Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Processing speed questions

I have a question about processing speed and how it affects standardized achievement tests. My child was tested at age 4 years 11 months, when we like many others encountered school and the school found him overly active "but in a different way". At that time his scores on the WPPSI-R: verbal 159/perf 139/fsiq 159. His WIAT was 149 reading/143 math reasoning/ 119 spelling/ 151 numerical operations. At 5 years 7 months we followed up with the SB L-M which gave a score of 188. Based on those scores the psychologist recommendation application to DYS. However, when we asked the new gifted school that we had chosen director for her recommendation for the application she replied "why would you want to do that" implying that her school would take care of all of his needs. Not wanting to raise a stir and happy to find a supposed match for our son, I let the DYS application go. The school spoke all of the Social/Emotional language that was new to us and my son made great friends.

Unfortunately, after five years at the school it was my son broke down emotionally and required a school change. Through those five years we slowly learned that my son's learning style and interest areas were not a good match for the school, so we left. We enrolled him at our local middle school with a new interested principal and an enthusiastic GT coordinator. The school asked that we update our private testing. We did and he achieved the following scores at 11 yrs 11 mos:

WISC-IV VCI 155/PRI 145 WMI 126/PSI 103/FSIQ 144/GAI 165

He just completed MAP testing at 12 years 4 mos scored: 244 Reading/232 General Science/235 Science Processes/236 Language Usage/ 272 Math

Other things we know of our child is that he hates the feel and sound of a pencil scratching on paper to the point of a gag reaction. The new school allows his work to be typed or written in pen when necessary. Also, I had him read the "stealth dyslexia" article which he says fairly accurately describes his reading and spelling experience.

He has taken the explore test twice and while his scores qualify him for summer programs and the like in Math and Science, he has never finished a test section, in part I believe to his processing speed, in part to his pencil aversion, and in part to his lack of experience from the old school in taking standardized tests. The recent better results on the MAP test which had no time contraints and which was done without a pencil on a computer give me hope that certain achievement tests can provide better reflections than others for him. Does anyone have any suggestions about future achievement testing. For instance, should I seek some kind of accomodation for slow processing? Also, how would DYS treat an application from my child.

Thanks for any input you can give.

Hello MES - I passed this on to one of our Family Consultants. Their reply is below. -MD

Greetings,

We understand that some students will have significant discrepancies in their scores because of twice exceptionalities and do take this into consideration when reviewing Young Scholar applications.

In regards to receiving accommodations for slow processing speed on an achievement test it is going to vary by tester. However, knowing that your son does have slower processing speed is valuable information for you to have. Having a full and accurate snapshot of your son�s cognitive abilities is going to give you a good idea of academic areas to monitor, accommodations he may need in school and may provide answers to questions about low test scores, or classroom behavior.

While your son�s processing speed scores may not meet our minimum testing criteria the review committee is only looking for one of the subtests to meet. While I cannot determine eligibility and/or goodness of fit outside the context of a completed Young Scholar application I can share with you that your son�s VCI and GAI scores do qualify him to apply.

If after reviewing the Young Scholar program and services you feel you family would benefit from the services offered and your son fit�s into this population I encourage you to apply.

I hope this helps answer your questions; however, if you have any further questions feel free to contact me at DavidsonScholars@davidsongifted.org

Woot! Thanks so much Mark!
MES - that's a great answer!
Smiles,
Grinity

Thanks so much for the response. As I've read through the various forums over the past few weeks, I've learned alot and am sure I'll continue using this as a resource as my DS and DD (I've learned) develop and unfold. The response also confirms our decision (yesterday) to meet with a pediatric neuropsychologist to sort through what is "normal asynchrony" and what might be other. So, thanks Mark, Grinity and unnamed family consultant. I really appreciate your words.

MES

Thanks so much Mark. Please come back and fill us in on what they say MES. I am very interested as well.