"attention span" and "memory" are complex beasts. I would have told you that my eldest had a great attention span and an amazing memory. And there are ways in which that is absolutely true. The first time she did the WISC her WMI was 13th percentile and the tester suggested her behaviour was classic ADD (and then came up with ridiculous reasons why she did NOT have ADD despite the glaringly obvious signs, still cranky about the first tester). I was completely perplexed that my child with the memory like an elephant and great attention span had no WMI to speak of and apparently presented ADD. But 3yrs and a lot of research later I understand that she DOES have a great long term memory, and a poor working memory. She is capable of hyper focus and great seeming attention span under the right circumstances, but she also has ADD.
We have managed to improve her working memory and some of the symptoms of her ADD and it has made a profound difference to her academic success. It hasn't change her test scores much (apart from her WMI scores, which are variable, pretty good on a good day and still poor, but not atrocious, on a bad day). Her VCI is has been margin-of-error stable across three IQ tests in 3 years (WISC4 at 7, SB5 at 9, WISC at 10), her Non Verbal has come up on the second two tests, I would say mostly due to remediation we have done in that time. Her NV results were strongest on the SB, which just seemed to suit her better.
I think her earlier state (ADD, probably Aspergers, crap WM, dyslexia) was/is mostly down to genetics. Lots of remediation & environmental support has improved her functioning.
