"I think I already know the answer to this, but here goes anyhow: can a child with a high VCI have a receptive or expressive language disorder?"
This also popped out at me.
Absolutely. However, testing the expressive & receptive speech must be done carefully knowing the child has high verbal abilities. For YEARS, we've had SLPs do the CELF, see ceiling scores, and stop, dust off their hands, and declare "no problem here" (and roll their eyes none-too-subtly at me for even having asked). CELF meta-language subtests are administered separately (CELF-Meta). DS didn't even look all that unusual there, but there were enough oddities in the scores to have the SLP look further. The bottom fell out on the Social Language Development Test in a manner consistent with the CELF-Meta oddities. Looking at just his VIQ scores or the basic CELF test (no subtests in either below 98%ile), no one would have had any idea.
On the EF and expressive/receptive language skills, we're finding that teaching the expressive speech skills and social skills are helping immensely with the EF. I suspect we're giving him the tools to infer what is important to other people as well as picking up on implied speech. A lot of our apparent EF gaps were missing implied meaning in directions given.
