Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional What kind of assessment/professional do we need?

Hi wonderful forum community!

I am wondering if I should have DS10 assessed for possible 2e. He was assessed last year as G (not PG, just regular G/MG), with a 30-pt gap between his gifted-level FSIQ and GAI on the one hand, and average processing speed, on the other. This fall he will be moving from his current school, where he has been able to completely coast under the radar (no acceleration, minimal differentiation), to a new school with better academics next fall. If he has any issue that has been cloaked by his abilities so far, I'd rather surface it now so he doesn't fall behind or feel stupid with the faster pace next fall.

Reasons I am wondering whether there might be a second E:
- that 30-pt difference. (Subtest scores for coding and symbol search were 11 and 10 respectively.)
- his increasing spaciness -- can't find things that are right in front of him; loses track of what I'm reading aloud to him sentence-by-sentence
- he strongly favors graphic novels over other kinds of reading; when I have him read aloud, he does fine (in my uneducated/nonspecialist opinion), but for example I would have figured him to be devouring Harry Potter or similar by now, and he's not. IOW, not much reading of chapter books for pleasure other than a few below-grade-level favorites.
- writing is a challenge: his handwriting is slow and not great, and even when keyboarding, his output is maybe average-to-low for grade level, both in quantity and quality. This will be a problem next year, I fear.
- He is a linear and orderly (and visual) thinker and doesn't like to skip steps, so if, for example, you see where he's going with a story ("oh, so the dry cleaners was closed?") and try to jump to the end, he'll resist and take it back to step 1 or 2 of the story ("no -- so then, we were looking for a parking spot, and we could see the dry cleaners ...").
- In case it's relevant: he had speech delay and speech therapy as a toddler/preschooler, though you wouldn't know it now. He's generally coordinated and a good athlete; no concerns in that respect, nor any concerns about ASD.

There's a possible confounding factor: he and my other child were just diagnosed as severely celiac (off the charts, literally), which could account for the spaciness (brain fog) but might also be completely independent. We are 2 weeks into a gluten-free diet so it's too early to note any significant changes, though the other child's anxiety and panic attacks seem to be improving a bit already (thank the good lord). BTW, celiac and anxiety could be a subject for a whole 'nother post.

If you're still reading this far, thank you! My question is
1 - should we have him assessed for possible 2e?
2 - assess now? or wait and see if being gluten-free helps with the spaciness?
3 - what kind of professional - neuropsychologist? general educational specialist?
4 - would love any recommendations in the SF Bay Area; we have Dan Peters of Summit Center on the list, and a friend has also recommended Linda J. Schwarz (educational specialist, not neuropsych)

I'm only a parent, so take what I have to say for what it is - limited to my own family's experience

I have a dd who has severe food allergies - brain fog is very real for her when exposed to certain foods. It's much easier to cope with now that she's a teen, but when she younger the spaciness was intellectually incapacitating (but thankfully temporary lol).

That said, I wouldn't wait on further eval in order to see what changes diet brings. If the assessment last year was only for gifted and only included ability testing, I'd suggest looking into a neuropsych eval, based on the gap in subtest scores and notes re reading and handwriting. FWIW, you'll probably have an answer re will the gluten-free diet help before you'll have a chance to get into a neuropsych for an appointment - there are often long waits to get in to see a neuropsych. In the meantime, track diet/behaviors and also watch schoolwork/etc closely - the neuropsych will be interested in both development history and how he's impacted now with classroom work and homework. I'd also suggest talking to him to see what he feels about reading/handwriting/etc - he's old enough that he may have very valuable insight into what's going on.

Re seeing an educational specialist vs a neuropscyh, this is just my opinion, but I'd see a neuropsych first. We chose to see an ed psych first for my 2nd 2e child, and while it was helpful (pinpointed the area of challenge, as well as gave us some wonderful recommendations re path forward), we were only able to get ability/achievement testing and eventually needed to seek out a neuropsych eval anyway to answer further questions to fully understand what the challenge is. The ed psych couldn't give us an official diagnosis, which would have been helpful in advocating. To be fair, our dd's challenge isn't as straightforward as our 2e ds' diagnosis, but in hindsight I wish we'd started with a neuropsych eval.

Best wishes,

polarbear

I would agree with polarbear.

You've already had a psychoed in the past year, so you're probably better off going straight to a neuropsych, as, if you see an ed psych now, s/he will have to either use the old cognitive testing information, or switch to an alternate instrument to collect data directly. If an alternate instrument is used, and then you choose to pursue a neuropsych, there may not be any good cognitive instruments left for the neuro to use, since he'll likely have had the good ones already in the previous 24 months. (And if he hasn't had the stronger ones, that probably means the ed psych gave a less informative instrument, which is also undesirable.)

On another note, I should point out that you already have documentation that he is 2e: he's identified gifted, and health impaired. And it's a health impairment with known cognitive effects. If you're in or moving to a public school (actually many privates, too), it might be advisable to start at least the 504 accommodation plan process now, as you have clear documentation of a disability with significant possible impacts on educational access (not only instructionally, but in the larger school community).