Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Very high working memory!

lollymum, I can see it! I am guessing you are on moderation for a short period of time simply because you're a new poster.

I didn't see your reply earlier that mentioned issues with comprehension. That might fit with the ups and downs you are seeing on the various subtests of the WISC. Definitely an issue with my dd who has a reading challenge - it's not that she can't comprehend deeply, but taking information in via written word doesn't work well for her - at all. If it's reading comprehension you're wondering about, have you tried looking into how your ds does with audiobooks? If it's something else, ignore that suggestion!

Best wishes,

polarbear

ps - did your ds have any type of achievement testing along with the WISC, such as WIAT or WISC? If he did, were there a lot of highs and lows in the results? If so, it might help to look at the subtest scores grouped by the type of prompt (visual, reading, spoken) and type of response (written, oral), and was the subtest timed vs untimed. Sometimes patterns will pop out when you look at the subtests that way that will give you a clue re what's up.

OP, it sounds like your DS has some autism traits, not enough for a diagnosis. I would also say a lot anxiety traits.

I found with my DS that he had a lot of traits at an early age, and in a year or two it may be enough for an ADD or ASP disorder. Not so at a younger age, because it's mild. I notice more issues as he's aging. Kids are developing where he is not.

I think that you may keep in mind that ASP is a spectrum disorder. It's not a "yes" or a "no." It's possible that your DS may exhibit some of the characteristics and these may become more debilitating as he ages.

I would suggest (at least) some social skills therapy and then some group therapy to assist with social skills etiquette. This will at least help him interact with peers and may mitigate his need for approval. Executive skills therapy may help with the perfectionism and flexibility.

If you have a speech and language facility in your area, I would consider it. It's possible as other posters mentioned that there may be a variety of issues driving the scores. However, when you provide the comprehension score, the issues with social interactions, and inflexibility it's resonating as a language issue that may be tied to global traits of HFA. I don't know better than trained professionals, but I wouldn't necessarily delete it from your radar.

Thank you. I know and my husband know that ds is on the spectrum but the medics say he is not. So hard to get help without a diagnosis. I was thinking private specialist SLT although its £100 an hour

My son also has traits, but not enough for a diagnosis. It's enough to cause below age level issues with social and abstract communication and adaptive emotional responses.

I don't know how it works where you are, but the key to a language diagnosis was not that the language scores were far below average. Many were average and even above average. It was the discrepancy with the WISC cognitive function. A three standard deviation difference between cognitive function and language understanding was convincing enough to diagnose a learning disability.

My ds7 got 148 on WMI on the WISC. He might be a math genius, which is why I had him tested. He scored 19 on digit span and 18 on letter number sequencing. He scored 17 in block design and 19 in matrix reasoning. His VCI was 108. He does not have difficulty with comprehnesion, but his area of gifteness is definitely only math.

My ds9 has an exceptional wm - but doesn't have some of the traits you have described now. He seems to comprehend everything, it seems. He has the perfectionism and anxiety on/off though. Also has the high math ability. We've been trying to encourage him to play the piano but so far no luck.

IQ testing is somewhat different than what Barry Scott Kaufman's article addresses and other research have done. Daniel Tammet is from the UK and you may have better luck with who has studied him than your average tester. I'd try to find an academic who studies kids with exceptional wm if I were you.

Dh is from the UK, but we're in the US now. We've been thinking on/off how glad we're not in the UK at the moment with this - but also how we may at some point move back for educational opportunities. We'll see.