Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment any advice about neuropsychological testing?

I recently posted my DD7's various test results (which included a 155 on the WISC-IV VCI and 136 FSIQ along with lower CogAT and NNAT scores) in an attempt to see if anyone could help interpret the variations. I also posted some areas of struggle she has that seem inconsistent with those scores (most notably a strong tendency to transpose letters when writing simple words). I got a lot of good advice, including the suggestion to look at the Hoagies website for a psychologist to do further testing.

There was someone on that list near me who is a neuropsychologist with a strong background in IQ test development and gifted assessment. He suggested administering the WJ Achievement Tests, which I expected, along with a host of neuropsychological tests that I am not familiar with. I am not opposed to doing them, particularly as I think they might be very helpful in discerning whether there DD has some form of an LD or "glitch" versus a more typical bottleneck in her processing. But before we sign her up for 10 hours of testing, I wanted to see if anyone here has opinions or experience with these types of tests.

The neuropsychological evaluation assesses the following:
- memory for various types of info (verbal, nonverbal, etc)
- language capabilities and retrieval under time pressure and no time pressure
- ability to understand increasingly complex directions and expressive and receptive language
- attention ability and the ability to shift from idea to idea
- executive functions including the ability to look ahead, plan and to inhibit automatic responses
- visual-spatial processing and ability to reproduce geometric shapes
- emotional adjustment including anxiety, perfectionism, depression, etc.
- a research section on overexcitability

My DH and I would have an initial consultation and final consultation and receive a written report. There are also evaluation forms for DD's teachers to complete.

I am looking for advice of any kind, such as...is this likely to be useful? Is it overkill? Is there any potential harm in doing it (besides cost, of course)? Is there anything I should ask for in the report or discuss in the consultations?

I am not really an expert on all this, but having an LD herself and having undergone a similar, but probably a less thorough evaluation, let me try to answer such questions.

It's overkill only if you sense your daughter doesn't have a significant LD. Basically, an evaluation should reveal what your daughter (and likely you as well) already know about her cognitive functions. It's just that it puts "a microscope" on individual weaknesses and so the numbers may see lower than what you'd expect, although she is compensating with her high intelligence and it's not as bad in real life. Another downside might be if she does have an LD and if the school sees the evaluation, they might not admit her into a gifted program, advanced classes, etc. but it all depends on the school and many schools are understanding towards LDs and will willingly admit high IQ kids into advanced classes. Of course, the upside of verifying an LD is that she will be eligible for accommodations: extended time on tests and perhaps copies of class notes/note taker.

My DS has a similar profile (see 9/22 post)and we are scheduled for the interview portion of the neuropsychological testing next week. I am in no way an expert in any of this, but if I was offered a chance to go back five years to have the testing done, I would jump at it...more time for any suggested therapies, instruction etc... and, to have more concrete answers for random teachers, substitute teachers or middle school peers who can question the differences.

I have found thi link helpful recently when questioning our decision to put our sensitive middle schooler through more testing.

http://www.sengifted.org/articles_counseling/Webb_GiftedAndLDANeuropsychologistsPerspective.shtml