Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Processing speed

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Does your school board require a WISC IV to get into the gifted program or do they use other tests as their first line of screening? What grade does the program start?

What I'm trying to get to is if it is common for them to do a WISC in grade 4 because the gifted program starts in grade 5 then I'd focus on advocating to get her on that list. If however your school uses the CCAT (or something else) and will only do a WISC in the most extreme of cases then I'd probably focus on doing it privately knowing that the odds of being able to successfully advocate for her to be the one in 500 or whatever it is pretty slim since she is at the top of the class and most schools have long lists of kids with more obvious needs. They likely don't care that she should be even higher achieving since they can't deal with that anyway.

I don't know if you can assume it is processing speed/working memory but I can say that my DS (who scores low in both of the above) is one of the slowest writers in his class. Ask him math stuff verbally and he can do it quickly, ask him to do the exact same thing but write his answers down and it takes a LONG time. At school he actually displays many characteristics of ADHD-Inattentive if the work is too boring for his gifted side or too hard for the LD side of him (it's a great combo). The whole reason we tested was because the school unofficially diagnosed him as ADHD.

IMHO most teachers don't totally get processing speed issues (but heck, I barely do and I've been living it for 7 years and reading everything I can so I try not to be too hard on them). The BEST thing having that full report to give to the school is that they stopped thinking he was spacey/rude/clueless/dumb/unmotivated/etc. They don't completely get it but they at least know he is crazy smart so they treat him differently because of that. They also let people scribe for him which greatly reduced his frustration and anger and stopped harping on him constantly to work faster.

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Black cat-- Watch this YouTube and I think it will give you some ideas about how to explain the processing problem you are seeing with your child:

BTW Processing issues are frequently connected with ADHD from the reading I've done. I'm not sure what level is expected from an ADHD diagnosis but it seems some amount is. I do know that without being told of "processing issues", our Neuropsychiatrist identified a section of my son's brain showing a "processing disorder" (no more info than visible underfunctioning). We have also seen lots of gifted children struggle with lower processing speed. I'm still learning about it.

Several of us have ordered the full video after watching the youtube snippets linked above. It might even be something to share with school directly.

DS also gets lost with many steps which apparently has to do with his low working memory. I used a math example for him since that is one of his strengths so it was painful to see him struggling to do something so easy for him.

I don't know enough about the Weschler non-verbal ability test to comment on that. Did the psych give a reason for not wanting to do the WISC IV? I guess I'd try to find out why they object and try to advocate for the WISC IV assuming they will share all of the results. TBH if it is financially possible I'd strongly consider going private based on the above two posts. She has ADHD and you suspect possible other 2e issues. Unless your school psych is experienced with those types of issues and will do a full evaluation I suspect you'll get more information going private. I don't know what we would have got in-school (it was going to be at couple years on a waiting list and we felt we didn't have time for that) but I do know we came out of private testing with a very detailed 14 page report. We were then in total control over what we did or didn't share with the school and had a much better understanding than we would have otherwise. Of course if we could have got all of that without paying for it ourselves, that would have been nice

If you can finagle things to where the school picks up the tab for the WISC, that'd be excellent.

You mention that the school psych is "resistant." I think that "resistant" is miles away from "dead-set against," so keep pushing...

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Thank you,
Mark

Is your DD a perfectionist and could that be slowing her down? Would the school consider a WASI (although if you really want the information about processing speed this might not give you what you want)?

I'll second the suggestion above to pursue private neurospych testing or at least some type of private, comprehensive educational eval. Your dd has an ADHD diagnosis, and you also suspect some type of 2e issue may be impacting her ability to complete her work as quickly as her peers. A neuropsych eval will not only give you test scores, but will also give you important feedback that will help you to understand what the test scores mean related to the behaviors you're seeing (slow to complete school work). It might be a working memory issue, it might be a focus issue, it might be a fine motor issue... really, it could be any of 1000 things, and having an unbiased and comprehensive look from a professional will help answer so many questions. You will also get a report outlining the accommodations (as well as remediation if necessary etc) that your dd needs, and that's where you begin with advocating - with a professional report in writing, as well as the knowledge you'll gain through the eval.

I also have found it helpful to look forward past the immediate school situation when thinking about what to do in situations like this. Right now you're focused on how to get your dd into the GATE program in 4th grade, but the CogAT testing for that program isn't the only place in her life where the challenges she has (ADHD, possible something else impacting processing speed etc) are going to impact her ability to show her full knowledge. At some point in time she'll most likely have to take timed standardized tests, eventually she'll be taking College Board etc tests, chances are that in middle school and then later on in high school her homework load will increase... things like that. The earlier you start implementing accommodations and the more you understand and have proof of why they are needed, the easier it's going to be to have them in place and not have to fight for them when they are going to count. You're seeing a bit of that "deadline" looming with the gifted program admissions testing - it *is* possible to get accommodations for the CogAT such as extended time or oral response etc. It's *not* an IQ test and it's not a test designed to tease out learning differences, so your school should be able to give your dd accommodations when taking it - provided you've gone through the process of requesting accommodations for *all* testing (classroom and state testing etc). It sounds like your dd needs extended time (and she might need other accommodations you're not aware of). All of this, from my perspective, is reason to pursue an outside eval, and to pursue it now, not later.

Best wishes,

polarbear

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