Hello to all I’m a new member. I have a six year old son who has been diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome but who I also think has possibly more that one learining disability. A parent on an Asperger Syndrome board on which I post commented to me that with my son’s large spread between his Verbal IQ scores (140) and his Performance IQ scores (105) my son may have learning disorders in addition to his AS. That would seem to make sense to me because my son has NO interest in learning math (he can count verbally to 100 but hates to use his hands to move manipulatives)and even though he has known his consonant and vowel sounds since age three, can read site words he can only sound out words three-letter words and he can’t seem to read a sentence in a primer. He has private OT and speech/language group therapies and I have a vision appointment scheduled for him in December. Do you think I should have him tested for LD’s and if so, what type of professional performs theses tests? Also do you know where I could research information about this IQ point spread issue? Also, last question-are learning disabilities in any way related to processing disorders? The neuropsych who diagnosed my son as AS informed me that my son would likely show evidence of visual-spatial and executive function processing disorders which would require accommodations and remediation but really didn’t say more than that. Thank you for bearing with my post and any help you can provide. I should add that currently he is in a regular-ed publis school kindergarten class and his IEP meeting is in two weeks.
He is in K so hard to know if the reading is normal development or early evidence of an LD. I do know that a big spread between verbal and nonverbal IQ can be indicative of a Nonverbal Learning Disability. Asbergers and NVLD are somewhat related so I would think the neurospychologist would have considered NVLD too as a diagnosis. But in anycase, you might do a search to see what you can find out, even if it isn’t the appropriate diagnosis for him. I know that executive functioning issues and visual spatial issues are typical of NVLD. Math issues are also.
Processing issues underlying learning disabilities but is a more general term. For example, someone can process information slowly for a number of reasons—intelligence, auditory processing disorder, ect.
Beth