This conclusion was based in part on the fact that DD’s WISC-V subtest scores generally averaged out to be no lower than “High Average.” In her report, the evaluator did note that DD was slow to produce written output; that her retrieval of information is not exceptional; that she does not appear to enjoy tasks in which she must shift sets quickly; and that she could be inefficient/methodical-to-a-fault in problem solving.
I believe that the correct way to assess weaknesses is comparing to the child's abilities, not the norming, and measuring in terms of standard deviations. 111 to 150 Seems significant to me. Do you have the percentil rank for those scores?
A large discrepancy between verbal comprehension and processing speed suggests ADHD. At 6 years old, my son's verbal comprehension was 114 and processing speed 88 - a spread of 26 points, his neuropsych commented it was the largest discrepancy he'd ever seen. In terms of percentile rank, it's the difference of 82nd to 21st. Your daughter's spread is larger on the composite score scales!
Behaviorally, this sounds like ADHD to me, and possibly something else affecting her handwriting. Poor handwriting is associated with ADHD, but weak fine motor skills makes me wonder if she might simply lag in fine motor skills or if it could be part of dysgraphia.
My son has ADHD diagnosis. He struggled with slow output, slow writing, skipping problems, doing the wrong operation, struggles to recall math facts, inflexible problem solving, inverted pyramid writing like you describe. My son could not do visual-spatial tasks. He also refused to do puzzles. He could not sweep, vacuum, or wipe a surface - he can't keep track of where he has been or plan where to go next. He had 99 percentile on MAPS tests, so I didn't think anything of it until he starting having more severe emotion and behavior problems and anxiety.
With ADHD treatment, the anxiety is gone. His IQ popped up about 30 points and GAI calculation even higher. My son accelerated dramatically in school with ADHD treatment too. He still struggles with math fact recall, but it hasn't held him back more advanced math. He can sweep/vacuum/wipe. He likes puzzles now. His play is more imaginative and productive.
I would suggest reading through the diagnostic criteria for ADHD and reading about the difficulties in identifying ADHD in girls. Also check out the relationship between Tourette's and ADHD!
ADHD is a disorder of difficulty modulating attention. It's not an attention "deficit" per se. A person with ADHD might not be able to draw attention away from sensory experience. I have ADHD too, the first thing I noticed when I got treatment was I was not bothered by sensory overstimulation and distress. Perhaps her difficulty with sensory experiences was difficulty modulating attention, as part of a ADHD cluster of symptoms?
I also need to mention that it's a normal pattern for highly intelligent children to have executive functioning lags - as compared to age peers - until age 11, at which point their executive functioning exceeds that of age peers. It's also completely normal for highly intelligent children to be more likely to have sensory difficulties than their neurotypical age peers.
This brings us to a point where there is conflict. Some people strongly believe that these struggles are normal and part of being "gifted". Some people believe they're not.
My personal opinion is based on the sensory part. About 30% of the general population fits into the highly sensitive group, while about 50% of the highly intelligent population are highly sensitive. This indicates to me that what the gifted community calls "overexcitabilities" (and the rest of the world calls "openness to experience") is not so strongly related to intelligence that it is "just part of the deal." If symptoms are causing your child to be distressed or are causing family conflict, it's worth look at the situation outside of the lens of "normal for gifted".
