What's wrong with Jamie?

"What's wrong with him?"  It's a question I get all the time.  The less bold among us ask my friends and even Jamie's playmates.  There are still plenty that ask me.  I usually spill something about Sensory Processing Disorder and how for a long time we thought he might be on the Autism Spectrum, but that he's not.  Curious people seem to be satisfied by my response, but I'm not.  I don't see what they see.  I want to grab these people by the shoulders and demand answers.  "Why, what did you see?"  I don't see it.  I see my little boy running around at the playground or in the fast food playland like all the other kids.  I see him doing all the things the other little boys are doing.  My own brother asked my friend if Jamie is "retarded".  The answer is a resounding, "NO!"  Here is an excerpt from the testing Jamie had at the end of last year...

Results of the DAS-II indicate that Jamie is functioning in the above average range of intelligence with a DAS General Conceptual Ability (GCA) score of 113.  The DAS-II is comprised of 3 clusters of skills.  Jamie's Verbal Cluster standard score of 113 was above average as was his Nonverbal Reasoning standard score of 112.  His Spatial score of 103 was average.  On the DAS-II Diagnostic subtests, Jamie's Working memory standard score of 109 was average and his Processing Speed standard score of 122 was well above average.

Jamie's Phonological Processing T-Score of 40 was in the below average range, however.  This score is equivalent to a standard score of 85.  Phonological Processing involves skills that underlie early reading decoding abilities.  It refers to the ability to take apart words into their individual sounds.  It involves rhyming, blending, deletion, and phoneme identification and segmentation.  With regard to reading decoding, Jamie's teacher reported that he relies heavily on his knowledge of sight words.  She said he does pretty well with letter sounds, but if he is not completely sure he knows a sight word, he makes a wild guess.  For example, he will look at the word "is" and say "truck wheels."  She indicated that he was slightly behind where she would like him to be.  I did not test his reading skills for this evaluation, as insurance does not cover it.  Jamie appears to be at risk for learning disability in basic reading skills.  His below average Phonological Processing is significantly lower than his above average intelligence.

But none of this explains what they are seeing.  Maybe the next time someone asks me I will ask them to have a seat and chat with me for a little while.