Gifted Mom, Thanks for letting me know about that study. It sounds interesting. I will see if I can get it through my library system.
I asked the psychologist who administered the test if the fact that writing was required in the coding section would explain a lower result as compared to her symbol search score and he insisted that it had nothing to do with it. However, I know that my DD is slow in writing tasks so I am not convinced.

I did wonder if they factored that into the scoring since it is a preschool test. Still, there is a wide range of ages that the test is appropriate for and older kids would have better writing skills.
I am still wondering why these optional subtests exist? Why are they administered if they don't factor into the score? What do we learn from them? Does anyone know?
Thanks!
Dawn