Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional very low processing speed

Hello- I am new to this forum and would like to get input about some issues with my daughter age 10.
She was recently tested for giftedness outside the school system. The school system had written that they were considering her for gifted programs, but I wanted to have an outside opinion first. She is in the fifth grade, but grew up through third grade in another country where she went to school in that countries school system and Language. Our home was bilingual. Obivously this skews some of her results of WISC-V follow:
FISQ 129
GAI 134
VC 142
similarities 16
vocabulary 19
VS 105
block design 11
visual puzzles 11
FR 131
Matrix reasoning 16
figure weights 15
WM 110
digit span 13
picture span 10
PS 89
coding 9
symbol search 7

Giftedness or not aside, I am very concerned with the slow processing speed and would like to hear from anyone else that has had something similar occur and what they were recommended to to about it if anything.
Thank you.

Welcome to the forums, PIK60

I'm not familiar with the WISC-V, but will give you a few things to consider based on the WISC-IV. A dip in processing speed relative to the other WISC subtests can occur for *many* different reasons. In the WISC-IV, the coding and symbol search subtests are both timed (I'm sure they are on the WISC-V too), so it's entirely possible that the only reason they appear so discrepant is that a child chooses to answer purposefully, is concerned about being correct, and/or writes slowly. On the other extreme a child might have a limitation of some type that prevents them from answering quickly. Two of my kids had large discrepancies in processing speed - one had low coding and higher symbol search - and he has fine motor dysgraphia. The other had an ok-score on coding but tanked the symbol search (scored *less* than 1/2 of a percent). That's how we found out she had vision challenges

If you can ask the person who administered the test if they had any impressions re why the processing subtests were lower, ask. Did your dd have any achievement testing administered with the ability testing? If so, do the timed subtests show a dip relative to untimed?

I'm also curious why you chose to have private testing rather than letting the school test first? Was there a reason you thought she might do better on the private testing... and if so... is that potentially related to a dip in processing speed?

If you see things that you wonder about elsewhere - in academics or life skills etc that don't seem to match her ability, then I'd take a closer look at the gaps in the WISC scores. If not, I wouldn't worry about it.

Best wishes,

polarbear

Welcome!

Ditto everything polarbear said, especially:

"If you see things that you wonder about elsewhere - in academics or life skills etc that don't seem to match her ability, then I'd take a closer look at the gaps in the WISC scores. If not, I wouldn't worry about it."

As far as these WISC-V results go, they do suggest that there is some kind of slant toward auditory-verbal, and away from visual-spatial, as there is a consistent pattern across, and even within, indices. If there are second-language effects, they are likely relatively small (not much room for improvement beyond scaled score 19, which is the max subtest score obtainable!). Similarities, which was a little lower, is more of a reasoning task, and lines up perfectly with the fluid reasoning subtests. So there's a clear bias, with concrete verbal skills topping out the scale in the Very Superior/HG+ range, verbal and nonverbal reasoning both falling comfortably in the Very Superior/MG range, and concrete visual spatial in the Average range.

Working memory is a little different, as DS is an auditory memory task, and scores in the High Average range, while PS is a visual memory task, and scores only in the Average range, consistent with the VSI. Do you have process (sub) scores for Digit Span? Sometimes there are interesting differences among the three process scores.

In processing speed, she had the most difficulty with the task that requires scanning and tracking, and did okay (Average) with the fine-motor speed task.

I would consider having an occupational therapist look at her, in addition to a developmental optometrist. There are multiple possible reasons for this profile. It may be that there is a perceptual weakness of some kind. It appears not to be strictly motor in nature, as there is negligible difference between the motor-involved and motor-free or motor-reduced tasks in the same categories. Pure processing speed is also not entirely consistent with the picture, as she also did not show noticeably stronger performance on untimed vs timed tasks in the same clusters.

Actually, the low PSI concerns me less than the relative weakness in VSI, as I suspect the former is an outgrowth of the latter. Do you see any learning challenges or quirks in her present or past educational experience? Do speed or spatial ability factors appear to negatively impact her in school or in life? How's her organization? Writing, especially lengthier projects?