Conners' Parent Rating Scale?

Question

Here is my stress.

Has anyone every heard of the Conners' Parent Rating Scale? My son has been having problems reading. So he has been getting pulled out of class to see a reading specialist. And also going to tutoring every Tues and Thurs. After my monthly meeting this last time they asked me for permission to test him for Dyslexia. Even though he has been improving it has not been quick enough for them so I agreed. They just sent me the forms today and I did some research the Conners Parent Rating Scale is used for problems with sleep, eating, temper, keeping friends, problems in school and symptoms of ADHD. I do not really want to give them this form back because I know none of these are an issue. Besides all that this test has never been certified or validated by any federal state or local agencies.

I should mention that he was held back in Kindergarten because of reading issues. He is 7 and in first grade. He is also diagnosed with small stature. He bones are the age of 5.

Answer 1

The school is not giving you the runaround, and is not trying to s***w you over for lack of a better term. The Conners PRS is used to either determine or rule out possibilities of issues that could be affecting your child's progress in school. Many times there are screeners or diagnostic tools that are used in evaluations that are just part of a "packet" that is used for every child. At my school for every child that is evaluated, we complete a socio-cultural survey, a classroom observation and an adaptive scale. Almost every child scores average on the adaptive scale, but it is given anyway just to make sure that there aren't any severe weaknesses that we haven't found.

So my advice to you is to complete it truthfully and send it back to the school. It will only show them that your son does not have problems in these areas.

Good luck with everything!

Answer 2

They are prob doing what is called a differential diagnosis or rule out diagnosis.. When you test for a certain disorder, you dont just test for that one.. YOu do a battery of disorders.  This gets to a more accurate diagnosis..

Answer 3

It is in your and your child's best interest that you give the forms back. Conner's Rating Scales are used to give indicators about ADHD - it basically tells if the child has symptoms of inattentiveness, hyperactivity or both - but they also indicate other behaviors such as anxiety. Your child might look inattentive at school but not at home.

Remember that you are the rater and if you can't see any symptoms the scale will reflect that. If your child shows symptoms of inattentiveness at school but not at home, it is possible that his "inattentiveness" is nothing more than a strategy to avoid what is difficult for him - and the professionals at your school will know that.

Answer 4

As a social worker, I have given out Conners plenty of times, to parents and teachers as well.  It is not illegal to give a Conners outside of the special education process.  There are instances where a doctor requests that it be done by teachers or parents.  Ninety-nine percent of the time these requests are brought to us by the parents.  Also, the Conners is for more than the problems you mentioned.  When I score the tests, there are other problems or areas of attention besides those listed or the ones that you see at home.  And like someone said, YOU are the rater, so the scores will reflect that those issues are not present for you.  In addition, I think that some people are mistaken in thinking that a Conners is given to DIAGNOSE ADHD, when that is of course not the case.  ADHD is a medical diagnosis, and a school can't do that.  It's perfectly ok for him to get reading help without receiving special education services.  That's what programs like Title 1 Reading and Math are for.

Answer 5

Everythign the school is doing is ILLEGAL.

This rating scale is used by the school to prove the problems your child is having is related to family, home, mental issues and NOT learning problems.

This is a dirty trick they pull, but will tell you that they are just 'concerned' about your child.

This happens ALL the time and the parents don't know that when the full evaluation is done on the child, right there in black and white will be the words that the school does not have to hlep the child because his problems are because of family/home issues.  ANd they determined this by what the parent fills out on the conners rating scale.

You do NOT have to fill this out. Just write to them and state you are not going to fill this out because it is NOT part of his problems. Make SURE you put this in writing and send it back with the form.

As far as dyslexia, schools can NOT do testing to diagnose this. Schools ONLY do testing to see if a child can qualify for special ed services.

I dont' know what you mean about the tesing not certified by federal state or local agencies.

Do not agree to ANY Of this becuase it is ALL ILLEGAL!

If you want the school to help your child with reading, the ONLY legal way they are suppose to help with this is for the child to be in special ed services.

They are giving you the runaround BIG TIME to get out of providing help thru special ed.

You will have to learn and folllow the legal process for getting help for him. It is called special education services and it is mandated by FEDERAL laws called IDEA ''individuals with disabilities education act'

The best site to learn about these laws and process is 'www.wrightslaw.com'

It is a very complicated process that most parents don't know about and schools KNOW that parents don't knwo about it so  they do c**p like this to get out of helping the child.

If you need help please let me know because there is a specific process you ahve to follow in getting help for him.

Email me [e-mail]

Answer 6

This is just a general screening packet.  The person testing your son has no personal knowledge of him on a daily basis.  To help substantiate his or her claims, the psychologist will note that the Conner's revealed no finding.  

Part of the Federal definition of learning disabilities is to rule out other potential causes of his reading problems.   Homelessness (disruption of education), physical trauma/other medical issues and abuse (emotional interference) are common questions that they psychologist may contact you for.  Once it is noted formally in your son's reports, then it will part of his record and the future evaluations will be much easier.  Don't be offended.  

I'm sorry they didn't explain all of this to you in the beginning.