Hi,

I have written here before about my son who appears to be both gifted with LD issues or alternatively an underachiever for an undiagnosed reason. He is now 9 yrs 8 months. At 8 yrs 5 mths he was tested on the WISC and a full scale IQ was not reported due to the huge discrepancy between working memory/processing speed and verbal/performance indices, in particular -
Working Memory 44th percentile
Processing Speed 75th percentile
Verbal Indice 98th percentile
Performance Index 99th percentile.
His GAI was reported from memory at 142 or 144. At the same time a WIAT was done in which he came up substantially lower in all areas. The lowest was spelling at the 14th percentile. The highest was maths, but even that was only average at 55th percentile. His reading was tested and showed -
Reading Fluency - 8 yrs 2 mths
Reading Comprehension 8 yrs 1 mth
At this time, the psych thought he was either a strong visual spatial learner or was potentially gifted dyslexic. He certainly shows dyslexic tendencies in his writing which is his worst area.
Fast forward to now - at 9 years 8months - where he is tested for his reading again (same test but administered by experienced special needs teacher) and his spelling. The following were the results-
Spelling - 44th percentile
Reading Fluency - 8 yrs
Reading Accuracy - 8 yrs 9 months (not sure why reading accuracy not reported first time)
Reading Comprehension - 12 years 7 months.
Obviously I am happy about this positive news re his comprehension. I guess what I was wondering is whether anyone has seen such a leap in a reading comprehension score (with no leap in other areas!!) with someone with his profile (ie. possibly dyslexic)? If so, how you have helped such a child to continue improving achievement. The also tester told me that he was still scoring at a very high level in reading comprehension (and she expects could have gone further) but she could not test this further as had reached the stop point on reading accuracy. She also said that he answered the questions very quickly and confidently and had little trouble with that part of the test. One further thing he has mentioned to me is that he cannot read properly (silently) when there is any noise at all around him. He tells me he cannot concentrate and understand the text if there is other noise - even slightest.
If anyone has any comments/suggestions at all, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks
Tiz

Has is Auditory Processing been checked? (CAPD?) Above sounds suspicious for that. May link to reading problems with Stealth Dyslexia?

Do you see the lower working memory and processing speed in daily life?

Has he been checked for ADHD or ADD?

What did the tester suggest?
Best Wishes (wish I had more for you)
Grinity

Thanks Grinity

Yes, you could be right re the auditory and I think I will go ahead with that testing process so we know. The special needs teacher thought that it was perhaps more 'attention' related although she did not rule out dyslexia as he is showing a spiky profile. He has not been checked for either ADHD or ADD - perhaps I should get to the bottom of it so I can help him as this must be so frustrating for him - he turned from relatively good behaved (although daydreamy) to a class clown/ distractor by the end of the year.
Thanks again for your help Grinity! By the way, his younger sister is attending another school next year which I am hoping should accomodate/suit her better! Tiz

I'm glad you've found something to try for your DD.
Does your DS read at home?
Do you see any behaviors that might be related to the scores?
What does he like to do for fun?
Keep searching!
Grinity

Google "stealth dyslexia" and see if it describes what you're seeing.

I wouldn't spend money on an auditory processing evaluation just yet. I think if you're going to get an evaluation, someone who specializes in 2E kids and who has a particular interest in dyslexia would be helpful.

Our son had an auditory processing evaluation and all it did was tell me what I already knew: he has auditory processing deficits.

Hi Tizz2008, I see a lot of this in my DS7 too. His comprehension is up there when someone else reads to him. He struggles reading out loud and skips around a lot. He was diagnosed with tracking issues which we are working on. He also cannot tune out background noise which makes 'school' really difficult. We were told by a neurologist (who seemed to really understand gifties) that he is most likely experiencing asynchronous development. I hope it all evens out soon. I also wonder about 'stealth dyslexia' versus 'visual spatial' or both. He draws pictures always instead of words and his spelling is well...

It's so hard to watch them struggle when they are so smart. The Neurologist also said his brain is moving much faster than his senses (eyes,ears and hands) can keep up hence the struggles.

HTH and you find some solutions that help you.

Thanks everyone. Well I read up on the stealth dyslexia and it does sound remarkably like him. HIs writing is the worst and Eide says this is so often the case. I am just hoping that he is a 'late bloomer' to some extent and things get easier as he gets older - this may be false hope!!!

hi tiz
I am struggling wtth a lot of the same questions with my DS7 and we're also considering testing for CAPD.. but i wanted to add that i don't think that score spread is unusual in the gifted population. One of the things i read recently was this WISC technical report...http://www.pearsonassessments.com/hai/Images/pdf/wisciv/WISCIVTechReport3.pdf...
Here you'll see that when children identified as "gifted" were given the WISC they got average PSi and WMI scores about 10-15 points lower than their VCI and PCI. Both the 44th and 75th percentiles are in normal range so i'm surprised (or confused) why you did not get a FSIQ for him. I bet it would still be pretty strong. Bright kids are not necessarily speedy. My son got only an 83 on Processing Speed INdex (i think that was the 4th percentile!!) and still ended up with respectable yet deflated FSIQ of 119 with GAI 139.. .I'd love to know (being a budding score geek and all) when a psychologist should not report a FSIQ... or is it just a judgment call?

