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Hi!

I've been lurking for the past few months and think it is time that I officially join your group.

DS9 was diagnosed with Sensory Integration Disorder (tactile, proprioceptive and vestibular issues) last Fall and has been in PT/OT all year. He has had a lot of issues at school (not paying attention, illegible handwriting, inability to do written out math), but I he has always been considered a smart kid. Anyway, our PT suggested a full psycho-educational assessment...which is why we are here. We have come away from the assessment with a diagnosis of ADHD inattentive type and the following test scores:

WISC-IV
VCI 132
PRI 135
WMI 113
PSI 112
FSIQ 132
GAI 140 (if I calculated this correctly, the psych did not put in her report)

WIAT-II
Reading 120
Mathematics 123
Written Language 113
Oral Language 126

For anyone interested in his WISC Subscores used for GAI calc:
Similarities 16
Vocabulary 13
Comprehension 17

Block Design 18
Picture Concepts 12
Matrix Reasoning 17

The psychologist thinks that if we can properly medicate him for the ADHD, then his achievement will fall more in line with his IQ.

I'm looking for any kind of advice/experience that any of you have to offer.

Thanks!

This seems to be likely. Your son's scores are definitly gifted, but his working memory and processing speed put him at about the 65th percentile for his agemates - strong compared to average kids, but weak enough that they may be frustrating to him. If the ADD is causing those weaknesses, then yes, medication might free him up from those weaknesses and allow him to use his strengths without so much hassle. Or maybe your son is missing enough of the classroom instruction due to the ADD, then it seems likely that with the medication that your son's efforts to stay on task and benifit from the instruction would increase and his learning would increase.

The other things to consider is that ADD often has other 'co-morbid' problems with it - so if things don't 'spark up' right away, keep checking for Learning Disabilities, Anxiety, Depression - the usual suspects.

Also, even with medication, your son will likely need 'direct instruction' probably from you, in organizational skills, the search term is 'Executive Function.' Biofeedback and Meditation are helpful for some gifted+ADD folks.

A great book to have on hand:
Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults: ADHD, Bipolar, Ocd, Asperger's, Depression, and Other Disorders [Hardcover]
James T. Webb
Edward R. Amend (Author), Nadia E. Webb (Author), Edward R. Amend (Author), Nadia E. Webb (Author), Jean Goerss (Author), Paul Beljan (Author), F. Richard Olenchak (Author)

Best Wishes,
Grinity

Wouldn't WMI and PSI of 112-113 be more like 80th percentile? This doesn't sound like much of a "roadblock" to me, but maybe others have more insight?

Does he like school? I imagine that the combination of ADHD and really smart can make school seem boring (intellectually) and difficult (having to stay on task and listen) at the same time. That's how my DS11 sees school (doesn't have an ADHD dx yet, but might have one soon).

Has your DS started medication?

Verona, I'm not sure what you mean by "roadblock", but the WMI and PSI are significantly lower than his VCI and PRI (which is quite common in ADHD), in which case the FSIQ is not thought to be an accurate measure of actual IQ and the GAI is recommended to be used. Learning disabilites are defined by WIAT scores that are more than 15 points below the FSIQ or GAI.

He likes school, but has become very lazy. He knows the material without studying and does not care if he gets an occasional bad grade due to lack of effort. One of the reasons I had the testing done was to see if he was simply unchallenged or truly had attention issues. It is probably a little bit of both. We meet with a psych next week to discuss whether or not to medicate.

Thanks! I googled a chart, and got low 80s for a % this time - srry.

But yeah - it's low enough to be a bottleneck for some gifted kids. Depends on what is driving the numbers - if the child is extraordinarily careful during testing but not so much in a classroom, then I wouldn't expect it to be a bottleneck. If the child is 'slow as molasses in January,' and always has been - well, yeah.

Smiles,
G

Sounds a lot like my DD at that age. I assumed the grades were dropping due to laziness and boredom for way too long. Oh, if I could go back in time with what I know now, I would take back every thought I ever thunk in regards to my DD being "lazy".



The way I understand it is that even if the WM and PS are average or even above average, if they are > 15 points lower than the VCI or PRI for that child, they are insufficient to run that child's program efficiently. Sort of like the software is just too advanced for the available RAM and processor...

Thanks Nik, That makes a lot of sense. What happened with your DD to turn things around?

And for Grinity- I just ordered the Transforming the Difficult Child workbook. Does your DS also take meds or do you just use this approach to deal with his ADD?

What happened was I found this forum! lol. Short story is that I had her tested: VCI 141, PO 119, WM 102 and PS 105. She was diagnosed as ADD inattentive and she is now on ADD meds which she said made a big difference from day one.

Long story: My DD was already reading at a college level in 3rd grade and she just absorbed math, music, languages and science on her own at home so I kinda saw school as little more than free babysitting and a chance for social interaction. I briefly tried rewards and punishments for grades to appease her teachers but that had no effect, she made 100's on tests and zeros on assignments across the board for years. I sympathized with her not wanting to waste time on homework since she already knew all of the material so I let it go...I figured eventually she would want something badly enough to pull up her socks and work for it but then that day came at 17 and it became apparent that she couldn't pull up her socks. We had visited her dream college, she fell in love with it and verbalized very articulately to everyone who would listen all of the reasons she wanted to go there, but when it came time to write them down for the admissions essay she just literally couldn't do it. She did finally sit down and knock out a great essay at 4 am on the last possible day but it took 3 months of mentally working on it.

Now that she is on the meds, she is writing up a storm, all the essays, songs, poetry etc that have been churning around upstairs are now flowing freely onto the paper, it's nothing short of a miracle. And I was probably the most anti-med person on earth before this.

Your DS's scores aren't as far apart as my DD's so he may have different issues but at least you are on top of it early enough to stave off the road to depression that my DD went down. (She's happy now and all is right with the world at last . I wish it hadn't taken so long for me to wake up!

Sorry, I think I wrote that post too quickly! I really just meant that although his WMI and PSI are "relative weaknesses" for him, in the absolute sense his results are still higher than more than 80% of children his age. I didn't mean to imply that "relative weaknesses" couldn't cause difficulties and frustrations at school.

My DS has an even bigger spread (similar to Nik's DD). We recently had a full neuropsych. assessment done (WISC redone, WIAT, executive function, memory, attention) and will have more information to go forward with soon.

Hi Verona (wave), I hope you come back and post your diagnosis, I am curious to see what they say, given the similarities between our kiddos scores.