Colin's Testing

Today, Colin and I went to see a child psychologist who specializes in determining educational needs. Colin is a very smart boy who seems to struggle quite a bit socially and emotionally. Our pediatrician recommended that we have him tested by this woman and spoke very highly of her.

First Test: She gave Colin a drawing and asked him to copy it. No tracing or anything, just drawing the same thing on a separate sheet of paper. She was very impressed with his drawing, for a 7 yr old, she said, 'that is very good.'

Second Test: She put a very cryptic looking machine on the table. It had a red light, a green light, a number display (with three spaces) and a blue button. The blue button reminded me of a buzzer on a game show - except that it didn't buzz. With the first test, Colin needed to press the blue button. It would give him a point, shown by the red light glowing and the score visible on the number readout. The catch - if he didn't wait long enough between pushes, he wouldn't get a point. The green light only comes on when the test is complete. The all time high for her 7 year olds was 38. Colin scored a 37. (maybe this was to test for impulsiveness? To start, Colin kept pushing and pushing and pushing the button - then finally got the hang of it and did much better until the end)

Third Test: Same machine. This time, in the center space, numbers flashed randomly. Colin had to watch and press the blue button only when he saw a '1' followed by a '9.' He scored 41 points out of a possible 45.

Fourth Test: Same machine. Same numbers, except that now they are flashing in all three spaces. He has to wait until he sees the '1' and then the '9' consecutively, but only in the center space. The numbers were flashing pretty quickly. Colin scored 35 of 40. She said that typically, her 7 yr olds miss about 20.

Fifth Test: She gave Colin a clean sheet of paper and reminded him about the picture that he copied. She asked him to draw it again...just what he could remember. He didn't get to see it again and she told him not to worry too much because she hadn't told him that he needed to remember it. He drew for a little while. Got quite a bit of it, actually.

Unfortunately, I have to wait until next Saturday to find out the results of the testing. I'm very anxious to hear what she finds. It was SO fascinating. I'll keep you posted!!!

Happy Saturday!