Also, with such a discrepancy, it is very important to have the WISC evaluation passed by a very skilled psychologist who more than only measuring the abilities is able to analyze how the tests are performed.
It's all relative, Sully's kid's processing speed is not low.
It is just lower than the other (very strong) subtest scores.
Yes, it does stand out as a result and it is useful to know so that perfectionism ( a possible factor) can be tackled early on.
Although sully's ds' coding and symbol search scores aren't "low" in an absolute sense, they are very low compared to his other scores. Although this may not be uncommon among HG/+ kids, it *is* something that tracks with the other symptoms sully noted which, as aeh noted, may indicate a challenge with fine motor - which in turn, can potentially be an issue for a child at school.
If you only looked at my dysgraphic ds' coding and symbol search scores on the WISC, it would be easy to think there's no issue. If you look at the discrepancy between PSI and VIQ/PRI, then yeah, there's a large discrepancy but it would be easy to say "this is a not-so-unusual pattern in HG/+ kids". BUT…. in real life ds has obvious struggles with fine motor issues. So put that all together, and you understand what's going on isn't just perfectionism. Kids who are perfectionists with academics aren't necessarily typically slow with other fine motor tasks etc.
Child works slowly with simple tasks, not otherwise. Perfectionism is observed by us. Getting ready for school is slower than his younger sister. Distraction ebbs and flows. Slow and weak handwriting, although has taken better to cursive (not unlike his father (me)). Prefers to type on an electronic typewriter over handwriting. That said, he is a great skier (I guess not fine motor skills).
This description fits my dysgraphic ds to a tee at the same age. We also thought his slowness etc were due to perfectionism, but we were wrong. Neurospych testing, which includes not only WISC, but achievement testing, observation of handwriting and review of academic work plus additional tests of fine motor etc revealed ds has Developmental Coordination Disorder and related fine motor dysgraphia. FWIW, ds is also an excellent skier. Totally unrelated motor skill set required for skiing
polarbear
