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Adoption
CaptainSerious
member
XP - Borderline IQ Question
CaptainSerious
member
in Adoption
My husband and I have been considering adopting a little girl with special needs. Among her other needs, tests indicate that she has a borderline IQ (low 70s). I've looked everywhere, but am having a hard time finding any kind of information that would give us an idea of what type of difficulties she might have in life. We're trying to find out how severe her learning disabilities/developmental delays might be.
Can anyone offer me some insight or advice on where to find this type of information? We will have a doctor review the case once the file is translated, but were hoping to get a general idea and/or find some relevant reading in the meantime.
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Re: XP - Borderline IQ Question
I am not sure that the IQ test can give you a very accurate understanding of what her deficits or strengths might be or what her life might be like. ?It would be more helpful if you had some sort of developmental assessment that gave more specifics about her (ie: is she hitting her milestones, what are her areas of strength or weakness, etc). ?70 is certainly borderline and gives you a hint that she may have some learning difficulties, but I don't think the number alone tells you what you want to know. ?One person with an IQ of 70 will function very differently than another person with an IQ of 70. ?
I know this was probably not a helpful answer, and I wonder if you will be able to access any of the information I am asking about above, or if all you get is the score number. ?However, I think the essential things that I would personally want to know about her intelligence (can she understand a joke/sarcasm or is she too concrete for that, how well does she connect on an interpersonal level, does she have interests and/or hobbies, etc) would be hard to tell from the IQ test alone. ? ?
I think that speaking with a special ed teacher or an education specialist could be helpful. ?I took an IQ test at some point in high school as part of a career exploration thing and it was administered by a lady who was in private practice and just did IQ tests, career counseling, etc. ?You could look for someone like that and speak with them. ?Also ask them if IQ is static throughout life or if childhood scores sometimes don't necessarily predict adult scores entirely. ?Also, do you have an international adoption clinic at a children's hospital nearby? ?They should be able to help you out too.?
Sorry for the long, probably unhelpful post. ?This sounds like a really exciting possibility, and I hope that this little girl is the one for you. ?Good luck!?
Wait... does this mean you have a match???
Ditto the special ed teacher suggestion - best to go with the one at the elementary school near your house. Good luck!
No, no match. This is a little girl on the waiting list who's situation seemed like it might be a match and we requested her file.
Thanks for the information. I guess there?s a reason it?s so hard to find any kind of explanation on what type of difficulties she might encounter in life.
The little girl is only for, and has lived in a Peruvian orphanage since she's been 2 months old. She has hypothyroidism which was not diagnosed until she was 6 months old, which they believe caused the delays. Her file shows two IQ scores (72 and 73), but it's hard to tell if she was tested twice or if they just recopied the score incorrectly a year later. In general, they say she's about a year behind developmentally. I'm trying to figure out how much of it is because she hasn't received enough stimulation in the orphanage.
They say she's showing delays in vocabulary and gross/fine motor ability. She can jump in place with both feet, but cannot walk up stairs alternating feet. She can pass objects from hand to hand (something she couldn't do a year ago) and eat with a spoon, but spills liquids from the spoon while bringing it up to her mouth. Despite everything, they say she is pretty self sufficient when it comes to getting dressed and similar tasks, and finds ways to make herself understood.
Also, she prefers to play by herself because she can control the game/interaction. They also say she dislikes grand displays of affection, but her she will give in to your attention/affections if you offer her something of interest/food.
The file says that her prognosis is good if she has someone to work with her and help socialize her. We are trying to figure out if this means that they think that the delays are just that--delays--and she might "catch up" to some extent, or if they think she will improve, but always face similar difficulties.
It?s just frustrating, because once we express an interest in parenting her, Peru expects us to follow through?and rightfully so. The tough part is that, unlike foster situation or something, there are no visits prior to our getting to make that decision, so the only thing we have to go on is what?s written in her file. Sure, we can ask for more information, but I?m not really sure what to ask for at this stage that will give us a better grasp of whether we are prepared to parent her.
You see, if we decide that this is something we think we can handle, we will get the file translated and evaluated by a doctor who specializes in international adoption. She will then give us an idea of what type of information to request and what might be expected as time goes on. The glitch is that getting the translation done is costly (right now we are working off a rough translation that I did with the help of free translation software), and my husband would like at least a better feel for the severity of this girl?s situation before we have it translated. He?s worried that (like the last file we had translated), this child won?t be meant for us, and we are going to spend a fortune having every file translated which peaks our interest if we don?t try to research them somewhat on our own first. It doesn?t help that we haven?t yet been approved (although if we request to parent a child at this point, they will expedite our approval decision at the same time), because he?s worried we?ll be denied given their recent line of questions (about our possible fertility).
Gah! It?s just so frustrating not knowing what steps I can take to research this possibility without having more information. I thank you for the special ed teacher idea. I think that might set me on the right track, and I have a few friends who work in that area and might be able to point me in the right direction.
I have hypothyroidism and it can affect brain function. How controlled is her tsh/free T4. If it's still off or not in the correct range consisitantly it can affect her brains ability to process. I'm not saying her IQ could skyrocket but the thyroid problem could be affecting how well she's able to do on the IQ test.
I'd definitely check on it and get more info.
That's good to know. I've got her test results, but I don't really know what the levels should be, so I don't know if they are on target. That's one of the things we were hoping the medical review could tell us.
It's seeming more and more like the only way we'll get a feel for the situation is if we have the files translated and reviewed. I'm on board...but my husband is hesitating....
ideally, particularly in a young child you want it between 1-3 for the tsh. usually around 2-3 is best b/c it will change quickly as she goes through growth spurts and that'll give a little room for the numbers to adjust.
Good luck
I'm a special ed teacher and have worked with many kids adopted from orphanages. I would take the current results with a grain of salt. Good information to have, but with good intervention (language, motor, social and academic) she could make great strides. While there will likely always be some lingering effects of her life in the orphanage, we now know enough about brain development to know that even when a "door" seems closed, there still can be improvements.
Generally speaking, an IQ of 70 is low. Language processing is probably very slow. So she will take longer to understand oral and written language, and need more think time than her peers. Math skills may be very difficult to attain, especially because current instruction in this country is more abstract ("Everyday Math") and less functional. She may need pull out instruction for a while . . . or her whole academic career. This is not the worst thing as any decent school will get her involved in the regular classroom as much as possible for social events, and classes like music, gym, etc. As much as I believe in public education, I also advocate more individualized work outside of school--speech therapy beyond what the school can offer, tutoring, etc.
While she may take some patience, I would not discount adopting her based on an IQ score. Definitely consider her social-emotional background. That may be more significant than her learning.
Hope that helps a bit!
Thanks for the recommendation, noone! I actually already have his information, in addition to that of a few others in the field. It's always nice to know that a particular doctor I'm considering has a good reputation.