Our DS7 has been complaining that school is "boring" and that he hates the work. His teacher has told us that if he is bored, he should choose more challenging work. (This is a Montessori school and there is a heavy emphasis on demonstrating mastery by choosing to do the harder tasks) DH and I suspected that something else might be the root cause of his negative expressions about school. So, after having him tested, we have confirmation that he has strong ability based scores on the WISC-V.
VCI 142 99.7
VSI 138 99
FRI 126 96
WMI 117 87
PSI 114 82
FSIQ 139 99.5
GAI 138 99
The tester indicated that this is a pretty typical spread for gifted kids (relatively lower processing speed and working memory). At this point, I was preparing to advocate for some kind of acceleration, which in theory should be easy in Montessori. But then we went over his WIATT-III scores . . .
Total reading 122 93%
Basic Reading 121 92%
Written Expression 115 84%
Mathematics 135 99%
Math fluency 104 61%
The subtest results give better information about his clear strengths (reading comprehension, math problem solving, and numerical operations) and weakness (anything that has the word "fluency" in it)
. Oh, and the tester said no evidence of a learning disability. His overall achievement is just what his teacher observes--above grade level, but not significantly.
My take is that DS7s brain just hates repetition and gets frustrated with tasks that rely on processing speed, but now I don't know what to advocate for with the school. DS's achievement is not commensurate with ability. This clearly has something to do with engagement with the curriculum, but I'm at a loss with how to move forward.
Do I understand how the WIATT and WISC relate to each other (achievement versus ability)? Anything about these scores that jump out to anyone? Any BTDT thoughts on gap b/w ability and achievement? I'd like to help DS find some joy in learning and I'm struggling. Thanks so much for any thoughts--
