Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Results are in...gifted but slow processing speed?

I know you mentioned in another post that you had surgery on your son's eyes. Are you sure that the it corrected the strsabismus completely? Have you had the NPC tests and all that again? From what I have learned in my research, my understanding is that the surgery is very often not a complete success and that often times the eyes appear to be corrected and looking staright but that there are still focusing issues, movement issues, etc. and vision therapy is still needed after the surgery. Also, I have heard that more than one surgery is often neeeded. All of this is just what I have been finding out researching how we want to proceed with treating DS' strasbismus so I am no expert by any mean s but just some thoughts.... My DS is doing VT now but I am still exploring getting surgery done.

He sounds very similar to my DS8 when he was tested at 7.

From what I'm learning, 6.5 yrs can be too young to differential between ADHD and giftedness. My DS was diagnosed at 7 with having severe ADHD combined type by the psychologist (who is very competent in certain areas, but admitted herself that DS was difficult to test and that we should take the results with a grain of salt). Meanwhile our pediatrician was baffled by the ADHD diagnosis and insists that DS is very different from the countless ADHD kids she sees.

Anyway. I contacted SENG for advice. I was told that gifted kids often have prefrontal cortex developmental delays (that catch up later) that mimic ADHD and misdiagnoses are more common before the age of eight.

I wouldn't ignore the ADHD idea completely, but certainly take it with a grain of salt, and let some time pass for your DS to grow and develop.

Here's my input - it may come across as random and scattered - hope it helps a bit!

I think if the low dip in coding speed was related to a true LD (visual challenge or fine motor skill) you'd also see a low dip in the academic fluency score, because those tests require handwriting and are timed. "Academic Fluency" Is a combined score, made up (if I remember correctly) of writing fluency, math fluency and reading fluency. If there was scatter in the fluency subtest scores that might mean something, but I"m guessing your ds is solid across the subtests.

I have heard repeatedly over the years that low processing speed (coding) shows up in the WISC profile for kids with ADHD. That doesn't mean your ds has ADHD, but you've had feedback from school that he has behaviors that sound similar to what you'd see in a child with ADHD and the psych also commented that it's a possibility. I *wouldn't* want to wait 2 years to figure out if your ds has ADHD or not, but it also probably isn't something you are going to figure out right away. I would ask your pediatrician for a referral for an ADHD evaluation - the type of evaluation where the dr takes a developmental history and has parents *and* teachers fill out behavioral questionnaires. Our ds was diagnosed with ADHD (inattentive type) in 2nd grade, but he is also EG and 2e. What clarified things for us was the ADHD-specific evaluation.

I wouldn't totally ignore the possibility of an LD either - as I said, I don't think you have signs of one in the scores but he does have a very low coding score relative to his other scores. If you notice he's struggling at all with handwriting or keeping up with timed assignments, then I think it would be worth investigating the low coding score further. FWIW, the behaviors that our ds had that his teachers attributed to ADHD in 2nd grade were actually behaviors due to his undiagnosed LD - he doesn't have ADHD.

Last thought - I was a little surprised your psych didn't give you scores for VIQ and PRI on the WISC. They do have scatter, and I've read that the degree of scatter you've seen is enough to have questions about the accuracy of averaging them together, but I've also never seen a report with that (smallish) degree of scatter not scored for VCI and PRI (but please know I'm not a psych, just the mom of two 2e kiddos!). I am *not* surprised they didn't calculate the FSIQ given the relatively low processing speed score, but I think the GAI (given it's calculated correctly) is a good estimate as long as the subtest scores for VIQ and PRI are roughly accurate.

Did the psych make any notes about attention or being distracted during the WISC?

Last thought on the coding speed - our ds had a very low coding score on his first WISC. At the time the psych felt it was due to his age (6) and not really "getting it" that it was important to move quickly on a timed test, and possibly being a bit of a perfectionist and she expected it would go up in a few years when he retested. She said these were very typical things for a 6 year old - so I am restating it only to let you know she felt they were very typical and wasn't surprised by a dip in processing speed when testing young children.

polarbear

Here are his subtests on WJ-III.

Reading fluency 128
Math fluency 112
Writing fluency 128

But he got a 162(!) in calculation...I've seen him write out all the multiplication tables quickly - he draws fast and his handwriting is great (they teach cursive in Montessori beginning in K)

WISC-IV

Similarities 13
Vocabulary 17
Comprehension 11
VCI = Not interpretable

Block Design 15
Picture concepts 10
Matrix reasoning 19
PRI = Not interpretable

Digit span 12
Letter-number sequencing 16
WMI = 123

Coding 6 (what? REALLY??)
Symbol search 11
PSI = Not interpretable

FSIQ = Not interpretable
GAI = 129 (obviously not terribly accurate!)


WJ-III Acheivement (Clusters)

Oral language 121
Broad reading 136
Broad math 152
Broad written language 138
Math calculation 150
Written expression 127
Academic skills 150
Academic fluency 133
Academic applications 140
TOTAL ACHIEVEMENT = 143