My son likes math and is quite strong in it. He spontaneously figured out addition, subtraction and even multiplication when he was three and has always delighted in problem solving.

I have noticed that this year (first grade) he is quite slow when doing math minutes (like he will do 2-3 in a minute). When he took the WPPSI at the age of four, my son's processing speed score was 100, over forty points below other index scores. We explained this to his teacher and she doesn't make him feel bad about speed. After a mad minute, she then lets students complete the unfinished problems at their leisure. My son does not feel bad about being slow and he knows (because his dad is a mathematician and told him) that speed is not the measure of a good mathematician. So this isn't necessarily a problem.

Here is what I find odd. He can do much more complicated problems just as quickly as easy "math facts." For example, we were doing some problems from Zaccaro's Challenge Math over the weekend and my son could do multiple step problems involving multiplication, division and addition of multi-digit numbers (that would involve carrying but I understand they don't do that these days) almost as quickly as he can recall a simple math fact like 7+5. (FWIW, he also has an excellent memory and got a 18 or 19 on the working memory component of his WPPSI). I find it so odd that he can mentally add mulit-digit numbers together in the same amount of time it would take him to recall a simple math fact.

I should also note that my son doesn't otherwise seem slow in school. He is in first grade but reading at a fifth grade level. He reads quickly and fluently. His handwriting was a bit slow/labored for a while but with lots of practice he now seems to be writing easily.

Is this common? I'm also wondering if he is quicker at home than in school. He has some tics and may have Tourette's. While I don't believe he is self-conscious about them, I have read that some kids are slower in the classroom because they are suppressing tics.

I'd love to hear any insight that you might have about this discrepancy.