nonverbal > verbal LARGE split?

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My son was tested and has an extremely large nonverbal/verbal split. Nonverbal was 131 (very superior) and Verbal was 85 (Low Average). Processing speed was 80. His scores highly correlate with his overall academic performance.

The doc is looking at HFA instead of Aspergers due to language delays. He barely made the age three mark.

Anyone else here have a similar profile and what was your dx. Just curious. The difference between processing speed and nonverbal IQ is pretty significant.

He is only five years old.

Huge verbal/nonverbal splits are common in autism. I have NLD (nonverbal learning disorder- somewhat similar to AS), and I also have a large split, but the other way. My verbal score is 147, and my nonverbal is 108. Aspies sometimes also have verbal>nonverbal, or they can also show the pattern your son does. HFA is more likely nonverbal>verbal, due to the language delay.

Yeah.

Nonverbal is 130+ (the highest I've had is maxed out, so that's 160), and verbal is around 75. Diagnosed with Autistic Disorder over here (which is HFA in my case due to an overall IQ above 75 or so).

I had difficulties with reading and writing in the early grades of school, but I caught up. I didn't really talk until I was 4 1/2.

Can someone please explain to me what is meant by verbal/non-verbal tests and scores?

My son hasn't been assessed yet, and I don't know what this means.

Also, what is meant by processing speed?

Those are the subtests on an IQ test. Verbal tests things like general knowledge, mathematics, and defining words; visual is things like patterns, picture-completion, and making shapes out of blocks.

The visual/verbal gap is one reason why IQ is nearly irrelevant for many autistic people. Overall IQ could be 100 but you would never know whether that meant you had 100 visual, 100 verbal, or whether you were a genius at one and slow at the other.

Of course there are also testing issues--testing somebody with poor verbal skills is difficult because you have to communicate directions. Testing somebody who is easily distracted or has problems directing attention is also problematic. Testing somebody who doesn't care much about the test. or doesn't know it's important to try hard, will yield an artificially low score.

What does it mean? Well, if the test's valid, it probably means that your kid is very good at some things, very bad at others, which is normal for an autistic person. Usually we deal with it by using those strengths to cover for the areas where we're inefficient or delayed; and obviously by developing the strengths themselves as far as possible, so as to make the best possible use of them.

Processing speed is just how fast you think--raw speed, rather than how accurately you solve problems. A slow speed is one thing that might help you get your kid some decent accommodations--maybe a separate, quiet room and some extra time to take tests. That can be a godsend for a kid who has poor attention control.

That's me. I have a high nonverbal IQ and average verbal IQ but my processing speed is SLOW. Timed tests always f*** me over and it isn't fair. I found that I can solve some really tough problems that no one else ever gets but it takes me a lot of time. On the other hand, everyone else rips through the easy stuff much faster than I can.

Thanks for the explanation, Callista.

I agree with others that the split you cited seems reasonable for somebody on the spectrum. In fact it isn't that unusual for regular people either so I wouldn't worry about it except make sure the school stresses spatial learning methods (most don't).
This is the critical element as almost the entire educational system, in fact almost all systems in general are designed for sequential people which one reason many on the spectrum have some difficulties relating.

Originally at age 9 or 10 I took the Stanford-Binet test and scored about 145 visual-spatial and about 120 verbal, was diagnosed with Asperger's, then, when I took the WAIS-III at 18, I had performance 77 and verbal 93 averaging to 85, though I was about 20-40% non-verbal at the time (many answers obtained through typing). The performance section, I got in the bottom 1 percentile at picture completion but in the top 9 percentile at some others like matrix reasoning, so even splitting it in half doesn't always say much.

Marshall, my son sounds like you!!
It does seem like most people with that big of IQ split difference have been identified with AS (Verbal being higher). I am glad to hear that there are others here who have similar big differences with nonverbal being higher. It really does help to here from you.

The processing speed subtest does really correlate with how he is doing in class. Nate is also very slow at completing work. It takes him forever. He has excellent fine motor skills but that doesn't change how slow he is. Math facts takes him forever to complete but his math reasoning skills are very good. He is the best in class for math reasoning. He is not bad at his math facts, it just takes him forever. He has already been screwed with timed tests. He has timed math facts tests and he has been scoring around 50%. He has all the problems correct, it just takes him forever. The school told me they are not going to do that to him anymore because it's not measuring what he really knows

Nate is starting to struggle with reading, He isn't the lowest in class but it is just getting more difficult for him. He told me, "I don't want to learn to read big words, I would rather build stuff."

I guess the most frustrating thing is knowing that he does understand a lot of concepts more than most of his classmates but not having the ability to put it down on paper or being able to think quickly enough. He has such indepth knowledge about certain things that the more basic "boring" stuff is just not interesting to him. He is starting to stutter because of the anxiety and also having so much information in his head but not having the ability to express what he knows quickly enough (at least that is my interpretation what is going on).

Nate didn't really talk until almost three years old. He just wasn't interested. He talks ALL the time now.