Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional High IQ but moderate school performance

Hi all, I could use some advice. My 7 year old son has twice been administered with the Standford Binet IQ test, with the following results from a few months ago (and the previous results very similar):

His SB5 sum of scaled scores is 152. The factor index scores are as follows:
Fluid Reasoning (FR) - 99% (age equiv. 28 year old)
Knowledge (KN) - 96% (11yr,3mo)
Quantitative REasoning (QR) - 93 (10yr, 2mo)
Visual Spacial (VS) - 99.6% (16yr, 10mo)
Working Memory (WM) - 96 (10yr, 9mo)

He has been reading since age 4, but wasn't a super early reader. He can copy/draw with uncanny ability (superior to most adults). His grasp on math concepts seems very high (understands algebra concepts, knew multiplication and division from early on, etc. However, his school performance is just medicore. He does fine- even well(ish), but it doesn't correlate with what his IQ suggests.

Additionally, he has trouble specifically with things like punctuation (which I've heard could be a mark of dyslexia), and makes lots of careless math errors. He writes extremely descriptively, but has run-on sentences, etc. Also, he generally seems very, very spacey and dreamy, but at the same time he does retain things fine and is often paying attention even when he looks like he is dreaming. But also sometimes he can act like he is fully engaged, but not be paying attention at all and not retain anything that just happened.

My husband was diagnosed with ADD as an adolescent (the inattentive type), but the one psychologist he has been to didn't seem to think there was ADD with him.

Is this dyslexia? Executive Function Disorder? How do I even go about getting this diagnosed? I am at a loss as to how to help him, b/c nothing is really "wrong"- I just sense that he is not meeting his potential and something is just off.

Thanks!

Hi M&M,

I offered some advice in a previous post: http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....to_interpret_test_scores.html#Post222931
which I would repeat if I hadn't already said it!

The other thing I'd add - what type of testing/evaluation was administered by the psychologist who feels your ds doesn't have ADHD? Has he had an educational eval at any point which includes achievement testing?

It's really difficult to say if this is "something" or just typical 7 year old behavior based on what very little we know by reading your post - the one thing I would add is that it's important to listen to *your* gut feeling as his parent.

Best wishes,

polarbear

Thanks Polarbear! I did take in all of your advice from the other post and when I met with his teacher, I took in his work from home, etc. as you suggested (versus just showing them the test results). I still don't think his needs are being met at all, but that is a separate issue altogether! Today I was inquiring as to whether there are other issues going on with my son, and if any of these symptoms seemed familiar to others with 2E kids. I also don't really have a strong sense of how to get this diagnosed, since he doesn't fall firmly into the category of ADD, EFD, etc. So I was wondering what I could learn from others here.

The psychologist who suggested no ADD was the one who did the SB test on him, and he sited that he was very focused and engaged with him, and show no signs of inattentiveness whatsoever. But I've subsequently read that sometimes it only comes out after extensive testing, b/c the first hour or two are kind of interesting for the kids.

One question I had for you, if you don't mind, was about your own son, who you described in a previous post as having high visual-spacial skills. Can you let me know what that has correlated to with your son, in terms of school performance? I'm curious and also want to help my son foster a sense of confidence and strength in his inherent strengths, but I'm not sure what academic areas VS skills will show up in. NO worries if you'd rather not talk about him on a public forum though- completely understand!

M&M, I just replied to your question on your previous thread. Sorry I didn't notice it until this post!