In relation to the non-reporting of the FSIQ - the psychologist told me verbally that it averaged out to 128. HOwever, she felt that this did not give a true representation of his high cognitive ability (verbal and non-verbal) as opposed to a comparative weakness in working memory and processing speed. She felt the spread was significant and reporting the FSIQ was perhaps misleading as to both the stronger and the weaker areas. She said that she would provide it if absolutely necessary. Thanks for all your great advice/input. I must admit he is a lot more interested in reading now than he has been in the past, so I will continue to encourage that and see what happens...

Now that's some great news! I hope that it continues!
Enjoy!
Grinity

Thanks Grinity - I agree it is good news!

Hi
I am back again and re-opening this post as I felt it better to continue with the prior info available. WE have recently proceeded down the auditory testing route. AS a matter of update academically, whilst DS's reading has improved, his writing and spelling are still well below average. It has now spread to his maths as well - which is still mainly at an average level but shows a decline - he has abolutely refused to rote learn any time-tables so that did not help.

Anyway, he was given a full hearing test by an audiologist which was a pre-requisite to conducting the auditory processing assessment. Well they have found that he has mile/moderate hearing loss in his left ear at normal speaking level and lower (40db). Apparenlty, his hearing is almost normal in that ear if people yell or speak very loudly!! IN a quiet room with words being spoken into his ear he heard about 55% in that ear and 92% in the right ear. So he has unilateral hearing loss - but it is not severe. I was wondering if anyone could shed any light on or provide any input on the following -
1. Would such a mild/moderate loss and only in one ear explain the "very" significant difference between his IQ (particularly when calculated as GAI) and achievement in class which is average to below average in almost all areas?
2. Even if he has a physical loss of hearing, could he also have auditory processing difficulties?
3. I am having a hard time working out how his hearing relates to his worst area - writing (2 - 3 years behind his age). He still writes without any punctuation - using "and then" like a much younger child. He writes like someone speaking.
4. Any other suggestions as to what I might try? He will be going to an ear, throut and nose specialist to see if there rae any other related conditions.
5. How could have have got to 10.5 years without anyone really suspecting a hearing loss? This includes his own parents! His speech started very early and his language has always been very good although is a bit flat toned (often hourse) and he mumbles at time.

If anyone has anything to add - whether you have personal experience or not - I would really apprecitate it!

Thank you,
Tizz

Hi,

I am not an expert in anything related to speech and hearing, but in reading your post I had a few thoughts:

- perhaps his hearing was fine when he was younger and therefore did not affect his speech when he was younger; perhaps his hearing difficulties developed later after a series of ear infections or another infection. Did the audiologist suggest anything like scarring? Even without scarring, a long period of time with fluid in his ears could cause long-term hearing issues.

- I understand the frustration with an older child (mine is about to be 12) still not capitalizing and using punctuation! Man, that's frustrating, especially when my two younger kids seemed to pick it up so easily! Still, as a writer, I have to say that it's not such a bad thing that your DS writes like someone speaking. While there are times when it is appropriate to take a different tone, there are many instances when writers strive to write the way in which people speak. I'm not sure what hearing would have to do with writing, though.

- My DS also has always been a bit flat-toned when speaking as well. This can very easily be affected by hearing loss because he either may not hear the intonation in someone's voice or he may be so busy trying to hear what is said that he just can't concentrate on how it's being said, and he therefore doesn't have anything to model.

- I would think it is very possible that a hearing loss could affect his achievement. If you can only hear some of what is being said in a classroom and you have to really concentrate to do that, over time there would be a cumulative loss of what he was able to be taught.

- From what I understand, you can have hearing loss and APD since hearing loss can be both physical and an ear-brain disconnect.

I hope someone here with experience or specific knowledge will chime in! I wish you luck in gathering more information.

Thanks mnmom23 for your input. Given your questions, I thought I would add add a little more to the picture. First, the audiologist felt that the issue was with those little bones behind the ear drum. She had checked for fluid and there was no fluid - of course this does not mean there was not fluid there in the past! Also, she kept asking me for genetics about the family and stating that it could be a birth defect in the shape of those bones on the one side. His dad has loss in one ear as well but he thinks it developed as a young adult as he worked in the music industry. The audiologist felt my DS's main issue would be if he is in a noisy classroom and the teacher is not a loud speaker. If it is genetic I'm not sure why speech would have developed normally except to say that perhaps I speak quite loudly and things were easier for him on a one-to-one basis (given he was my first child and my second is almost 4 years younger)
Thanks,
Tiz