› 7 Abilities Your Child Needs for Testing Success

7 Abilities Your Child Needs for Testing Success

posted by Karen Quinn, The Testing Mom - August 19th, 2016

As you ready your child for back to school, there will be tests. This list will help you to both analyze the areas, where your child needs to build skills and abilities, and to see confidently where he or she is currently secure.

1. Language: Receptive and Expressive

Receptive = your child’s ability to tune in, listen and understand words being spoken to him.

Expressive = your child’s ability to say words orally to express his ideas and feelings.

So begin with asking your child a question like this one…

Practice Question for OLSAT® – Point to a picture that shows a square next to a star that is inside a circle.

OLSAT Practice 1 for blog

Answer is #1.

2. Knowledge-Comprehension

Basic information that children should know by the time they start school – colors, numbers, letters, holidays, farm animals, shapes, types of transportation, fruit, vegetables, etc.

Standards of behavior children should know by the time they are tested.

Then ask your child these questions…

Practice Questions for WPPSI® – III and StanfordBinet Intelligence Scales® – Why should you wash your hands after you go to the bathroom? Why is it important to tell the truth?

Practice question for Bracken School Readiness Assessment™– Point to something that looks like a cylinder. Point to something that looks like a sphere.

Point to the number 15? 49?

4 15 38 49 62

3. Memory

Your child’s ability to remember things she just learned (short term) or what she learned in the past (long term). Can be language-based or visual.

Working memory is the ability to remember something you just learned, do something with it and come up with an answer.

Ask your child these now…

Practice question for WPPSI® – III – What’s wrong with this picture?

Numbers are missing is the answer.

Practice question for OLSAT ® – Point to the picture where the mouse is behind the chair, the cat is on top of the chair, and the bird is in the cage.

Answer is #1.

4. Mathematics

Computational skills: counting, adding, subtracting

Thinking needed for math work – patterning, sequences, ordering, classifying, comparing

Practice question for OLSAT ®– Look at the first box. The teacher has half as many A+ stickers as she has check stickers. If she wants to have one more A+ stickers than check stickers, how many more does she need to get?

The answer is 2.

Practice question for OLSAT ®– Pattern Matrix – What belongs in the last box? Child must discern the pattern going across the top two rows to determine what belongs in the last box.

Answer is the third choice.

5. Visual-Spatial Reasoning

Your child’s ability to reason and solve problems using pictures, images, diagrams, geometric shapes, maps and tables.

Practice question for Bracken School Readiness Assessment™ – Which of these is the widest?

Answer is #2.

Practice Question for Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales®, WPPSI® – III and OLSAT ®– Which picture belongs in the bottom right box?

Answer is #1.

Practice question for the NNAT®2 (Naglieri Non-verbal Abilities Test)

Answer is A.

6. Cognitive Skills

Thinking, reasoning, problem solving

Practice Question for Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales®, WPPSI® – III and OLSAT ® – What belongs in the bottom left box?

Answer is #2.

Practice Question for OLSAT®– What doesn’t belong?

Answer is #2.

7. Fine-Motor Skills

Your child’s abilities to control his hands and fingers to do tasks like cutting with scissors, typing a bow, folding, buttoning and unbuttoning. Grapho-motor skills involve the use of hands and fingers to write with a pencil.

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales® and WPPSI® – III have puzzles and pattern blocks

Coding cards – Child has to mark the correct symbol inside each shape

Did your child ace the tests above? What areas do they need to practice and brush up their skills? You can find all sorts of practice questions here at TestingMom.com, so that your child will be fully ready for every test they take!