Hi All, I am a new member, however I have been viewing this forum for some time and it has answered so many questions for me!!! I'm now seeking some help to decipher what is going on with my 7yr old daughter!

Last year my daughter (then 6) visited a psych as she was being bullied at school and started school refusing. Subsequently she started writing notes saying she hated herself. Long story short, the child psych thought my daughter was very bright and part of the problem at school was related to boredom in the classroom, so she asked our permission to conduct an IQ test (WASI-iii). The results from the test were as follows;

WASI-iii
Subtest
Vocabularly Raw score 30, T score 61
Block Design Raw score 20, T score 65
Similarities Raw score 23, T score 65
Matrix Reasoning Raw score 25, T score 76

Composite Scores summary
FSIQ 267 (sum scale of scores) Percentile rank 99
VIQ 126 (sum scale of scores) Percentile rank 92
PIQ 141 (sum scale of scores) Percentile rank 99

In her report, the psych said my daughter should be recognised as G&T, with special needs that need to be taken into account (she didn't elaborate). She noted that the school should put an Individual Education Plan (we're in Australia) in place. The school has been useless and very unsupportive - I'm worn out from asking them things & am now looking at different schools in our area.

Fast forward to March 2012 and the school counsellor contacted me and said that my daughter needed to be screened for ADD - in attentive type, as after spending 30 mins with her she could instantly tell my daughter had an attention defecit. At that time, I had never heard of ADD, only ADHD (though i didn't realise ADD was part of ADHD). My daughter has always been full on, since birth! She is forever hurting her brothers (by accident), she is always breaking things (by accident), she can't remember simple instructions given minutes before - I have to constantly repeat instructions etc, if she has an idea she goes with it, regardless of what it is/how extreme it is. She is a lovely little girl, and I'm very worried about her. She always tells me, and anyone else that will listen, that she "hates" school.

On the advice of the school counsellor, we approached one of the local universities and consulted a psych to conduct IQ & cognitive testing. The testing has taken MONTHS because my daughter has had difficult sustaining her concentration or focus for long periods (especially when she's not interested in the topic). When she is interested in something however, she can focus for ages. On the w/e my friend took my daughter to church & told her kids and my daughter to be quiet while the mass was going on. Afterwards my daughter told her she found it hard to be quiet, so she said she visualized the priest being on TV and she was able to focus on him for 30 minutes even though she found it boring.

Sorry, i'm all over the shop! Anyway, the results were as follows:

WISC-IV
Subtest
Vocabulary 10
Block Design 17
Similarities 13
Matrix Reasoning 15

Composite Scores
Verbal Comprehensiion 108
Perceptual Reasoning 133
Working Memory 86
Processing Speed 91
FSIQ 109

WIAT-II
Reading 109
Mathematics 104
Written Language 108

The psych said to disregard the FSIQ of 109 as its not meaningful. However, I am wondering why there is such a big difference between scores when the testing period was only 12 months apart. The Psych told me she cannot diagnose ADHD, however it appears evident from the report that my daughter does have ADD. One area of concern highlighted in the report was my daughter's extreme fear of failure (if she is gifted, is this normal?). The psych advised that my hubby & i work with our daughter to give her a better understanding of the role of errors and mistakes in the learning process.
Another area of concern was my daughter's anxiety levels, again the psych said this can affect and increase her fear of failure etc etc. It should be noted that my daughter has always been extremely emotional and sensitive.
The testing suggests my daughter has dyscalculia, however the psych noted, "it is feasible, however, that xxx's performance in the domain of mathematics may reflect her overall approach to activities and learning; that is, her difficulties sustaining her interest and focus when she anticipates failure or difficulty completing a task".

We have an appointment with a developmental paed on 17/9, so fingers crossed he can give us some answers as i'm at my wits end... We are given information, but there are no strategies (so far) on how we can really support our daughter... so frustrating.

Ok, so here are my questions...
1. Is it standard practice for a psych not to diagnose? Ie the psych spoke verbally to me about my daughter's inability to focus etc but she said she's not in a position to diagnose ADHD.
2. We are looking at changing from a private to public school next year. My daughter is waitlisted at a public school thats offers a G&T program, however if my daughter's IQ has dropped significantly, she may not even get in. Is it possible for IQ to drop so much?
3. Looking at the test restults, does it look like anything else is going on? If she does have dsycalculia, how do we address this and support her?
4. How do we find out if the suspected dsycalculia is actually due to her inability to focus etc?

My apologies for rambling, I'm trying to get everything out before I get lost mid sentence! Any advice would be greatly appreciated! If you've gotten this far, thank you so much for taking the time to read my thesis!!!!!!