Mom Is Told Her Son Has A Low IQ After An Evaluation, But His Teachers Disagree — 'They Think He Is Very Intelligent'
She's worried about her son's educational future.
Evgeny Atamanenko | Shutterstock A mom opened up about the heartbreak she's feeling after learning of her 6-year-old son's struggles in the classroom.
She was recently told her son needed an evaluation because of his low IQ.
In her Reddit post, the mom explained that her son, who is turning 7 in the coming months, has always struggled to do well in school. He previously had to repeat pre-K, and as he was going into kindergarten, his teacher discovered that he was behind. Deciding to address the problem, the mom hired someone to work with her son during the weeks leading up to kindergarten.
"He then switched to a public school, so he started out on the same level as his peers," she continued. "He has always loved school, but as kindergarten progressed and he started falling behind, he started to dread going."
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It wasn't long before his teacher shared that she suspected he may have dyslexia, which made sense when they thought about his struggles in school, sports, and speech. His mom and his teacher began working together based on this assumption and got him a dyslexia screening and tutor.
Additionally, the little boy's mom applied for him to attend a specialized charter school in case he needed specialized support once he started first grade.
As part of the evaluation for the charter school, her son had to have an official dyslexia evaluation. Once she got the results back, she was shocked to learn that he had done "terribly" across multiple categories and scored below average for intelligence.
"As such, they can't even diagnose him with dyslexia because, basically, his poor reading level is in line with his low IQ," she added.
"My heart is broken for him as I realize how real his struggles are going to be. He is already very aware that he has fallen behind his classmates, and I just hate to think that school is going to be so difficult for him," she wrote. "I am planning to get a full psychoeducational evaluation on him to see what else might be at play, but I am just so sad and scared for him right now."
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It's definitely a worrying thought to believe that your child may struggle in the future, especially when it comes to their education. However, if her son is dyslexic, which she and his teachers feel strongly about, then there are multiple resources and ways that he can still have a successful life and school career.
On top of that, tests are never the best way to evaluate a person's intelligence. Many people suffer from testing anxiety, require different learning methods, or both, and these standardized tests are not an accurate representation of a person's intelligence — especially an almost 7-year-old boy.
When she reached out to his teacher and tutor, they heavily disagreed with the test results.
"I reached out to both his kindergarten teacher as well as his current tutor to get their thoughts on the results," she said. "Both were shocked and strongly disagreed with the assessment. They both outlined several areas that they say he excels in and emphasized that they think he is very intelligent."
When she looked at her son's results herself and did some additional research on the specific IQ test, she was shocked to discover that it was just a 5-minute assessment.
"How can they so confidently label him as having low IQ based on 5 minutes, without even reaching out to his teacher or tutor to get their impression?" she questioned. "I’m very angry that this school would flippantly throw around such devastating results based on such a brief evaluation. I am definitely going to get the psychoeducational evaluation done, but I am no longer considering this school."
At the end of the day, this little boy's mom shouldn't take a 5-minute IQ test as the end all be all for her son's educational future. Getting separate recommendations and advice from others, especially his teacher and tutor will serve her far better than allowing a simple test to dictate her son's intelligence.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.