I agree that there is a significant difference between working memory between the two boys, but as I said, that is virtually the only big difference - the others do go back and forth quite a bit - the other subtests vary by 4 or less. The differences between their academic performance seem to be a lot more than just memory though. There seems to be a big difference in problem solving ability. Older is able to really do some sustained thinking (loves puzzles, ThinkFun games, etc), while younger will start and if it requires much sustained thinking, he is done with it pretty soon. We were playing an IQ game the other day (analogy questions, sequencing, etc), and he was doing quite well, but we didn't do it for long. It is very clear that my older is "intellectually gifted" - but not so clear with my younger unless you spend a lot of time with him.

Younger ds subtest scores are:

Verbal Comprehension
Similarities 13
Vocabulary 17
Information 12

Perceptual Reasoning
Block Design 14
Picture Concepts 17
Matrix Reasoning 16

Working Memory
Digit Span 13
Arithmetic 16

Processing Speed
Coding 8 - this one is worrisome
Symbol Search 15


That was in 2012. In 2014, he was given the Informational, Digit Span, Arithmetic and Letter-Number Sequencing. The Informational, Digit Span and Arithmetic were the same in 2014 as in 2012. For the Letter-Number Sequencing he got a 14 on the subtest.

The overall measurements on the WISC-IV were:

Verbal Comprehension 125
Perceptual Reasoning 135
Working Memory 126
Processing Speed 109
Full Scale IQ 131
GAI 135

My older scored a 100 on his processing speed - as his coding was a 9, but symbol search an 11. He is much more of a perfectionist than the younger.

The WJ-III scores in 2012 were as follows (SS and then percentile):

Broad reading 113 81
Letter-word ID 117 87
Passage Comprehension 109 73
Reading Fluency 106 66

Broad Math 127 96
Calculation 137 99
Applied Problems 126 96
Math Fluency 101 52

Broad Written Language 110 75
Spelling 109 72
Writing Samples 120 91
Writing Fluency 99 47


The other times that he has taken the math portion of the WJ-III his scores were:

2011/ 2014

Calculation 119 90 / 115 84
Applied Problems 129 97 / 125 95
Math Fluency --- --- / 103 57
Quantitative Concepts --- --- / 124 94
Broad Math --- --- / 123 94
Math Calculation --- --- / 112 79
Mathematics Reasoning --- ---/ 128 97
Brief Math 125 95 / --- ---

(sorry if this comes out unreadable - hard to format)

I should also mention that there could be some dysgraphia involved - he holds his pencil in a awkward way (almost the way a left-hander does, but he is right-handed) and his writing is very sloppy. He also has problems with punctuation, and with grammar at times.

Additionally, he has had problems when he was very little with ear infections, and had his first set of tubes around 6 months. He had tubes 2 more times after that and then developed a hole in his eardrum which caused some hearing loss. His ENT performed a tympanoplasty last spring to repair the hole and it was successful, but he still had a lot of fluid in his ear, so last fall, he had another set of tubes. We just found out yesterday from his pediatrician that the hole has reappeared, so we are back to the ENT next week. His ENT did not seem to think that his hearing loss was bad enough to have a hearing aid, but we do have an appointment with an audiologist in a month to see if he is a candidate. My ds claims that he can hear just fine in school, but in my opinion, we really cannot be sure that this is not causing some problems as well.

I totally agree that I believe his giftedness is masking his LD, but I can't make any sense out of what his LD might be. There seem to be several options - but none of them really fit. I mentioned this to the last psychologist.

I appreciate the thoughts.