The Evaluation IV

Ok. Let me present you the facts and give you and idea of what the magic evaluation was about:

This is the name of the "tests". You can google to learn about them and the underlying theory and research that support them:

1. "Hand Dynamometer" test, "Finger Tapping" test and "Grooved Pegboard" test. These tests are to measure "different aspects of handedness such as strength, speed and dexterity". (I didn't know what "dexterity" means so I had to look in the dictionary)
   
2. "Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children 4th edition". This is an inteligence test, the result of this test is the well known "IQ".
   
3. "Wechsler individual achievement Test second edition". These tests "measure oral expression, listenting comprehension, reading, spelling, arithmetic and writing".
   
4. "Children's memory scale".
   
5. "California Verbal Learning Test Children Version". This is a memory test. In this test he is read a list of items in a "shopping list". There are 3 kinds of items, "foods", "cloth" and "drinks" or something like that (basically 3 categories). The items are not listed by categhory but randomly. The designers of this tests claim that the brain remembers more effectively if you try to remember by category (semantic clustering) as opposed to remember in the order in which the words are presented (serial clustering). The list is recited five times and each time he is asked to recall the items. Each time he is supposed to remember more items (if his memory works as it "supposed to work"). Each one of these repetitions is called by the psychologist a "trial". I guess they like to create this pseudo scientific jargon to make you believe that they are doing something deeper than what they are actually doing, a way to justify the money they charge. Then he is given a second list to see if there is interference with the previous learned list. After 20 minutes they ask him to recall the first list, to measure his "retention".
6. Rey Complex Figure Test. I think this is another memory test, but this one is visual, as opposed to the previous two that are more verbal. He was shown a figure and he had to reproduce it from memory, immediately and after a few minutes.
   
7. "Test of variables of attention". This is a test in front of the computer. He has to "press a button in response to a stimulus and not press a button in response to another stimulus. The computer alternates between both stimuli at varying rates during 22 minutes". This test is certain NOT a diagnostic tool for ADHD for which there is no conclussive diagnostic test that I (or the psychologists and doctors I consulted) know of. I talk about this tets in my next post.
8. "Wisconsin card sorting test". This one is interesting. See my next post to learn about it.
   
9. "Sensory fields".
10. Youth self report.
11. "House-Tree-Person test". Draw a picture of a house, tree, person in that order.
12. "Family drawing test". Draw a picture of the family doing something together.