnostic and statistical manual. And right now it's DSM five which is in its fifth revision in ICD 10 stands for International Classification of Diseases and it is in the 10th revision, but they are commonly referred to as the DSM score. Are the ICD score and those identifying numbers need to be on the test documentation for someone who has been using adult norms to test, you don't usually see them on a report with child norms, at least most of the ones that I've looked at now, when your son or daughter goes to a college to identify with a disability, and is asked if they have any recent psychological evaluations, in most cases, what the individual is looking for is something that has the adult norms on it, because in that case, it'll have a DSM or an ICD code. So oftentimes, if all your child has when they meet with Disability Services is testing that was done when they were very young, or they only have a copy of their IEP that will work in most cases, for identification of a disability. All of it helps when Disability Services is attempting to figure out your child's accommodations for the year. But when your child meets with disability services, they're looking at the history, they're looking at an IEP, they're looking at letters that your child's teachers may have given your child and they're looking at a psychological evaluation. And all of these things help to determine qualifications for a disability. And when you start looking at accommodations, then they want to know a little more details in most cases about how best to accommodate your child. And that's where the psychological evaluation is very handy, because it tells exactly what tests were done, what the evaluation was from the psychologist who gave the test and what that person recommends for accommodations. It gives a lot of information that helps Disability Services figure out the best way to help and accommodate your child at college. Now, usually the next question is How old is the documentation need to be and remember what I've talked about colleges all along, based on the ADA, colleges have a lot of liberty to do their own thing as long as they follow within the ADA guidelines. And so some colleges are very lenient in terms of the age of the psychological evaluation, as long as it has adult norms are usually okay with it. Some colleges want something more current, they want something within the last five years, or the last three years. It just varies from college to college. So the first thing I recommend is never get new testing done until you talk to Disability Services at the college and find out exactly what they expect their students to provide in order to arrange accommodations. Unless you have a desire to know upfront, that's fine. But if you're doing it for purposes of accommodations, you really want to talk to Disability Services first so that you're not getting more than they need or less than they need and paying for something that doesn't do the job that they need to have done. One of the questions that I've seen over and over and over again on social media is where do I get testing done? If I'm paying for testing for my adult child who's heading to college? Where do I even get that done? And how much does it cost? Well, I generally tell individuals that are asking that question, to talk to the local college where you live, because disability services at the college oftentimes have resources, they have local people who do testing not for them that they pay for, but local people have made themselves known that they will do college testing. And so Disability Services at the college sometimes has a list of referrals that they can give you don't expect Disability Services to either pay for it or cover it because they don't do that. I've never heard of any disability services actually doing that. And if you do find a disability services that's offering that service, go for it. But usually they'll have a referral list that they can share with you. Now sometimes kids in high school just don't make it for one reason or another. They have decided that instead of seeking a high school diploma the

Mickie  9:07  
traditional way, they're going to do a GED test and get their high school diploma through the GED test. And so I wanted to share with you some information about the GED test as well today, because what I've discovered is that the GED resource is extremely complete. I found it very, very similar to the same type of documentation that any student for any college program would need to have the explanation that I gave you at the beginning about going and seeing somebody to get a psychological evaluation done with adult norms. The information to spell that all out is right here. And basically the GED test is asking for the same thing. Basically, what they're looking for in this test is the same thing that any college is going to look for. They want a comprehensive IQ To test battery academic achievement test battery, a specific diagnosis, DSM or ICD, as I mentioned earlier, and clear evidence that the diagnostic criteria have been met. In other words, when you look up the diagnosis on the DSM or ICD resources does what your child is showing match what the DSM and ICD are expecting to see, and the discrepancies that are showing because of the testing, and then any specific recommendations. And all of this is in any psychological report that you have done, whether it's for a GED test, or whether it's for college accommodations with a disability services office. So if you're interested in specifics for testing, this is a pretty good resource for spelling them all out. But you got to bear in mind, this is the GED expectations, your college may have different expectations. But this will give you a general idea of what most colleges want to see. Now the other little treasure that I found in here has a link here called lower cost testing clinics in the United States. So when I clicked on that link, and remember, I'm still on the GED site, they have a list of all the states in the United States and locations where an individual can get tested for a learning disability. It's listed according to the state, the city that it's in the university name, that would be doing the testing the telephone number, the cost of the testing whether or not these people accept clients who attend the university, see, some are limited to just University clients to test some will test anybody. So that's answered clearly with a yes or no. And then the wait time, in general, short or long wait time to get tested. Now this composite of lower cost testing clinics across the United States was updated in July of 2014. So it's a little bit dated, but it's probably fairly accurate. Although the costs may have gone up a little bit since then, when I looked at the prices, they ran anywhere from a couple $100 to over $1,000. And that's pretty standard in the real world, a lot of it is attached to the types of testing that they're going to do and how complex the testing is, and how complex the report is, it's going to follow the testing. So those are questions that when you're investigating, getting new testing done for your child, you need to really look at that closely. So you not only get what you pay for you get enough that the college or the GED people are going to be satisfied. But this is a good starting point. When you're looking for a place to have your child tested, and you're not quite sure where you can go. The link that I have in the show notes of this resource from the GED testing site is a really good place to start to have any young adult tested for college. When you go to the GED website and you start poking around at it, one of the things you'll find is a drop down for price and state rules. And so you can actually look up your state and it will give you the price for the online from home GED test. And for the in person at a test center test a set of the state rules that you have to follow for your particular state. That's all laid out on the GED website questions like How old do I have to be? How do I prove that I'm a resident of that state? Where can I go to take the test practice tests and so on and so forth. There's a lot of information there. When I went in and checked on accommodations for the GED there is a link on learning and cognitive disorders. There is one on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ADHD, psychological and psychiatric disorders and physical disabilities and chronic health conditions

