Originally Posted by eco21268
I think I already know the answer to this, but here goes anyhow: can a child with a high VCI have a receptive or expressive language disorder?

eco, I am extremely busy this week and haven't had a chance to reply to your thread - and there is so much to reply to!

I did want to jump in quickly on this one question - which as you said, you most likely already know the answer to, but YES, a child can have an extremely high VCI and still have an expressive language disorder - my 2e ds is exactly "that". It might help to understand if you look at the description of the WISC subtests that go into VCI - I won't repeat them here in case I get anything incorrect, but you can find the descriptions easily by googling. Expressive language is made up of *so* much more than what is assessed by VCI, and the VCI calc itself is made up of a combination of three subtests, so it's possible there might be a discrepancy between subtests that is subtle enough it's overshadowed by strong results on the other subtests.

My ds' language deficits show up (in testing) as a discrepancy in relative scores on the CELF, and on a pragmatic language assessment he's had that I can't remember the name of (I can look it up later). Just as significantly, they show up in real life, and paying attention to when/how they occur as they happen is perhaps more helpful in understanding what's up than his testing.

One gotcha is - what is considered a diagnosable disability or condition by a private evaluator is often different than what it considered a qualifying score to prove need of academic services at school.

Best wishes,

polarbear