Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Does this look like an LD?

I had very similar concerns about my daughter's writing in grade one. I was continually told that it was age appropriate. Still, it niggled at me that it was not in keeping with her 'so called' abilities. Another big flag was that she fought writing tooth and nail (I'm talking tantrums). She has recently been diagnosed with stealth dyslexia and dysgraphia and both of these diagnosis took two years of parental pushing to obtain. She did 'okay' enough that no one was as concerned as we were. My advice: if you are concerned, have a writing assessment done by a psychologist who has experience with gifted children. Learning disabilites are harder to diagnose in GT kids. DD's VCI and PRI scores were above the 99%ile. She had a spread only with WMI 34%ile

For example, on DD's CTOPP her phonological awareness score was in the 58th%ile and pseudoword decoding was in the 73rd%ile. Not too alarming, unless you compare it to her GORT-4 scores that showed she read at a grade 5 level as a grade 2 student. She so obviously is NOT reading, but has rather memorized the shape of every word she has ever come across. An average child could have the same CTOPP scores with little concern, but the sheer difference between how well she reads paragraphs versus how well she can read individual words that she is unfamiliar with is very apparent and a red flag that many pychologist dismiss.

This year, in grade 4, her writing assessment showed 16%ile for contextual conventions (mechanics of writing) and >99%ile for story composition (ideas and context). When you compare these two scores there is a frightening difference that highlights her struggles.

Learning disabilites can't be diagnosed with an IQ test alone. My DD has had two further assessments and is going for another in January. We are determined to name and label every single challenge she has so that we can advocate for her accomodations to the best of our ability. I wish that I could go back to grade 2 and have started pushing for diagnoses much sooner. We were thrown off track by the GT diagnosis and lost some valuable time being reassured by her teachers that everything was fine.