Those Dreaded End-of-Year Tests
By Marcia Eckerd, Ph.D.
It’s that time of year when many school systems give end-of-year tests. Don’t be surprised if your child with LD suddenly finds a million excuses to stay home from school.
Test taking is inherently nerve wracking. Having to perform on the spot is stressful for all students, but for children with LD, anticipating that they won’t do well is one more reason to dread this annual rite of spring.
What aspects of test taking are most difficult for your child and does he have the tools or strategies to handle them?
Taking standardized tests is an art. Visual scanning, graphomotor precision, and spatial organization are needed for tracking and marking the answers on bubble sheets. Reading fluency and processing speed are critical to working within the time provided. Children need to be comfortable with the multiple-choice format and know the “tricks of the trade,” (e.g., some items can be eliminated automatically). Math fluency, rapid recall of math facts, and familiarity with operations presented in novel ways are among the demands of math sections.
Some standardized tests have a writing component with strict marking guidelines. Many students with LD struggle with word finding, writing fluency, writing mechanics, and rapid production and elaboration.
Leveling the Playing Field
Hopefully, children with problems in these areas will have accommodations and extra time to ensure that they perform as well as they can. Following are some strategies that may prove helpful:
- Some children benefit from a separate test setting to minimize distractions and quell anxiety if they’re still working when others have finished.
- Like training for a big event, practice tests can lower anxiety by helping a child become used to the testing format and the extended stamina needed.
- Doing a “post mortem” on classroom tests may provide important insights into areas of difficulty with test taking that can be applied to standardized testing: What went wrong? Did the child know what to study? Was a study guide broken down into enough detail? Did the child read, understand, and follow all directions? Does the child have trouble understanding open ended directions and focus on less important details or miss directions that are not stated, such as the extent of elaboration required or the need for a certain structural format? Are editing skills lowering the grade?
- Some children need to take tests orally; others might need a rubric to demonstrate what they know.
- Children with LD may benefit from relaxation techniques. Tests can feel like psychological emergencies. A child who has practiced body relaxation and breathing daily can use breathing to calm himself down, which will allow him to use self talk: “I’ll do the best I can do, and it will be fine.”
- Finally, and most important, kids with LD need to understand that their performance on standardized tests is not a referendum on who they are or what they’re capable of achieving in the real world. Make sure you let them know that!