That is some impressive math development! So that suggests the WIAT-III mps result was not a fluke. In fact, he surpassed the minimum raw score necessary to max out the standard score by quite a bit, if he got out at least to item #56.
Thanks. From reading this board I know that you are knowledgeable, thoughtful, and well thought of. Your opinion means a lot.
On substitutions: yes, limited subtest substitution can be done, however, in his case, the only one that would make a difference is to use Zoo Locations for the FSIQ, instead of Picture Memory, and the way you have listed them suggests that this was already done. In the remaining cases, the substitution would result in the same or lower Index/IQ scores than the standard subtest would.
Thanks for this explanation. Though I am not hung up on the numbers - and with no intention of sounding entitled or arrogant - I was surprised that the FR and WM Index scores and FSIQ were so low, especially since I was entirely unsurprised by the MPS score and would have predicted relatively high verbal comprehension scores.
Your concern with visual spatial problem solving may be confounded by motor delays, if the primary indicator is performance on mazes. I would look at motor-free spatial reasoning instead, such as the ability to predict paper snowflakes. (Fold a piece of paper in front of him, make a couple of cuts, and then ask him what he thinks the paper will look like when it's unfolded. Then unfold it and see how accurate he was. Ideally, you would have a field of possible answers for him to view and select, prior to unfolding, such as on the old Stanford-Binet.) Or, when doing jigsaw puzzles, whether he can identify the correct piece (not necessarily manipulate it into the puzzle, but simply pick it out by eye). How's his sense of direction? Can he judge sizes and distances by eye? Just a few ideas.
Thanks for these suggestions. The initial incidents that alerted me to a potential visual spatial issue were at ~4.5 when:
a) He struggled to solve mazes on a smart tv, even when one child was operating the remote (limiting the impact of motor skills) and the other was calling out instructions. His sister was also much better at Reversi on the same system.
b) We had 12 piece jigsaw puzzles from the time the children were ~3. They were very adept with the puzzles so we packed them away for several months. When we took the puzzles out again he didn�t know how to begin to solve them, while his twin put them together as fast as her hands could move. Historically he was always slower than her at doing the puzzles, but I had assumed this was purely due to motor issues.
More recently he struggled when asked to draw mirror images of relatively simple shapes (he probably felt additional stress due to the fact that it involved drawing and was at Math Circle where he is by far the youngest). The evaluator noted that in the WPPSI-IV FR matrix reasoning subtest he confused directionality on two advanced items for his age.
Jigsaws are currently a little harder to assess. He has been working on jigsaws in OT but I don�t know the details of what happens there. At home he especially loves maps and over the holidays put together a new map of the world quickly, but that may not be a good measure since a map puzzle could involve reading and memory. With jigsaws that he has done before he seems to develop a very specific memory of particular pieces so he is not exactly solving the puzzle the second time around. Perhaps there is a subtle difference between visual identification/initially solving a jigsaw and remembering where an item should be located?
Or it could be that your speculation is correct, and he's just less exceptional at visual spatial reasoning than his twin is. (Still pretty good, though!)
It�s certainly not a bad thing for him to be less innately talented than his twin at something broadly mathematical. She is ahead of most age peers at school but our �slow�(er) math / reading learner at home. Good for them both for her to shine while he has to work harder to get the same result. But if he has an underlying weakness or issue I�d like to understand and support it.
Thanks again for all your insights.
