Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment wppsi 3 test results

Hi all,

Now that we have had DD4's results for a few weeks and the shock has worn off I have been able to look a little more critically at them and just have a few questions. We already had our follow up apt with the ed psych but I have more questions now....

All our results were provided in percentile as I think is normal in NZ so here goes

Verbal 99.0%
Performance 99.8%
Processing speed 73.0%
General language 99%

Full scale 99.9%

note re processing speed - DD has excellent and fast handwriting results but held her pencil wrong. The tester required her to hold her pencil correctly and said this was why the score was so low. She recommended OT but in the last few weeks she has adapted to the new grip and is back to normal so I imagine her processing speed would be a lot higher.

In our area dd qualifies easily for every program so I don't need exact results for any academic reason. The cut off is about 95% so a little drop won't hurt either.

My concerns are social and for advocating. I know that we first look to the child etc, but there is no getting around that FSIQ score.

So when I interview schools do I advocate from the point of view of a HG parent or because the subtests were lower from the point of view of a MG parent. (does that make sense?) We have 2 good school choices in our area if she is MG and an excellent one for HG kids out of zone that we can ballot for but I don't want her to go across town unnecessarily when there is a perfectly good school literally 5 minutes walk from our door.

I'm aware that these tests lose accuracy at the higher levels but I wouldn't have thought 99.9% was that high (she's NOT profoundly gifted!) Ed Psych said she would need a lot of intervention to keep engaged at school, but I don't want to go in waiving the report saying my kid needs sooooo much advancement, consideration etc when really a little extra would do. I also don't want to take a wait and see approach as DD has already proven with disastrous results that she will attempt to fit in an under challenging environment. I don't feel that she will stand out to the teachers if the don't pick it up after the first few weeks.

Also as she is a very sensible 4 year old and knew to try her best along with the tester using the WPPSI 3 instead 4 (I have know idea why I didn't ask at the time) is there a good chance this score is inflated? The tester is very well respected in our town and is recommended by our gifted centre so I have no reason to suspect anything - I guess we were expected around 98% which would feel right.

Since the testing, being removed from kindy and starting gifted learning group once a week she has had a wee mental explosion though so maybe I just need to adjust ...

so to make a long question short - MG or HG?

The WPPSI-III is okay for this year in NZ and AUS, as the new WPPSI-IV with AUS/NZ norms just came out in 2014. But, yes, the scores are probably slightly inflated. The Flynn effect is generally considered to add about 3 pts to the FSIQ for each 10 years distance from the standardization group (the WPPSI-III NZ norms came out in 2004). So that might drop her FSIQ to the 99.7%ile, not a meaningful decrease in the real world. (That would be from the mid 140's, which is 99.9%ile, to the low 140's, which is 99.7%ile.)

Can't explain why the psych would make her change her grip during testing! Leave that to the OTs.

I think your test results would suggest HG, even with a minor adjustment for norm obsolescence, especially considering that the FSIQ is a low estimate, based on the PSQ being a very low estimate.

It is possible that a very sensible, socially-aware four year old may have figured out how to blend in better with her age-peers, thus making herself appear less gifted than she actually is.

Thanks aeh. That helps a lot with me getting my head around it.

She is definitely very sensible and socially aware so she attempts to fit in. Other parents just think she is quirky, but we can see how different she is in private. Thankfully she is more like herself in the gifted program so hoping that continues.

Guess I'll be filling in ballot papers and waiving reports at principals then :-)

That she is more herself in the current gifted program tends to support our hypothesis of social masking.

Go wave!

Cheers