Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Processing speed learning disability?

So we are finally getting somewhere with our older dd's (3rd grader) school and she may actually qualify for an IEP now. They have a new psychologist who clearly knows his stuff, compared to the one they had last year who was not at all helpful.

We met yesterday to look over all her testing she has had done and one thing the psychologist kept noticing was her weakness when it came to processing speed tasks, cognitive efficiency, and cognitive fluency. She was also extremely low in receptive language (CELF). She has already privately been diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia. When I google weak processing speed I come up with ADD/ADHD but she exhibits no symptoms of ADD/ADHD. She isn't a daydreamer and she isn't hyperactive.

If she does qualify for an IEP it will be for math. I'm just wondering if she does end up getting an IEP what the LD might be. Would it just be a specific LD in math? For the moment she is hanging on when it comes to reading and writing but processing speed affects other academics besides just math. I would hate to limit her support services to just math when perhaps the processing speed could have a negative impact in other areas.

Is there even a learning disability for slow processing speed?

If she has dyspraxia, that is probably affecting her processing speed by both hampering her fine motor response (for things like Coding on the WISC) and also slowing down her recall. Also, in my research it says that dyspraxia and ADD are often comorbid in more than 50% of cases. It doesn't mean she has it, but that she may have symptoms of it.

Since she has dyspraxia and dyslexia, have you also looked at dyscalculia? The "dys" problems tend to come together.

My son has a 50+ point gap between his processing speed and everything else (on the WISC) and it is entirely DCD/dyspraxia. Three different experts have ruled out ADHD, though he looks similar because DCD makes him fidgety.

@ CAmom

That's that what I was thinking... that she probably has dyscalculia. He just kept mentioning her weakness on all tasks/tests that involved processing speed. He did says she has a very complex profile. I'm just trying to deduce ahead of time what disability they may determine she has if she is to qualify for an IEP.

ETA: the only time she seems like she has ADD/ADHD is when she is concentrating on school work. The slightest noise makes it very hard for her to focus and concentrate but not due to lack of effort. It just frustrates her and she says "she can't think". This is why I think she is not doing well in school (even with noise cancellation headphones) and does MUCH better in one on one situations outside of the classroom.

"Is there even a learning disability for slow processing speed?"
OHI?

Have you had a complete hearing exam? Hearing loss in some frequencies but not others can lead to distractibility, low receptive language, and some of the academic struggles you describe. It might not be all of it, but it could explain a good fraction of what you describe.

CAMom suggests apraxia. Has that been ruled out?

As for the IEP, services need to be tied to a diagnosis, and the goals should directly respond to the present levels of performance. OHI might fit for the catch-all issues you have that don't fit under the math SLD. I'm no expert in this area, but learning fast. (We're currently headed down the "looks like ADHD, smells like ADHD, quacks like ADHD, no way is it actually ADHD" path)

You can also think about how you think it might help to her through accommodations. If she doesn't need services, but instead needs more time, type instead of handwrite, a quiet environment for tests, sit near the front of class, or anything else that can change about the structure of how she does the same work as everyone else.

When is your qualification meeting?

My DD8 (second grade) sounds similar but is not functioning as well as yours. She was diagnosed with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia and math disability (aka dyscalculia). The neuropsych labeled her "NLD-ish" saying that even though she doesn't meet the diagnostic criteria for NLD "its a useful diagnostic concept." He did label her with ADHD Inattentive (putting her attention skills below the 1st percentile!) but DH and I wholeheartedly reject that one - we are convinced he measured her being shut down from anxiety rather than her lack of attention. She tends to "play" with things when doing tasks related to her area of disability i.e. finger a rock or the trim on a blanket while reading, but has laser focus on just about everything else.

She has 56 points difference between her verbal IQ number and her processing speed number. That is almost 4 standard deviations. It is HUGE and will impact just about everything in her life. There was recently a thread here somewhere that included a link to a very sobering article that discussed not only the impact in school but also in life. It is very, very tough. In my DD's case that is coupled with 40 points difference between her Verbal IQ and Visual Perception and almost non-existant working memory. We met this morning with the former Director of Special Services who was so helpful to us last year before moving to a neighboring district. He said these kinds of spreads in numbers are almost unheard of. "I wouldn't have the table space here to plot out how unusual this profile is." One in many thousands - can't even determine the percentage.

