Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment woodcock johnson /higher reading- how to help?

My DS8, 2nd grade has a WISC GAI of 148. (PRI 143, VCI 136, WMI 110, PSI 97 due to coding score at 35% percentile) I had him tested with the WJ III normed for grade 2.8 for DYS and received:

Test/cluster. SS(68%) GE
Brief achievement 123. 4.8
Broad reading 125. 5.7
Brief reading 123. 5.6
Basic reading skills 123. 6.8
Brief math 117. 3.1
Brief writing 125. 6.6
Academic skills 127. 5.1
Academic Apps 120. 4.7

Letter-word id 125. 6.4
Reading fluency 124. 6.2
Calculation 128. 4.1
Spelling 119. 5.1
Passage compréhension 112. 4.3
Applied problems 111. 3.6
Writing samples 127. 10.7
Word attack 120. 8.0

English is a second language for my DS. He started learning it in K, so I am blown away that his scores in reading are higher than in any math. I am a bit sad he didn't qualify for DSY, but now have a meeting with his private school to discuss his scores. What do I ask them?? How do you encourage reading? (Most of the discussion I've read here is usually about super advanced math). How do I advocate best for him? Should he be getting enrichment? For what? Any help appreciated! !

In general, parents may wish to follow their child's lead. If the current academics seem to be meeting the child's needs, is there reason to meet with the school to discuss test results? Test results are often used as supplementary material to back a parent up when requesting a specific accommodation to improve the "fit" of the academics or learning environment for their child.

The article The Parenting and Education of Gifted Students by Jan Davidson Ph.D. is positive and informative regarding gifted traits and identification of the gifted. It also mentions that "unchallenged bright students are at risk for frustration, depression, underachievement, and often give up on school as a place of learning" and that they may exhibit "an inability to concentrate on a task that is not intellectually challenging, including repetitious ideas or material presented in small pieces."

This raises awareness of the unfortunate impacts of a learning environment which does not "fit". This information helps alert parents and teachers to signs and symptoms, and also offers suggestions on providing a stimulating, challenging, supportive learning environment.

Information at the following links on the Davidson Database may be of interest...
1- Advocacy - Working with your child's school http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10558.aspx
2- Guidebook - Advocating for Exceptionally Gifted Young People, plus lists of other resources http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/browse_resources_165.aspx

I am just curious about something in your post. You said the test was normed for grade 2.8. My DD had this test to check for possible learning disabilities and the psych didn't mention a particular grade level test. I told him she's in third grade and he had her DOB but was focused on her grade and thought she was actually a year older that she is. I didn't mention she was grade accelerated and should actually be in second grade based on her age. So then when I got the scores, they didn't really make sense. For instance the handwriting score put her at a percentile of 50, but it put her in the middle of third grade for a GE. But most kids who are a few months past their 8th birthday are not in the middle of third grade. That happened for one or two other subtests as well. 50th percentile put her at the middle to end of third grade when technically she's not old enough to be in third grade.

Anyone have any insight into that?

I asked him if he maybe put the wrong age into the scoring system and he said he put in the DOB that I listed on the form. I think he was surprised when I told her that she's not 9 though, she had turned 8 a few months before the test. Previously, when he talked about her he kept referring to her as a "9 year old" and I never bothered to correct him.

In terms of the grade equivalents, I think they are pretty useless and don't mean a whole lot. DD had one grade equivalent level that was post high school, but her standard score only put her at the 80th percentile for that test. So a very high percentage of kids were scoring WAY ahead of their grade in the norming sample for that particular test, at least. What I found most useful was taking the standard scores and looking online to find the corresponding percentile using a chart like this: http://www.medfriendly.com/standardscoretopercentileconversion.html

So a score of 125 in Broad Reading would mean he's at the 95th percentile, or probably one of the top kids in the class. But would 5th grade level books really be appropriate? Maybe or maybe not. The comprehension score is lower. That's what I mean by taking the grade equivalents with a grain of salt. Applied problems would be around the 77th percentile but a lot higher for calculation. So you could think about reasons why there is a difference there (with my DD, she was higher for applied problems than calculation). One thing you could work on with your child, for example, or ask the teacher about, would be to work more on word problems rather than working more on computation, which he is already high on. Or ask about reasons why is applied problems score is so much lower. Does she see evidence of that in class? My DD is the opposite in that she needs to work more on computation. Hope this helps.

You know- I just assumed that it was normed to grade 2. His report has both age 8.7 (he is an older kid because of the birthday cutoff date for the state) and grade 2.8.

Thank you indigo.

The reason why testing was prompted was because I was tired of receiving notes from the teachers of him being unfocused, distracted and not finishing his work. Last year's teacher was worried about ADHD and vision problems (both negative). This year's teacher complains daily about his handwriting and not using capitalization, periods, wordsstucktogether, etc.

In all honesty, with his GAI scores, I was expecting higher achievement scores. If they had been higher, I would have requested some sort of acceleration to see if perhaps he was just bored in class.

With these scores, I'm unsure. I don't know a ton about WJIII scoring, but most of the comments I've read in this forum have scores that are just so much higher... Is acceleration in certain subjects a bad idea?

For me, school was always SO EASY, no studying was ever necessary and getting all As was a given. For DS8, when he looks at it, material seems easy, but all those complaints from the teachers are just worrying me- what if school ends up being too hard?

Oh, ok, so you mean he was in grade 2.8 when he took it. I just can't figure out how my 8 year 3 month child could be both at the 50th percentile and late third grade equivalent for some of the subtests. Unless the test was normed on kids in a certain state like California where 4 year olds go to kindergarten.

ahh.. isnt that because the grade equivalents are based on 50% as opposed to the RPI which is based on 90%?

What's the RPI? Now I'm completely lost.

Let me add some further information from scores listed above:

Test/clusters RPI
Brief achievement 100/90
Broad reading 99/90
Brief reading 100/90
Basic reading skills 100/90
Brief math 98/90
Brief writing 99/90
Academic skills 100/90
Academic Apps 98/90

Letter-word id 100/90
Reading fluency 98/90
Calculation 98/90
Spelling 99/90
Passage compréhension 97/90
Applied problems 98/90
Writing samples 99/90
Word attack 100/90

I would appreciate any information on how to enrich a kid with higher scores in reading/writing- Is there any online curriculum or game for this that he can do at home?

Would acceleration in certain subjects make sense or would that make school just too hard?