Hi wonderful forum community!
I am wondering if I should have DS10 assessed for possible 2e. He was assessed last year as G (not PG, just regular G/MG), with a 30-pt gap between his gifted-level FSIQ and GAI on the one hand, and average processing speed, on the other. This fall he will be moving from his current school, where he has been able to completely coast under the radar (no acceleration, minimal differentiation), to a new school with better academics next fall. If he has any issue that has been cloaked by his abilities so far, I'd rather surface it now so he doesn't fall behind or feel stupid with the faster pace next fall.
Reasons I am wondering whether there might be a second E:
- that 30-pt difference. (Subtest scores for coding and symbol search were 11 and 10 respectively.)
- his increasing spaciness -- can't find things that are right in front of him; loses track of what I'm reading aloud to him sentence-by-sentence
- he strongly favors graphic novels over other kinds of reading; when I have him read aloud, he does fine (in my uneducated/nonspecialist opinion), but for example I would have figured him to be devouring Harry Potter or similar by now, and he's not. IOW, not much reading of chapter books for pleasure other than a few below-grade-level favorites.
- writing is a challenge: his handwriting is slow and not great, and even when keyboarding, his output is maybe average-to-low for grade level, both in quantity and quality. This will be a problem next year, I fear.
- He is a linear and orderly (and visual) thinker and doesn't like to skip steps, so if, for example, you see where he's going with a story ("oh, so the dry cleaners was closed?") and try to jump to the end, he'll resist and take it back to step 1 or 2 of the story ("no -- so then, we were looking for a parking spot, and we could see the dry cleaners ...").
- In case it's relevant: he had speech delay and speech therapy as a toddler/preschooler, though you wouldn't know it now. He's generally coordinated and a good athlete; no concerns in that respect, nor any concerns about ASD.
There's a possible confounding factor: he and my other child were just diagnosed as severely celiac (off the charts, literally), which could account for the spaciness (brain fog) but might also be completely independent. We are 2 weeks into a gluten-free diet so it's too early to note any significant changes, though the other child's anxiety and panic attacks seem to be improving a bit already (thank the good lord). BTW, celiac and anxiety could be a subject for a whole 'nother post.
If you're still reading this far, thank you! My question is
1 - should we have him assessed for possible 2e?
2 - assess now? or wait and see if being gluten-free helps with the spaciness?
3 - what kind of professional - neuropsychologist? general educational specialist?
4 - would love any recommendations in the SF Bay Area; we have Dan Peters of Summit Center on the list, and a friend has also recommended Linda J. Schwarz (educational specialist, not neuropsych)
