Portia may not be a professional, but is still a very savvy and experienced parent!
I would agree that the relative weakness in VCI should not be discounted, just because it's in the High Average range. Your kiddo has a pretty marked difference between his exceptional strengths in visual spatial and abstract thinking areas, and personal weaknesses in language. This fits pretty easily with his experience in structured school settings. Think about a person of any age or ability who is able to think and process at a higher level than he is able to communicate, and how frustrating that feels. I suspect that he is quick, intuitive, and grasps concepts readily, but probably is not an exceptionally linear thinker (language tends to very sequential; his weakest nonverbal thinking score is in figure weights, which is closely related to algebraic thinking; he didn't do as well on picture span, which is strictly sequential memory, as he did on digit span, which draws on slightly more varied cognitive memory strategies). If you probe some of his "illogical thinking", you may find that he is using nonlinear, or simultaneous, processing to connect multiple disparate pieces of data into a novel conclusion much more rapidly than a linear thinker could make those connections. (Actually, an extremely linear thinker might never come up with those connections.) Because his personal weakness is language, he may have a hard time articulating the logic by which he identified those patterns. This does not mean there is no logic.
Now put such a learner in the highly sequential, language-rich, language-demanding setting of kindergarten and first grade. At the beginning of the school year, teachers expect that young children will be adjusting to class rules and expectations, and are more focused on enthusiasm. He is also young for grade, so most primary teachers will make allowances for "immaturity". After the winter holidays, their expectations ramp up considerably, as this is when they are looking seriously at students with an eye to retention decisions, either for academic or social-emotional-behavioral ("immaturity") reasons. They're "preparing them for second grade." NT students settle into the routine, and follow the rules, and generally have adapted by this point. Nonlinear, divergent thinkers, especially very bright ones, have a hard time fitting into the box, and getting into line. Plus, he's a visual spatial and conceptual learner, and the vast majority of kindergarten and first grade skills are verbal and rote in nature. The first couple of months, he might be able to tolerate the rote learning for the sake of the novel classroom environment. That gets old quickly, which leads to children creating their own interest in class--typically not something that the classroom teacher perceives as school-appropriate. He's probably significantly understimulated in school in visual spatial and higher-level problem-solving areas, and is seeking stimulation by monitoring other students, engaging in physical activity, and possibly even inducing little problems situations to be solved.
Given that he was evaluated for special education, was achievement testing done as well? Were there notable findings?
I also have concerns about an evaluation of a young child that throws around terms like ODD and conduct disorder, especially in the presence of a recent Dx of ADHD.
You may find resources such as Peg Dawson's book "Smart but Scattered" (
www.smartbutscatteredkids.com) useful (resources for executive dysfunctions and ADHD). Also, Ross Greene's "The Explosive Child" (
www.livesinthebalance.org).
