Please forgive this long post, but I am new here and am really hoping I can find some answers to help me to figure out what is going on with my son. He is a bright 9 year old who is currently homeschooled. He is very good at math and reading, but his spelling and writing skills are abysmal. Because we are considering putting him in public school next fall (due to family reasons), I decided to have him tested by a local psychologist to see if he would qualify for the public school gifted program..

The local psychologist administered a WISC IQ test and the WAIT achievement test and then told me that my son had a composite IQ score of 124 and a GAI of 128 so therefore would not qualify as "gifted" (needs to be 130 here). The problem, however, is that I am afraid they are not factoring in a huge discrepancy in the ranges between some of his scores. His "Verbal Comprehension" segment totaled out at 96% - but would have been much higher had it not been for an extremely low score of 25% in one of the sutbests - "comprehension"- the other scores he received in that same grouping were 99.6% in vocabulary and 99% (similarities). His "Perceptual Reasoning" category was at 94%, "Working Memory" at 86% and "Processing Speed" came in at 66% - mainly due to a relatively low coding score of(50%). They psychologist also tested him using the addtional category of "information" as well - where he scored a 99% - however that score was apparently not used in any of his final IQ calculations.

My question to you guys is does it seem as though there could be some type of Gifted/learning disability issue in force here? I spoke briefly with the public school guidance counselor about my son's scores but she only said that "not everyone is good at everything", blah, blah, blah. Neither she nor the local psychologist seemed to think it was important to test further. It just seems to me that it is very strange for a child to do so well in most areas and yet to struggle so much in another. To me, the low subtest score in "comprehension" of 25% must indicate something - but the psycholgist seemed baffled. He said he didn't think my son exhibted dianosable signs of any "learning disorder".

I asked the psychologist if it were possible to substitute the "information" score of 99% with the low "comprehension" score of 25% in order to get a more accurate indication of my son's intelligence had he not had the "comprehension" issue to deal with.If that were done, his IQ would have calculated out to be 140. I felt it might be a more truer prediction of his potential. The psychologist point blank told me that "switching subtests was not ever done". Let me clarify that I didn't want him to "Switch" the scores per se, but to document both sets of results (with and without the low subtest) so that any future school could see the discrepancy and make their decision from there.

I am SO frustrated! My son has obvious issues with his spelling and writing. He cannot spell to save his soul, and his writing is almost an impossible task for him - especially when it comes to having to write anything "fiction". For some reason he seems to be totally unable to use his imagination. He much prefers to deal with "real" subjects. I know he knows he is "smart", but I am afraid that he is starting to question himself because of his seeming inability to perform in these areas. In fact, last year when he took the IQ test, he was also given the WIAT achievement test - where he scored extremely well - except on the written part of it.He was told to write about his favorite game, but couldn't/wouldn't do it. Apparently he just sat there staring at his paper and pretty much refused to write anything the entire time he was there. The psychologist really irked me afterwards when he told me (right in front of my son, no less!) that he thought my son had strong "passive aggressive" tendancies because of that. Especially, when, in my opinion ds wasn't deliberately trying to be stubborn. I think he was scared of not performing well and knew this was an area in which he just did not excel. Regardless.....

I will post the results of both his IQ and achievement scores below in case any of you with experience in 2E issues can help me make some sense of what might be going on with him - and if there is something that I should be doing that I am not to help him. (We do have a tutor who comes twice a week to help in writing and spelling - and she, too, has remarked on a possible LD based upon her work with him in these areas. She mentioned "aspbergers", but the psychologist doesn't think that could be possible as ds doesn't exhibit all of the necessary symptoms, apparently). If you've read this far - thank you so much. I truly appreciate any input any of you might have!

Verbal Comprehension -
Similarities- Raw Score: 31, Scaled Scores: 17, 17 Percentile Scores: 99%
Vocabulary- Raw Score: 50 Scaled Scores: 18, 18 Percentile Scores: 99.6%
Comprehension - Raw Score: 17 Scaled Scores: 8, 8 Percentile Scores: 25%
(Information) - Raw Score: 23 Scaled Scores: 17,17 Percentile Scores: 99%

Perceptional Reasoning -
Block Design - Raw Score: 38 Scaled Score: 13,13 Percentile Scores: 84%
Picture Concepts Raw Score: 20 Scaled Score: 13,13 Percentile Scores: 84%
Matrix Reasoning- Raw Score: 26 Scaled Score: 15, 15 Percentile Scores: 95%

Working Memory -
Digit Span - Raw Score: 18 Scaled Score: 13, 13, Percentile Scores: 84%
Letter-Number Seq. Raw Score: 19 Scaled Score: 13, 13 Percentile Scores: 84%

Processing Speed -
Coding - Raw Score: 39, Scaled Score: 10, 10 Percentile Scores: 50%
Symbol Search - Raw Score: 23 Scaled Score: 12, 12 Percentile Scores: 75%

Sum of Scaled Scores:
Verbal Comprehension: 43 - Composit Score: 126 Percentile rank: 96%
Perceptual Reasoning: 41 - Composit Score: 123, Percentile rank: 94% -
Working Memory: 26 - Composit Score: 116, Percentile Rank: 86%
Processing Speed: 22 - Composit Score: 106, Percentile Rank 66%
Full Scale: 132- Composit Score 124, Percentile Rank 95%

WIAT Achievement Test Scores

WIAT-II Subtests:
Word Reading - Predicted: 113, Actual: 116
Numerical Operations - Predicted: 112, Actual: 116
Reading Comprehension - Predicted: 113, Actual 124
Spelling - Predicted: 111, Actual: 85
Pseudoword Decoding - Predicted: 110, Actual: 103
Math Reasoning - Predicted: 116, Actual: 133
Written Expression - Predicted: 111, Actual: Non Scorable (son refused to do this portion of the test)
Listening Comprehension- Predicted : 114, Actual: 132
Oral Expression - Predicted 110, Actual: 131

Composites:
Reading -
Word Reading - Subtest Standard Score: 116
Reading Comprehension - Subtest Standard Score: 124
Pseudoword Decoding - Subtest Standard Score: 103
Predicted: 113, Actual: 117
Mathematics -
Numerical Operations - Subtest Standard Score: 116
Math Reasoning - Subtest Standard Score: 133
Predicted: 115, Actual: 130

Written Language -
Spelling - Subtest Standard Score: 85
Written Expression Subtest Standard Score: �Not Scorable�
Predicted: 113, Actual: ? (son refused to do this portion of the test)

Oral Language -
Listening Comprehension - Subtest standard Score: 132
Oral Expression - Subtest Standard Score: 131
Predicted 114, Actual: 140
Total Composite - ? Predicted: 116