Not diagnosing one way or the other...but sometimes kids with ADHD hyperfocus, which can result in a very good score on measures of cognitive efficiency, such as processing speed. And yes, working memory is the one I usually look at, more so than processing speed. The name ADHD is somewhat misleading, as the deficit is not really in attention per se, but in the regulation of attention--so there are moments when it is difficult to focus and pay attention, and others where the challenge is shifting attention off of something. Or being able to screen in the stimuli in the environment that are worth attention, and screen out background stimuli. In addition, like with everyone else, high interest tasks draw the attention of individuals with ADHD. The two subtests in the PSI only require attention for two minutes at a time, which may be within his range when engaged, even if he actually has ADHD.
I am more struck by the difference between digit span and lns, and between similarities and the other verbal tasks. I assume the latter difference is related to his communication disorder pulling down the verbal area below his true reasoning abilities. The former difference makes me wonder about the digits forwards and backwards subscores, whether he did very well on the former but not the latter?
Thank you for your insight.
The digit forward subscore was 12
The digit backward subscore was 15
Per the tester- All of the testing was done in a environment that was noisier than he normally tests in due to lack of space on the testing days at the school. The tester also thought the verbal subtest score differences could be related to my son's expressive language deficits. (Receptive language is high average with expressive language a low average-- 23 point spread).
