Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional 60 point spread between VCI & PSI

Any allergy medications involved here?

ultramarina, I found this post from the recent posts and my DS has not been identified as 2e. I didn't even realize it was in the 2e forum...lol! I just noticed the difference in VCI and PSI, which is very similar to my boy's 70 pt spread.

A point of anecdata...

Ours hasn't been identified as 2e yet either; he may be, we just haven't tested him beyond the IQ.

My ds did not have any allergy mess at the time of his test.

We have decided to do an OT eval, as well as an eval with a developmental optometrist. From what I've read online, it seems coding problems are mostly fine motor, so we are going to rule that stuff out first.

Then we'll find an NP to discuss ADD, because at the end of the day, I do still see some in attention on a day to day basis.

The tester did not think the low score and large spread was anything to worry about, which I find odd. I have read that with a spread like that, they aren't supposed to report FSIQ?

Sigh. I find it odd, too.

Yes. With a spread that large, the FSIQ should be reported only with caution, if at all.

Another thing I was thinking about the other day was his wj report said that he seemed to have problems following verbal directions in the fluency tests, and to write down instructions for him, yet coding and symbol search are visual? Perhaps these are just pointing to processing in general?

Well, the tasks are visual-motor, but the directions still involve words. And he has to convert the words into a visual-motor task, which is probably the sticking point. The fluency tasks (all around, both on WISC and WJ) are also relatively isolated--that is, without meaningful context--which is even less suitable for high-verbal kids. The only fluency task that generally favors verbal kids is oral word fluency, especially if the prompt is a semantic category.

He did the worst on the oral fluency, though I would say he's strong with auditory information, he often plays songs by ear on the piano. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.
Thank you for explaining all of this stuff!

Amber, My son has very very similar scores. He also got a 3 for coding and a 6 on symbol search. Not sure if this is helpful to you but he was ultimately diagnosed with dysgraphia (it's moderate to severe), motor apraxia (dyspraxia, developmental coordination disorder)and a (and I forget exactly how this was worded) processing disability. He has been fine with math facts both addition and multiplication but those scores are always lower considering his iq and other scores such a math concepts, etc. He has a scribe at school and tyoes much of his work. he gets extra time for tests. He is thriving and doing well with accommodations.

Thank you for your reply! It's encouraging to hear your ds is doing well with accommodations! Dysgraphia or some sort of fine motor disability is probably what we are dealing with.