He knows too much

[ciroccoj]

(semi-translated from an e-mail to my dad)

Took Daniel to a psychologist to see if he had ADHD and after $1,300 of testing he told us No: he's got a Non-Verbal Learning Disability. Which is kind of funny in part because part of why they think so is that his Language test scores were "literally off the charts; I have never actually seen scores like this before," said the psych dude.

Why is this a problem? Because although he's beyond the 99th percentile in Language (and math), he's "only" at about the 75-80th percentiles in non-verbal reasoning, memory, etc.^* Which results in various behaviours that look a lot like ADHD, because the difference between his language comprehension and, for example, his ability to pay attention, are so big that they cause problems related to over-inflated behavioral expectations. He can compare and contrast Jean Valjean and Aladdin verbally for hours, with great detail and enthusiasm (both thieves, both for good reasons, both pursued by authority figures which would normally seen as good but are actually so militant and unmerciful that they are portrayed as bad, etc etc) but when you ask him to write about it, he writes "They were both thieves but they were good." So he really looks like he's being lazy or unable to concentrate.

The kid is literally too smart for his own good. Who knew. I wish I could talk to my mom about this. Can you imagine what she would've said?



* Forgot to mention to my dad that Daniel's physical writing skills (holding a pencil, etc) are way below average.

There are also other reasons why we thought he had ADHD; he suffers from incurable motormouth, often spaces out completely, and could fill all our energy needs if we could somehow channel his jitter-mania into a generator, but apparently it's the huge gap between his verbal and "other" abilities that's the main problem.

Comments

[snarkhunter.livejournal.com]

So, basically, your kid's a genius. In the very traditional, off-the-charts smart, but lacking in essential skills to translate that intelligence to his audience.

That's interesting. Do they think his other abilities will catch up? Is this basically some kind of maturity thing? Or will he have to compensate for the rest of his life?

[daf9.livejournal.com]

Hopefully this is one of these diagnoses with practical ramifications i.e. will help you deal with the problem rather than just telling you why the problem exists.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Heh, well I wouldn't go as far as genius, but he's definitely somewhat bright :) :)

So, basically, your kid's a genius. In the very traditional, off-the-charts smart, but lacking in essential skills to translate that intelligence to his audience.

That's interesting. Do they think his other abilities will catch up? Is this basically some kind of maturity thing? Or will he have to compensate for the rest of his life?
I'm not sure - we still need to read all the literature they gave us. They did give us some helpful pointers, though, about how best to reach him and how to help him compensate. And, equally importantly, how to avoid a lot of frustration on all sides. Which I think was a big part of why we went to them, because his spaciness and apparent lack of willingness to really put in effort in his schoolwork was getting very distressing.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they were pretty good about that. Gave us a bunch of things to read, as well as some tips on how to deal with the frustration that comes from our "overly-inflated expectations." I've already found some of it pretty useful, so IMHO it was $ very well-spent :)