Hello All,
I am so grateful to have a place I can come and ask questions. I have come so far in learning about my son (9), his strengths and struggles. I hope you can offer some thoughts on my confusion.
As a very young child, my son was getting noticed for saying and doing things a little out of the norm. He was asking how electricity worked with detailed questions and repeating it back and digging deeper with more questions. I often looked up answered when they got past my general knowledge. He did the same with plumbing. He has always been inquisitive and wants to understand how things work. Not just that, he has always gravitated toward adults and would have conversations and they would often comment about how he was so smart. He still does it, but I have watched him go from having trouble socially with kids his age to mimicking them to fit in better. He has always been very aware of his surroundings, could lead you back home in the car at a young age and is very self-aware. At night in a dark room as we lay in bed after reading a book, he asked me about multiplication. He had not taken it yet at that point. I explained it as best I could and gave examples. He was able to calculate problems and even with increasing difficulty. I was amazed. He would yell out, how do I know this?? lol. Many teachers have mentioned he must have a high IQ or he is definitely gifted and even a teacher friend we know who has taught gifted programs in schools has said it. She helped me understand a lot when it comes to things that might hide it which led me to psychoeducation evaluation.
As a younger child, he was diagnosed with SPD. We have worked with him a lot on this in therapy and at home. We have seen some improvement over the years, but still requires certain clothing types. Significant PANDAS for almost over 2 years.
At 8 yrs, he was diagnosed with ADHD and Dysgraphia and at 8.5 yrs with Refractive Amblyopia. We have had him with a specialist for reading/writing/executive functioning and another for vision therapy. His Dr. and I suspect performance anxiety.
I believe what we have always seen and what many others have seen is actually verbally giftedness. He turns heads. He gets noticed because he has so much to say and it makes you wonder how he knows it. He is not just rattling off details he has heard, but can think deeply and creatively about these things and comes up with hypothesis.
Okay, now for test scores. He does well in school. His final grades are always A and Bs. His assignments and tests are mostly As and Bs but they alternate with Cs which the Drs say is due to ADHD and possibly fatigue from vision. He has many missed assignments that they just write off. He was tested at school at 7.5 yrs with the CogAT and he didn't have a score at all. I mean nothing. I could not get feedback, but from what he said he did not complete it or didn't do any of it.
He took a series of tests (WISC-V, WRAML-2, VMI, COP3, Woodcock Johnson IV, Tests of Achievement Form B) and an average IQ, low working memory (85), Processing Speed (100), GAI (107)
There are many more scores and I don't want to overload here. I don't mind the average numbers. He is amazing. However, they don't seem to align with his person. Can these scores be impacted by any of the above diagnosis? I am always looking for more ways to support him and I really am just genuinely curious about the perceived discrepancy.
TIA
