NILD Uses Testing to Create Individualized Therapy Plans.
We require an initial psycho-educational evaluation before students enter NILD Educational Therapy®. This enables the therapist to understand students’ learning strengths and challenges, and skillfully tailor sessions to the specific needs of each student.
Our Goals
- Help students with learning disabilities and challenges to learn and reason more effectively and to increase students' capacity to learn.
- Set in motion life-long learning and lasting cognitive change.
- Best meet the needs of our students as we prescribe therapy
On average, students require three years of intervention, though some may require more or less, depending on their specific learning needs.
Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement - Third Edition
NILD Educational Therapists use the KTEA-III assessment tool to assist us as we:
- Form Rx 4 Discovery Math and Rx for Discovery Reading intervention groups
- Evaluate academic skills in reading, math, written language, and oral language before and after intervention takes place
- Measure progress or response to intervention and adjust instruction based on performance
Woodcock-Johnson® IV Assessment
This comprehensive test allows us to evaluate learning problems, prescribe individualized intervention and measure progress.
The three WJ IV tests can be used independently or in any combination. The three types of tests are:
- Tests of Achievement
- Oral Language
- Cognitive
The WJ IV emphasizes the identification of strengths and weaknesses in student thinking by providing comparisons between the student and other students the same age or in the same grade, as well as providing a way to measure progress over the course of intervention.
NILD is a dedicated group of highly trained educational therapists who recognize the learning potential of every child. With compassion and competence, they provide explicit, differentiated instruction to address and resolve each child’s unique learning challenges.
Nancy Mather, Ph.D.Professor of Learning Disabilities at University of Arizona, Co-author, Woodcock-Johnson III Test of Achievement, and author of several books
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Childres (WISC)
The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), developed by David Wechsler, is an individually administered intelligence test for children between the ages of 6 and 16. It can be completed without reading or writing. The WISC takes 65–80 minutes to administer and generates an IQ score, which represents a child’s general cognitive ability.
This test assists NILD Educational Therapists discover learning strengths and vulnerabilities in each student; therefore, it allows our therapists to offer targeted, individual intervention that is best suited for each student.
Can NILD’s intensive intervention actually lead to improvements in verbal, nonverbal, and cognitive functioning as evidenced on the WISC IV test?
The WISC IV is a prediction of performance in school, and a measure of a child’s strengths and weaknesses in thinking. NILD Educational Therapists use this data to identify a learning profile, determine a student’s need for therapy, communicate a child’s learning profile to students and parents, and prescribe therapy techniques.
Although the goal of NILD Educational Therapy® is not to make progress on this particular test, as students progress through NILD Educational Therapy® and thinking skills are inevitably challenged and changed…the results have proven very exciting!
Hindsight is 20/20 vision. When I look back at my daughter’s school years, I can clearly see the signs of her learning disabilities: a kindergarten teacher reminding me to watch her letter and number reversals, the difficulties she had learning to read, a third grade teacher who seemed overly concerned with her SAT scores, and finally a sixth grade teacher who suggested testing. Six important educational years would pass before I would address my daughter’s learning disability. [T]est results showed a significant problem in her spatial perception, a problem that could be treated with medication. We were hoping for an alternative plan to medication. That alternative was provided. We did enroll Dannika [in NILD Educational Therapy], a very bright 7th grader who had a very real learning disability. We saw measurable improvement in her just in the first year. Math was her weakest subject. By the last 6 weeks of school, Dannika made all A’s on her report card, including an A in Pre-Algebra, an accomplishment she had never made before. These grades were earned in all regular classes with no modifications.
Jo Lynn, Parent
If you are a parent looking for an NILD Educational Therapist or want to get trained yourself, go to NILD.org/parents.