Our neuropsych also used terms like "complex profile" and said "DD is one of those that really makes you think..." In our case it has become clear that a public school situation just can not work. The district has spent a ton of money and provided a lot of services but it's just too complicated. I doubt they could limit her IEP to just math services if she has also been diagnosed with dyslexia. We started with a relatively simple IEP with 5 day a week pull out for reading in first grade. Her IEP is now so complicated they literally can't fit everything in it - the program they use doesn't allow for enough space or pages for all the services and accommodations to be listed. You are headed in the right direction but I am guessing you are only starting down the path. Getting the initial IEP can be the hardest part. From here you will be fine tuning as you learn more about what she needs.

She has had hearing exams, albeit it's been awhile. She suffered from frequent ear infections and chronic fluid in the ears from age 3 to 4 until they finally removed her tonsils and adenoids which remedied the problem. I sometimes wonder if the ear infections/fluid played a part in some of her difficulties.

She doesn't have a 504 because the school my girls go to is VERY flexible and accommodating to students and their needs without the need of 504s or even a diagnosis. I know it isn't the legal way of handling things, but we have never had an issue getting accommodations for our dd. So multiple accommodations and interventions have been tried and are not working.

Our qualification meeting is Tuesday.

@Pemberely - actually we have been at it for 3 years (only the past 2 years with this school), so this is still just the beginning I'm sure. I'm very frustrated b/c at the meeting we had yesterday, the psychologist was pointing out things that I pointed out twice last year to the IEP team. Nobody would listen to me. I'm very grateful that we have this psychologist this year who knows what he is doing, the psych last year was absolutely horrid. All the info they are looking at is the same info they had last year. The main differences is her lack of growth in math, a proactive teacher, and a psychologist who knows what he is doing. Hopefully we get somewhere this time.

It sounds like what what the school is seeing your dd needing is individualized instruction in math, but not in other areas (reading, writing). If that's the case they will most likely qualify her under SLD/math. Even if the IEP qualification is SLD/math your dd can still receive accommodations (and possibly even have IEP goals written) for other types of challenges - so if she needs to use the keyboard for writing essays, for instance, or if she needs to have test questions read to her, each of those accommodations would appear under her list of accommodations in the IEP, even it if's not directly linked to the need for math instruction.

The key to writing the IEP is to identifying what your dd's needs are - where she needs individualized instruction, where she needs accommodations. I'm a little surprised that if she has a private dyslexia diagnosis she hasn't been identified as SLD/reading at school - do you feel that she's really doing ok with reading? Reading difficulties can be difficult to tease out in a gifted student simply because they are able to compensate, but if I were you and I had *any* worries at all about her reading I'd push for a thorough reading evaluation and request she be considered for reading services as part of her IEP.

Re "slow processing speed" - I think that we often refer to our kids who have low WISC scores as kids who have "slow processing speed" - but really those WISC subtests are testing very specific skills, and the way to help our kids is not to think of them as having "slow processing speed" so much as to instead really understand *why* those scores on those specific tests are low. My ds, for instance, has slow processing speed scores because his dyspraxia/dysgraphia impacts his fine motor skills. Another student who has dysgraphia might have low processing speed scores because of a visual challenge. Both students may need the same accommodations, but different types of therapy or remediation based on the root cause of the challenge. I wouldn't expect their to be a category for "slow processing speed" qualifying for an IEP... but if it's truly a "low cognitive tempo" issue, that might come under OHI? I'd suspect your school pscyh knows the ins and outs of that based on what you've posted.

Is the SLP person who administered the CELF going to be at the meeting? I'd want her/him present. Have you asked if she qualifies for speech therapy or if it would help? I'm guessing it would... but that's just a guess!

Lastly, if what's offered up from the psych are things like "slow cognitive fluency" etc - I'd ask for details. What does that mean? How was it determined, how does it show up on which tests, what types of things can be done to help improve it?

FWIW, I suspect it's related to her dyspraxia diagnosis - just a guess (as the mom of a dyspraxic). If there *is* something that the school psych suggests can be done to remediate it, I'd so push for that - my dyspraxic ds is slow in his movements and also in his speech - it takes him noticably longer than others to contribute his thoughts and ideas, and in middle school this is beginning to really impact him in class discussions - yet it's also been soooo danged hard to get his teachers to understand. And it's so frustrating to him!

Anyway, I suspect I've mostly rambled - I hope some of it makes sense!

Best wishes,

polarbear