blackcat--Funny you should mention the multiplication problem example...most the time if you ask ours a simple math question like that, he has to repeat it aloud, slowly, and look around for a few seconds before he can answer it. He was able to pass his timed multiplication quizzes in 3rd grade, somehow, but now that he never drills on those anymore, he's very slow to process that and most other simple math problems. I guess the difference may be that he's not pulling from his immediate memory the way he was when he memorized the facts.
He also took a computerized test for attention, maybe the same one, had to only click certain things as they appeared on the screen. Diagnosed ADHD kids scored about 47/48 on that, and he scored about 51. Not far off, but not quite there either. He only clicked one that he shouldn't (I guess that means not so impulsive) but did miss several that he should have clicked. In his words, trying to focus on something he isn't interested in is "kind of like trying to lift something that weighs 2,000 pounds" which sounds pretty difficult to me; but then people say of course he doesn't like to focus on things he doesn't like, he's 10!
I'm not sure about the correlation between Verbal IQ and early reading either, his history of interests and abilities just seemed to match with good Verbal scores so I wasn't surprised by it. Even when he was 18 months old and playing with his Leap Frog fridge toy, a talking toy with letter and number inserts, he'd plug in letters all day long to hear their sounds, but if I put a number in there, he'd turn his head and say "NO". Rejected numbers completely while he was soaking up the letters, he was probably 3 before I was able to talk to him about numbers. He was making a choice even then.
Thanks for your input. Even if it doesn't solve problems, it still helps to hear from people with similar real life experiences! The psychologist said the next step would be some academic testing, if we're interested. We may do that.
