Just wanted to weigh in as the parent of another kid with whopping spreads. 40 points difference between verbal comprehension and visual perception, 50 points each between verbal and both processing speed and working memory. Her scores ranged from above the 99th percentile to below the 1st percentile. Neuropsych labeled her "NLD-ish" even though she lacks the social component. He said "It's a useful diagnostic concept" and "It's easier than saying super high verbal along with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, math disability, etc." He also labeled her with ADHD-Inattentive which we flatly reject, as do her teachers, her former preschool teacher and just about anyone who has ever come in contact with her... We think he very effectively measured her being shut down due to anxiety.
My DD is s-l-o-w in everything she does. It's like she spends her life slogging through molasses. At 9 1/2 she still can't ride a bike or tie her shoes. She can't write by hand but is learning to keyboard. She can't decode well enough to read on grade level But she loves Shakespeare and history and can remember every detail of every audio book she has ever listened to. She understands the concepts of higher order math but can't remember math fact adding or subtracting to 10. She is in out of district placement at a special Ed school where her day is filled with OT, speech. Wilson reading, 1-1 math instruction along with a reading comprehension group 5 grade levels ahead and enrichment 90 minutes a week because the high level reading group is still below her level.
I recently tried to explain it to someone by saying its like when 8 major highways come together and you have a complex set of flower pedals you need to navigate as you try to connect to the right road. Apparently for my DD the verbal is a direct road through. Everything else, though, has to meander and turn this way and that until it finds the right path.
We went to a well respected general neuropsych who told me he didn't think it was a good idea to see someone who specialized just in gifted kids because he's afraid specialists tend to find only what they are looking for. A generalist was more likely to pick up on bigger picture items. We have another evaluation coming up soon and are going with a 2E specialist the Eides recommended.
I just wanted to let you know you are not alone. I won't kid you - my DD's path is not going to be easy. I think the earlier you can get some answers and start working on remediating the deficits the better.
Good luck!
Thank you for posting Pemberly. These kids really need an instruction manual! It's really hard to know what all of this means, I'm guessing getting some kind of diagnosis will be half the battle. We found a few neuropsychs to call since the tester we used did not think the low coding was a problem at all.
It's different for us, because my DS' learning doesn't seemed to be affected all that much, but maybe because it's still early in his education. He does have problems writing, and he hates it, so that makes it harder. He also can have focusing problems, and he's definitely one to day dream during school, and then hyper focus for hours on Legos or ninja turtles.
Thank you again for posting and sharing your story.
