I have a question. As I have spoken to parents who seem to have similar issues as my mildly dyslexic son, I have heard quite a few say "we have just a little processing speed issue". What does that mean? How does that differ from dyslexia, add, etc?

I also read the article someone posted on how gifted/ld kids are being misdiagnosed as ADD. My son's school just asked if we tested for ADD because they see him daydreaming during reading/writing tasks. He only seems to have ADD at school and with reading and writing, nothing else. He is unorganized and has a hard time following multiple directions. It seems like such a puzzle to figure out what is going on and how to respond to the school.

Thanks for your input. This message board has helped me so much.

DD had a low processing speed score on the WISC. Actually it was in the average range but below 100 and there was a large gap between that and her other scores. The coding section, esp. (where kids are asked to copy symbols from a key) was really hard for her. The teacher sees the same thing in class. She is excessively slow with written work, even though it looks like she is focused. It could be dysgraphia, or simply ADHD and not staying mentally focused, or perfectionism, or fine motor issues, or visual-motor issues, or a combination of all of those things.

My ds12 is similar. There is a huge discrepancy between what he is capable of communicating either orally or using a computer than what he is able to write by hand. His handwritten work looks like it was written by a much younger student than his typed work.

I haven't done anything about it partly because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself in that way (he is completely resistant to investigating) and partly because his tester thought it was due to perfectionism (I don't believe that's the whole picture) and partly because getting accommodations for it might be a battle considering "he's doing fine", even with a skip.

My oldest DS is has rather severe Dyslexia and a totally normal processing speed on WISC. He was tested every three years and it really stayed fairly consistent from 6 to 18.
I would say processing speed during reading or writing task is slow, but on WISC testing it was average to high average over the years. I have never thought of processing speed as relating to dyslexia. It maybe related for some kids,but it wasn't in our experience.

I think daydreaming can be a lot of things and would not jump to ADD for that behavior alone. Executive functions such as organization, following more complex directions, and even daydreaming can be seen in both ADD kids and dyslexic kids. Many of the behaviors overlap in ADHD and Dyslexia.

blackcat's description describes my dysgraphic ds to a tee prior to his having accommodations (as well as remediation for writing challenges outside of handwriting). I've already answered cathym's question in her previous post, so I don't want to sound like a broken record here - but - I recommended a neuropsych eval to cathym, and I wanted to add here that I totally understand KADmom's feeling that it may be difficult to get accommodations for a child who is considered to be "doing fine" at school.... but the recommendation from the neurospych has made it *easy* for us to get typical accommodations for ds in school (extended time on tests, use of typing for all written work, use of typing for essay questions on state testing, etc). It hasn't meant it's been easy to get the school to provide actual technology (devices/software) or necessarily understanding, but having a piece of paper with the diagnosis from a private professional did make it easy to get 504 accommodations. And those accommodations become really important as you go farther along in school both due to increased workload and the increased importance of state testing and eventually college admissions testing.

polarbear