Mickie  13:44  
if that's the area of accommodations you need, if you're young adult taking the GED test needs a computerized version of the test. They also have downloads that you can use for on screen color combinations, so you can adjust your computer accordingly. They have one that will change the text size if you need your text enlarged, and they have another one that will highlight the text. In addition to the documentation guidelines, they have an FAQ page that has some really good information on it. It talks about the types of conditions or impairments that might need accommodations. And they mentioned things like learning disabilities, visual impairments, ADHD, emotional disorders, depression, physical and conditions, medical conditions like diabetes, Crohn's disease, or chronic severe back pain, etc. They even mentioned temporary accommodations for conditions such as a broken leg or pregnancy. They have a question that addresses what kinds of personal items and modifications that don't require formal approval in advance for accommodations because you can have a diagnosis and not necessarily qualify for accommodations because it may not be impacting your ability to Do what you need to do, because a disability is defined as a substantial limitation in a major life activity as compared to most of the people in the general population. And then they include major life activities such as breathing, working, learning, seeing, hearing, reading, so you could actually have a disability, but it may not be impacting these major life activities. So you could have a diagnosis, but it may not be a disabling condition. So bear that in mind. There's a question here, you might want to know, especially if you're looking at GED tests. It says I had an IEP in high school Am I automatically guaranteed the same accommodations on the GED test? And their answer to that is flat out? No. Although your IEP and any accommodations in high school can be used to justify requesting accommodations, provided we are able to review the documentation in your application, the same accommodations cannot be guaranteed for the GED. So this tells me that they're going to carefully review your psychological evaluation before they determine exactly what kinds of accommodations you could have for the test. As you can see documentation and accommodations to get into college to get standardized testing, like the GED are very spelled out, they're going to be spelled out by the college you're going to and they're going to be spelled out by the GED people if you're going to take a GED test. So if you have a child who is considering the GED test, instead of completing high school and getting the the standard high school diploma, you might want to look very carefully at this site and see if the GED test is a realistic option for your child. Or if it could be a path you might not want to take. So you need to check that out and determines what's going to be best in your own particular situation. I hope you found value. In today's information, I think you have a clearer understanding, I hope anyway of what to expect on a psychological evaluation for college and or the GED test, because they are one in the same for the most part, but always, always, always at the colleges, stop and talk to them first and make sure that you know exactly what they want before you go out and pay for something. If you have any questions, stop by my website, Mickey teaches.com. That's M I C K i e teachers.com, or send me an email at Mickie teaches@gmail.com. And I'll be glad to answer it for you. But there's a lot of information on the website that you may find helpful, especially if you have a young adult planning on heading to college, especially if they're only going to college with an IEP. So you may want to check out a few of the blog articles that I've written and some of the resources that I have there that are available to you. In the meantime, have a great rest of the day, and we'll talk to you again soon. Bye. The information contained throughout this podcast has been gleaned from my own personal experiences, but to ensure accuracy. Please contact the Disability Services at the college of your choice to have firsthand information and the most up to date policies and procedures followed for your particular institution of higher education. The content in any of these podcasts is not intended as a substitute for information from legal, educational or medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your attorney or qualified health care provider with any questions you may have with regards to illegal educational or medical concerns.

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