Hoping someone on here may have some insight for us. My son is 6 1/2 years old and in 1st grade. On the advice of quite a few people we had our son tested this summer for giftedness. These people were 2 counselors, a gifted teacher, his pediatrician, his school director from last year, and various other people that know him well. You can pretty much go down a list of gifted traits and he meets most of them. He also meets a lot of criteria for ADHD.
My husband and I expected him to probably score on the bright side if not gifted. What he wound up testing was 105 on the WISC-IV test. We were shocked as was everyone that we had discussed it with prior to his test. One flat out said it was wrong. That there was no way he should have scored average. She wasn't being condescending to those that do just that she knows he is gifted...she had thought he would even test highly gifted (the gifted teacher I mentioned earlier). There are HUGE variabilities in his subtests. They are all over the place. He scored very well in matrix reasoning but horribly low in processing speed. The psychologist said he got all the ones he answered correctly but that he didn't do enough of them in the time limit. This threw up a red flag to me b/c he processes EVERYTHING to the nth degree before making a decision even when he knows the answer right away. The psychologist said we could expect him to do fine in school but not really pick up complex things quickly. I almost laughed since all I have to do is show him a math problem 1-2x and he has it down. I also only had to play one game of chess with him before he started kindergarten for him to pick it up and know all the rules. He practically kills us in checkers and we are good at it! Doesn't seem like the average child should be able to do that from what she described. She didn't take the time to listen to us about his personality and only spent 45 minutes with him giving him the test. She had never met with him before the test and spent no time with him before giving him the test to build a rapport with him. He was very sick 2 weeks prior to the test with a virus that took us all a few weeks to completely get over (very high fevers and fatigue and body aches that lasted 2 weeks) so I really don't know if that could affect him at all either. He is very tentative when meeting new people as well and the fact that she took no extra time with him before giving him the test just bothers me.
Both my husband and I are gifted and we think my husband may have had ADHD as a child just from how his mother described him and how he is now but he was never tested. We are now wondering if our son could be ADHD and possibly have a higher IQ than what he tested. Is this possible? I don't care if he is gifted or not for bragging rights. We need help with his behavior and getting his interest back in school. He does not like reading...he says it is boring. He loves math and science. We found an aritcle by Dr. Deirdre Lovecky (the article was on gifted & adhd children and it was like reading about my son and all the issues we have with him) and I just got her book called Differnt Minds to see if that will give us some insight.
We need to find a psychologist who will listen and help us. My son goes to a private school and getting them to help us challenge him and also help him in areas he lags will be way easier if we have a proper diagnosis. Is there a good resource on finding a psychologist knowledgeable in this field by chance? We are in Florida. Any help or insights are greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Stacy
Mom to 2 boys: E (6 1/2 years old) & T (4 1/2 years old)
