Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Gap between processing speed and working memory

We had DD8 tested on the WISC IV finally and as expected, her processing speed was below average. I expected this because she is incredibly slow with written work in class and also has ADHD (although she is a lot better medicated than unmedicated).
Her working memory, however, was Ok and much higher than processing speed. Working memory was 96th percentile and processing speed was 34th percentile. Has anyone else seen a gap like that? She had an 8 on coding and a 10 on symbol search. For the working memory index, she had a 14 on arithmetic and 15 on Letter-Number Sequence.
When we had DS, my other kid, evaluated for ADHD, the neuropsych was looking specifically at working memory. But DD's working memory was fine. It would be interesting to test her again and see how she does on both indexes without meds. The psych who tested her showed me her handwriting on coding and did mention possible perfectionism. She is not like that when unmedicated and her handwriting is very sloppy. But unmedicated, she would probably not be able to stay focused on the task at all.
I found this interesting article on processing speed and "The Tortoise Hypothesis". I wish I could find more info on what it means if working memory is fine but processing speed is poor.
http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10447.aspx

Yup my son had a big gap like that on he last WISQ ... He scored "superior" in working memory and "borderline" in processing.

My son does have visual processing and graphiomotor weaknesses and disabilities and that's what I attribute it to...

Does he have ADHD or was there an explanation for that? Can't remember...

Whoops sorry, I think we posted at the same time.

He isn't dx with ADHD but its always brought up to "keep an eye on," etc. let's put it this way - I feel like if I in any way expressed a desire to have that dx, they'd give it ... But since the testing doesn't really (or strongly) bear it out and I don't believe he has it and I express that both directly and on my checklists it's not been dx'ed. That's the feeling I get . I personally do not think he is... He's very creative and I think that it is very easy to mistake the two sometimes .

I just found this interesting article with talks about the relationship between working memory and processing speed, reading fluency and ADHD but it was a little over my head. DD's reading fluency is one of her strengths--even when she is unmedicated she does very well.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3309419/

My son's PSI was at the 34th percentile and his WMI was at the 99th percentile (using digit span rather than arithmetic). I honestly think his low score for processing speed had more to do with him not wanting to do the tasks (and going really slowly because of it) rather than a real processing speed issue. That said, he does have some fine motor problems, which may have played a role.

34 percentile isn't considered poor, right in the heart of average. GAI exists because working memory and processing speed don't correlate well with general intelligence.

Does your daughter's behavioral therapist have any insights into the differences between her processing and perfectionism when on and off medication?

Thanks Kai, I have thought about fine motor and just don't see it with her, except for the fact that she does not usually hold a pencil correctly.

It mystifies me how she can be so strong in reading fluency but struggle so much with math fluency and speed on written tasks.

Psych did mention that she is probably a visual thinker since she was close to 150 for perceptual reasoning. 16 on block design (she said DD was a bit slow and ran out of time) and 18 and 19 on the other two tests.

Sadly, she does not have any services for ADHD and never had a good evaluation in the first place. We just filled out the Connors for the pediatrician. I think if she had taken the WISC unmedicated she would have actually been a lot slower with processing speed. Her teacher says she is one of the slowest kids in the class for written work.