Re missing some items and getting more difficult items correct, and your ds noting that he "notices" things around the room, I'd wonder if perhaps the low scores in processing speed might be related to a vision challenge. If he'd been through a neuropsych eval, one of the tests they would have followed up with would be a test of visual-motor integration. Our dd9 had a significant dip in processing speed that was greater than 2 SD - and she had a lot of difficulty with the motor integration test. Our neuropsych referred her to a behavioral optometrist who found that she had severe double vision which was causing one eye to shut down most of the time, and she also had severe tracking problems. She went through vision therapy for a little over a year, and although she hasn't had her IQ retested, I'm certain that her processing score would now be back up in line with her other subtest scores, based on the type of work she did in VT and the massive improvements we saw.
Another thought re noticing things other people don't notice - my ds has an expressive language disorder combined with dysgraphia which made it extremely difficult to write (output), especially up through 4th grade, and the school wasn't helping him much at all - so there were a lot of times when the class would be working on a writing assignment and he'd be just sitting there, not having a clue what to do. While he sat there, he says he'd notice things and his mind would start to fixate on them, things like another kid's notebook, something on the teacher's desk etc. It wasn't an attention challenge, it was a kid sitting in a classroom who couldn't do what he was supposed to be doing. A similar thing happened with him during class discussions because the pace of the class was just too slow for his brain... sooo... just fwiw... he had a few teachers convinced he had inattentive ADHD when really he had an entirely different challenge. That's where neuropsych testing really *really* helped us understand what was going on.
polarbear
You could be on to a few things here. My son was also diagnosed with slight nearsightedness and astigmatism. The astigmatism is strange though because the the curvature appears on both sides of the plane so it cancels itself out and he can basically see fine. It doesn't cause the blurriness that the normal type of astigmatism causes and as a result usually doesn't get caught in a normal eye exam. However, I felt last year that he had a tracking problem. He had a hard time copying off of the board (filling in his agenda). I also noticed that at home when she gave an assignment (done weekly) where they had to copy by hand a few sentences from a paragraph that was typed on the top of the paper to lines on the bottom of the paper he really labored over it. When the teacher complained that he took a long time to fill out his agenda last year I suggested that he might have a tracking problem and she insisted that it was attentional rather than difficulties with the task. I will follow through on getting at least a behavioral optomotrist.
Also, last year and the beginning of this year he had trouble with sitting there during writing assignments waiting for help. And, finding certain lessons so incredibly boring that he couldn't pay attention (when the class was struggling with things he already knew). I wonder if his recent improvement is due to the teacher correcting these two things. His current teacher was the "enrichment" teacher. It was similar to a gifted program but the kids who were placed in it weren't necessarily gifted. They rarely used IQ tests unless the parents already had them done so the kids who were chosen were kids who were good at doing classwork. So....not a 2e child. But as a result, he is experienced in giving challenges to kids that need it however in the beginning he had very little patience for my son's struggles especially since he could see he was bright and otherwise capable.
One of the other issues that I feel is partly responsible is that with the NCLB law our local districts have all but cut out Science and Social Studies. At most they have a 1/2 hour per day to spend on EITHER Science or Social Studies. Some days they don't even get to it. My son is incredibly interested in Science and Social Studies intrigues him. Reading and Math on the other hand he could take or leave. He likes math that he can do in his head...he was so excited to prove to me that he could do long division in his head but math that has multiple steps and needs to be worked out on paper (like certain problem solving problems) he doesn't like. So that is another problem. They spend ALL day on subjects that he is not passionate about and rarely get to the subjects he IS passionate about.
