Bright, outgoing 4yo, but slow processing speed... Advice?

[zejh]

Hi, I suppose this post is mostly to try to organize my thoughts, and partly to see if anyone has advice.  I have a daughter, age 4, who is very talkative, has picked up big words easily from a young age (in fact, until last summer, the big words were the only ones that could be reliably understood due to her pronunciation) and started figuring out addition on her own before her fourth birthday (She had idiosyncratic vocabulary for it, so it was pretty clear she wasn't just memorizing from a song or TV show). She also really likes ballet and gymnastics, and seems to be pretty good (Not Olympic potential, but just as well, because she's got a good chance of being closer to 6 feet than 5 feet when she's done growing...) Anyhow, I've been considering homeschooling for a while, but there's also a gifted school nearby that friends of ours send their kids to.

 

Anyhow, with this is mind, DD4 recently took the WPPSI, and she qualifies for the school if we want to apply.  She enjoyed the experience--she's done various studies at the local universities, so I just told her it was another study, so she wasn't stressed at all.   The requirement for the school is one subtest over 130, and she got 131 verbal, 127 performance, 136 general learning, and 91 processing speed.  Obviously, one of those things is not like the others. Given that she'll be on the young end next year (and wouldn't qualify for public kindergarten til she's nearly 6, anyway) we've decided keeping her home another year is a sensible choice, especially since I've been interested in homeschooling, and the year before we'd have to officially decide is a good year to get into it. 

 

A bit more detail: the verbal score may be an underestimate--she missed a lot of the easy words but got the more sophisticated words, and she apparently tried to gesture definitions to some words, which can't be scored. (And it's possible she also lost some "silly" points on the pattern block activities, doing almost the same picture, but making a few different choices, which she seemed to be fully aware of when asked).  Additionally, some of the processing speed issues may be due to fine motor issues, like pencil grip, etc.

 

Anyhow, none of these results were actually surprising--at her 3 year check-up, I'd actually asked the pediatrician about attention issues, but it was definitely too early to tell.  The psychologist also emphasized that she's 4, so not to worry just yet. Of course, the psychologist did mention that just because dd4 can sit through a 3 hour show with just an intermission in the middle doesn't say anything against having ADHD or the like. I'm also not surprised about the fine motor issues--I've noticed that her 16 month old brother already seems to hold crayons and markers better than she did when she was two. The one thing I hadn't considered before that the psychologist mentioned was occupational therapy.  

 

I guess my long-term goals for her would be to make sure she's adequately challenged but not frustrated.  She's not the sort of child who will sit down and do an activity sheet exactly as expected.  I'm not going to try to get her to fit the mold of the public elementary schools around here, at least not by kindergarten--they tend to have lots of seat work and limited recess.  On the other hand, the private gifted school we're looking at doesn't have a specific curriculum, which I suppose could work, but I'm kind of interested in making sure that she has a broad base of knowledge and skills.  She's still young, and it's hard to say what will or won't work best for us specifically.  

[luuknam]

Well, since the psychologist suggested OT, and you were already wondering about her fine motor skills, I'd get an OT eval. IQ tests are not all that accurate at 4yo, so I wouldn't overanalyze the results. And if I understand correctly, you're planning on maybe applying to the gifted program for the 2018-2019 school year? So, you'd have a year before you'd have to apply? If so, I wouldn't really do much at this point, other than the OT eval and letting the kid play.

[arliemaria]

My son recently had a full battery of tests done.  I would agree with luuknam that tests I think before 7 don't hold much weight.  Anyways, my son had some really really high scores and then his processing speed was the upper limit for average.  They told me that this makes him seem like he is processing things slowly, but that he is actually on the higher end of average (his was 109), but I don't have a bell curve for your test, but if this is in the average range I would not worry.  I am not familiar with your test, we did the WISC V, but I think 130 is the high average range/superior/some schools' gifted program acceptance score so maybe you could call and talk with a psychologist for gifted students?  They may be able to look at the subset scores specifically and tell you what exactly was holding her back.  Was it an area where she had to write something?  Was it an area of recalling pictures in order?  Biggest take away--DO NOT worry about test scores at 4 or 7 for that matter.  Sure they allow them to access different programs, etc., but they do not measure who she is.  

[arliemaria]

Oh another point:  Is she reading?  (Not that she is expected to read at 4!!!!) My son is most probably dyslexic.  The school called it a specific learning disability in basic reading skills. His processing speed and working memory were in the average/high average ranges but with other things so high.  From the little I've read in the last few months this seems common with 2E children to have a "spiky" chart of scores.  This could point to her ADHD, if she has that disability. 

[zejh]

So, I'm not overly concerned about the scores. I know that age 7 or 8 is when they really start to be reliable. That said, the score is 2 standard deviations below her others, and actually 3 standard deviations below the top subscore, so it seems a bit large.

She's not reading yet, though I've started doing a bit of AAR pre-level with her. She's known all her letters for a while, and I haven't pushed anything. I wasn't an early reader, either, so I'm not worried about it that much.

 

As far as the test itself, it's the preschool version of the WISC, and normed on 2-6 year olds, so there wasn't anything like reading or unreasonable attention expectations, she scored at the very bottom of the average range for processing speed, so not just a little spikey. She was able to finish all the questions in the time alotted, even if she stubbornly answered some in her own, unscorable way. (And, I think I mentioned, she was perfectly happy, no anxiety or anything.) The psychologist tests a lot of children for gifted programs, including the school we're considering. That said, while we're saying we'll put it off a year, we had already been thinking about not applying at all due to some concerns we have. (It bills itself as a progressive school, which I've personally had less than stellar experiences with, granted some 30 years ago and a public school, but it remains something of a red flag for me...)

[Pawz4me]

I'd try not to worry about it too much.

 

First because at four I'm not sure how reliable the testing is.

 

And secondly because from what I understand you really can't do a lot about processing speed.

 

I can tell you that DS18 (2e) was recently tested. His profile is incredibly spikey. His highest subscore (working memory) is 148. His processing speed is 76. Yes, almost five standard deviations difference. But as far as I can tell it has little to no impact on his functioning. He is very (very) quick when it comes to academics. Ask him a question relating to history, civics, politics or to do a math problem and you'd never know he has a processing speed issue. He's the captain of his early college high school's Quiz Bowl team (which involves answering questions under a time crunch). His processing speed shows up more for abstract things and in making personal decisions. He needs to ponder things for a bit longer than many people would. We're having to take the college search and selection process slowly and methodically (even more so than for a typical student) due to that. But overall for him it's just not a big deal when it comes to day-to-day functioning. I know that may not be the case for everyone, but I wanted to give you a bit of encouragement that it really may not be a big issue at all.

[luuknam]

Okay, so I googled a bit more, and if I'm not misreading things, processing speed depends on two subtests, one of which is coding, which is heavily dependent on fine motor skills (which is what I thought I remembered to be the case). So, do the OT eval, and then OT if that's indeed an issue.

 

When my oldest was 4, he had a lot of tests... I don't remember the details, but his subtest scores ranged from 2nd percentile to >99th percentile - 5 standard deviations or so.