My expertise only goes so far here. Hopefully someone who knows more will chime in. Likewise, I've generally heard about scatter btwn tests making the overall score unreliable; however I have had a few experts tell me that scatter w/in subtests also creates unreliability. Both of my girls had scatter of more than 4 SD within subtests if I'm recalling correctly. One of them again was most likely related to a combo of anxiety and just being meticulous and slower in processing but not really a treatable problem.
I generally figure that the kids for whom it is pretty clear what is going on, like my oldest, are either not gifted and just have the other "e" or aren't 2e at all. 2e ones are really hard to sort out b/c the compenstate for those other "e"s so much with their strengths that it isn't so clear what is wrong.
In my layman's opinion, I'd say that your ds' PRI subtest is the one where the scatter looks the most suspicious. If I had to guess, I'd say that the block design is the one where he got an 11. That was my dd13's "8" score. Kids who are truly slower in processing speed, totally stressed by timed tests, or who have some other issue related to speed will often do poorly on block design b/c it is the only other timed test outside of the PSI index.
That was one of the things that the psychologist said to me. He compensates so well because of his strengths that it is hard for teachers to understand the weaknesses that he has.
And you are correct...block design is the subtest that he got the 11 on. That is pretty impressive!
I'm going to have to think some more about this. The processing piece seems to be a problem...I didnt realize that block design is the only timed portion of that test. I truly can't pay for a neuropsych eval right now...we are down to one income for the moment. But in the future I may go that route. The psychologist that evaluated him is supposed to come back in 5th or 6th (I cant remember now) and re-evaluate him but she thinks he will have topped out the test at that point.
This discussion is really helpful to me! I haven't found anyone in my district that is going through a similar problem.
