WAIS psychology test vs OT assessment

Getting assessed for your dyspraxia, getting help, disability allowance etc.

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Hoppingmouse
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WAIS psychology test vs OT assessment

Post by Hoppingmouse »

I have just received my WAIS results in a report. According to my psychologist I have learning difficulties but no specific learning disorder. She said if I had one score different i would have been diagnosed with something (but what she did not say). She has offered me no techniques to help me with specific learning problems, but has said I can get extra time on tests and can have a calculator in my exams and thinks that decreasing my anxiety will help with my problems. However most of my anxiety issues are related to work and study related problems. I don't really feel like it was the anxiety first and I don't feel like I am getting the help I need from this psychologist.

These problems have had functional problems in my life. If I study I can't manage any significant amount of work. Once I studied and worked 4 hours a week-that was OK. I was not able to continue a career in nursing and I am now studying again. My love of science was thwarted by the fact I can't do lab work. I did an honours degree of written investigation involving data entry and checking, and my lack of organisational skills left me with a mental health crisis and I turned away from that field too. By now I have had so many false starts I am a big walking medical dictionary. I know that with a diagnosis of ADD practitioners consider the impact it has on peoples lives- something to the effect that it has to affect performance in 2 settings. I have so many of the functional problems of dyspraxia. I wonder whether OTs even use these written tests or if they just look at the functional effect on peoples lives.

If anyone wants to see how my scores compare with what they have typically seen with dyspraxia my WAIS IV scores are verbal 108-119 82nd percentile, working memory 72-85 at 6th percentile, processing speed 82-98 at 23rd percentile, perceptual reasoning 84-97 at 25th percentile. I'd love to know whether I would have been diagnosed if I was that one point off...somewhere.
Thanks!
Roxy86
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Re: WAIS psychology test vs OT assessment

Post by Roxy86 »

Hi Hoppingmouse, hope you are well :)

I went to my GP around this time last year when I was living in Portsmouth, as was referred to an OT. I had an initial assessment over the phone and was waiting a call back to arrange another, face to face, I believe.... In the mean time, my job and relationship were both rapidly going down hill, so I cut my loses and moved back to West Sussex, with my mum and was incredibly lucky to get my old job back! :)

Just yesterday I decided I needed to get the ball rolling again and pick up from where I left off with regards to getting a diagnosis, so, went to my local GP back in West Sussex and am being referred to a psychologist this time, I think :S

So, might I end up having a WAIS test? What does WAIS stand for and what does the test involve??

Thanks for taking the time to read my reply to your post, hope to hear from you soon :)
-Hakuna Matata-
AlleyCat
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Re: WAIS psychology test vs OT assessment

Post by AlleyCat »

WAIS stands for Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and has to be administered by a psychologist, so this may well be the way you are assessed. The tests are divided into a verbal section and a non-verbal section. In people who have dyspraxia, there is often a significant difference between the verbal and non-verbal scores, with the verbal score being significantly higher than the non-verbal. Here's a link for more info on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wechsler_A ... ence_Scale
Roxy86
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Re: WAIS psychology test vs OT assessment

Post by Roxy86 »

Thanks for your reply Alleycat :)

Interesting, that gives me some idea of what to expect! :D
-Hakuna Matata-
screengreen
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Re: WAIS psychology test vs OT assessment

Post by screengreen »

Hi I'm an OT not sure which service you would be referred to for diagnosis of dyspraxia, in the NHS there are very few who specialise in the field outside of pediatrics, they may therefore borrow some of the pediatric tests, they may also use test borrowed from neurology, if I was going to be assess by an OT for dyspraxia I would be asking a lot about their training and experience, good things would be to have had some pediatric experience, qualifications in sensory integration and post-graduate specialist courses in dyspraxia. That said I think their are good and bad people in every profession and the Ed psych I saw while training to be an OT gave a good explanation of my test scores but not much practical help save some extra time on my exams. And on the whole we are excellent as a profession at practical problem solving using both everyday things like reminder aps on phones, putting the flat jar opens under bowls to stop them slipping, breaking down tasks into small steps to identify what people find difficult etc.

so if you want a diagnosis - ed pysch
if you want some practical tips for living -OT

Not sure if any of this makes sense I have very structured report formats that I use at work! hope this may help some.
Roxy86
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Location: West Sussex

Re: WAIS psychology test vs OT assessment

Post by Roxy86 »

The original post here from Hoppingmouse interests me even more now, as I am going to see a psychologist next week, to begin my assessment and am curious as to how my WAIS test scores will compare... Thanks for posting! :)
-Hakuna Matata-
AlleyCat
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Re: WAIS psychology test vs OT assessment

Post by AlleyCat »

Yes, let us know how your WAIS assessment goes. I was diagnosed with dyspraxia on the basis that there was a significant gap between my verbal and non-verbal scores, with the non-verbal being lower. It was specifically mentioned that I had motor coordination problems because my lowest scores were in the tests where I had to write at speed (eg the symbol search test).
Roxy86
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Re: WAIS psychology test vs OT assessment

Post by Roxy86 »

I had my first session with my psychologist on Tuesday... It was fascinating!! :D I had a general knowledge test, she pointed to objects/colours around the room and asked me what they were, I was shown 50 pictures and then had to point to the right one, when shown another 2 (one I had previously seen, the other I hadn't) but the most interesting part of the 3 hours was when I was shown a series of 6 images and had to single out the one that didn't belong, the odd one out. It started off easy, but, as I got further into the test realised how hard I was finding it... I found myself, having to talk my way through it, and rule out the other 5 images and say out loud to myself, why I was ruling each one out in turn... After that, my psychologist concluded that, from what she has seen/heard so far, and given my background and premature/traumatic birth, it was likely that my frontal lobe hasn't developed past childhood/adolescence. Said it was more than a developmental disorder, rather than a learning difficultly at this stage, but will be able to know more after my next 2 sessions and after further tests next week :) Feeling optimistic!! :D
-Hakuna Matata-
AlleyCat
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Re: WAIS psychology test vs OT assessment

Post by AlleyCat »

After that, my psychologist concluded that, from what she has seen/heard so far, and given my background and premature/traumatic birth, it was likely that my frontal lobe hasn't developed past childhood/adolescence.
I don't think I would go so far as to say that your frontal lobes hadn't developed past childhood/adolescence- you seem very articulate, and it is not likely that this would be the case if your frontal lobe development was so far behind where it should be. What I think is more likely is that there could well be some frontal lobe dysfunction, which is not the same as the frontal lobes being stuck at the stage of childhood (as could happen with a severe brain injury, for example). If you read up about ADHD and ADD, you will see that they are often referred to as disorders of the frontal lobes, and are particularly common in people who were born early or experienced a difficult birth. The reason why I'm mentioning these is that the test in which you had to pick the odd image out is exactly the kind of test where someone with attention deficit disorder would start making mistakes after a while due to concentration issues. I would ask the psychologist if she thinks you might have ADHD or ADD. Although I was just diagnosed with dyspraxia, I have often thought I might have ADD as well, but perhaps more tests than the WAIS alone would have been needed to establish this.
Roxy86
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Location: West Sussex

Re: WAIS psychology test vs OT assessment

Post by Roxy86 »

It's official; today, I was formally diagnosed as Dyspraxic! :) Lol! Will post my test scores when I get my written report!! :D
-Hakuna Matata-
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