Reading comprehension test observations 1/11/2021

I found something really interesting about the Achieve test today. Most often I would read the passage with my finger under each word as I read. Then I would stop at random words and he would read those. As I was reading I have the answers covered. After I read the question, I reveal the answers, otherwise it's too distracting. For the multiple choice answers, I'd ask him to read and physically click to choose the one he felt was correct and click the submit button. One question was a bummer because he had chosen the correct answer but when he was trying to click submit, he accidentally clicked the wrong choice and then hit submit. It would be helpful if the "submit" button was a bit further away from the choices. 

Anyway, the observation I was sharing was that when we got into the trickier vocabulary, I realized that he sometimes knew the words but couldn't pronounce them. When I realized this, I read the words for him to choose from. When I do this, I read them multiple times and mix up the order or sometimes he will just choose the last one spoken. (This is a tip for testing in the future with him as well that maybe we should add to his IEP?) When I did this, he most often chose the correct word when he understood the context of the passage. 

It took a lot of sniffs, dizzy, shivering and breaks but he finished the 30 questions in an hour. I wasn't sure how it was going to go because there was a lot of coercion at the start. We put on "focus" music, I read his cues and pushed through when I thought I could and offered breaks when I knew he needed one. Once all done, very impressive focus in general. 

It's just remarkable what he can do when he's able to regulate and focus. Which is what I'm always on the search for, a way to help him do this more often. I guess every parents wish, really.