Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Gifted/Aspergers Huge Variation in IQ Scores

Oops! Double replied!

Pandora,
My son's scores show a similar pattern with very high VCI, and Very low processing speed and high average PRI and WMI.

Your son's processing speed may be causing him more problems as the pace and quantity of instruction increases. The difference between his VCI and PSI is enormous - and happens very rarely. It is often an indication of a learning disability, but no one test, can diagnose a LD - it is just a flag.

At the very least, the vast difference in his cognitive abilities can cause him a lot of stress and frustration. He is much like a high power Ferrari stuck in rush hour traffic. He has tremendous intellectual horsepower that is stifled by a huge bottle neck in is ability process. While he most likely can think deeply, he probably struggles with taking in information at the same pace as his peers and demonstrating his knowledge in an efficient manner.

Sometimes students with a significantly higher VCI could be diagnosed with a non-verbal learning disability. Symptoms are: difficulty seeing the big picture, poor fine motor skills, difficulty orienting self in space, poor handwriting, excellent with concrete factual information, struggles with abstract information, difficulty with social skills, difficulty with attention.

Kids with NVLD may not have everything on the list, but enough of the symptoms to cause problems, even though they are very bright.

Generally VCI is considered the best measure of overall thinking ability and intelligence. But, very low scores in other areas can cause enough havoc to create struggles. As the student moves from more structured and concrete elementary school environments to middle school and high school, these weaknesses can cause unanticipated problems.

With accommodations and by learning compensatory strategies, most students can overcome these challenges and reach their potential.

Did the evaluator do any other testing in the areas of planning, organization, memory, academics? What did he or she find?

With such a high VCI I would not for a second, doubt his giftedness. Now, whether a certain program is a good fit or not, that is a whole different story...

I would recommend that you immerse yourself in the "2E" world, subscribe to the newsletter, read the 2E board over here, ask specific questions there, etc.

Thank you mich, I like the analogy. He's just started middle school and I do believe that's causing some of his recent frustrations. The evaluator did note that the difference between his VCI and all the other scores were likely to occur in less than 1% of children his age.

The evaluator did a battery of tests (he was with her for 7 hours) which included all you mentioned and then some. These were just a few of them: Green's Word Memory Test (WMT), Integrated Visual & Auditory Continuous Performance Tets (IVA+), Wisconsin Card Sorting Tests (WCST), Dichotic Listening Test, Trail Making Test, Stroop Color-Word Test, Test of Written Launguage, 3rd Edt (TOWL-3), Ray Complex Figue Test, Wide Range Assesment of Memory & Learning (WRAML-2), WJTCA, WISC-IV. Those were most of the academic type tests and then she gave just as many that related to fine motor skills, and behaviors such as ADD, OCD, PDD, Anxiety and Aspergers.

Overall, he did average to superior on the academic tests listed above except when it was timed or involved writing. NVLD does have many similarities to Aspergers such as the social, motor skills, visual/perceptual acuity etc. Organization and struggling with abstacts are clearly an issue for him as well. She ruled out NVLD because his visual skills were in the average range. The Aspergers diagnose was confirmed in part by the extremity of his social difficulties and language pragmatics as well as the severity of the neuropychological development issues. He also has a diagnosis of OCD which unfortunately revolves around some major fear of contamination, particularly in the school setting and by other children. He also was diagnosed with a NOS Learning Disorder (processing speed and fine motor difficulties with writing). His OT had already diagnosed him previously with Dysgraphia. All of this has contributed to a whole lot of anxiety for him at school that I imagine makes focusing on academics even more difficult.

Thanks also Mam for the suggestion of the 2E board, I know I'll benefit from it. It's frustrating trying to get the schools to deal with a child whose both gifted and has a disability such as AS. The giftedness has been able to compensate somewhat for the disabilty for several years but the older he gets the harder it becomes. Thanks for everyone's help!