When the Intellectual Potential is Concealed from Symptoms: A Case Report

Abstract

We report challenges and trajectory of symptoms observed during the therapeutic process of a child with speech and language impairment and high intellectual potential which, initially, was concealed both by the described impairment and from others developmental vulnerability areas (psychomotor, emotional regulation etc.). The child, although intelligent, did not adequately use his strategies in order to make them effective and functional to the relational exchange and his cognitive level. The evaluations, carried out in many years, not only allowed to follow the evolution of the disorder but also the emergence of different skills, thus identifying the asynchronous development. Finally, are illustrated the results obtained at the last assessment where all the areas appeared evolving, with a significant transition from not coherently used strategies to the expression of the child's high potential (from the Leiter-R nonverbal IQ score of 93 to the WISC-IV IQ score of 131).