Greetings from Texas! Pud (7 1/2, skipped 2nd, in 3rd grade) had the WISC and WIAT a little over a year ago. The results are here:
Pud's results.
His scores are confusing and the psychologist who did the testing wasn't able to explain much. His "comprehension" was a '9' (sorry to be repeating for all those who are familiar with this story). We were told that his "social judgement" was lacking. His WIAT scores are much higher than his WISC scores would indicate. About 3 months ago, he saw a different psychologist for behavioral issues. She said he tends to be obsessive/compulsive but not to the extent that it is a disorder and that he is behind his age level emotionally and socially. She didn't really have any recommendations for us. In March, at the suggestion of our regular doctor and some on this board, we had him assessed for Central Auditory Processing. All of his scores were at or above normal but his "pragmatic language skills" were just barely in the normal range and more than 2 standard deviations below the other scores. The speech pathologist suggested we have him assessed to rule out Asperger's Disorder (syndrome?). I've talked to 2 people in gifted education who both, after only briefly meeting my son, expressed the opinion that their first thought was Asperger's. There is no one in my area that is well-versed in both gifted children and Asperger's. There is only 1 person who deals a lot with gifted kids and she says she doesn't know much about Asperger's, other than that gifted can mask Asperger's and vice versa.
I met James Webb at a symposium recently and spoke briefly to him about all this. He recommended a full assessment by either Paul Beljan, Nadia Webb (his niece), or Ed Amend. I spoke to Dr. Amend yesterday and liked what I heard. He suggested a telephone consultation after reviewing all of our current testing and reports and information. And then decide about an assessment. The testing runs 7 - 12 hours over a 3 day period and is $160/hour. We'd have to travel to Kentucky for Dr. Amend or Phoenix or New Orleans for the others.
Part of me says we need to have him assessed by an expert. Part of me says it's not necessary, just treat him as if he has Asperger's and see if things change. I am curious how he would score on the WISC if it were given by someone knowledgeable about giftedness. My husband sees no reason to have him tested. (ahem, assessed)
We are in the process of moving to a school district with a better gifted program, after 2 disastrous (well, maybe that's stretching it a little, but not much) years of school, one in a public school and one in a private school.
It almost seems like I a chasing a diagnosis. I'm not - if there's nothing to diagnose then there's nothing to diagnose. However, if another assessment could help me understand this strange, quirky little person I have to raise, then maybe that would be beneficial. If another assessment would help me to understand him better and understand what behavior is due to giftedness, what to something else, what to personality, and what to bad parenting, that would be worth something.
So, what things would you think about when considering a second assessment? The school will do their own testing for entrance into their gifted program (I think it is the NNAT and the ITBS) but I don't think it will give me much information. Dr. Amend asked me if there was any urgency and I had to laugh and answer "yes and no". Would you do it to rule out Asperger's and other things? Would you do it to help understand your kids? It's a lot of money, especially with the travel, but we might could turn it into a family vacation (I've never been to Kentucky!).
Thanks again for all your support and thoughts.
ETA: sorry that got so long
