Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Insight into WPPSI iv results...

I was hoping someone could give me some insight into my son�s WPPSI IV scores. He was 5 years 8 months when tested. Should I be concerned that the difference between his verbal comprehension and visual spatial scores may be indicative of something else going on? We saw a lot of anxiety in kindergarten last year � he is an extreme perfectionist.

VCI 114
VSI 155
Fluid Reasoning 124
Working Memory 118
Processing Speed 116
Full Scale 133

The psych told me that he made his mistakes on the very early, easy questions but was able to answer the questions as they became more difficult(?) She thought perhaps he had word finding difficulties. I had him assessed with an SLP and she said she couldn't find anything, testing came out in the normal range although he does have articulation issues. He is very much the mathy kid, however his language skills seem much higher than this score reflects.

Thanks for any thoughts!

Just going on the basis of your scores, I would say yes, you should probably look further. Keep in mind that his relative weaknesses are still in the High Average range, so when the SLP looked at him, of course everything came out within normal limits. But it is highly unusual to have a 41 point difference between VCI and VSI, and a 31 point difference between VSI and FRI. (I would be less concerned about the WMI and PSI, as High Average scores on those indices is not that unusual in gifted kids.)

So one of the things that comes up is that on the FRI, most people use both verbal and abstract-visual problem-solving strategies. In fact, there is an element of needing to integrate the two to solve some of the items. His FRI may reflect the gap between his VSI and VCI, as he may have had items where his verbal reasoning was the limiting agent.

Another possible interpretation to consider is that his verbal abilities really were underestimated because he did not interpret the tasks conventionally at the beginning, but after the teaching items he figured out what the task was supposed to be. That probably still does not explain the whole difference between VCI and VSI, though.

And finally, anxiety/perfectionism is not unusual in gifted kids, nor is it unusual in LD kids (at least the anxiety part), which clearly makes it particularly not unusual in 2e kids. The awareness of one's own asynchronies can be very stressful, but especially for the very young, who are not emotionally-equipped to navigate them alone in a conventional environment. (And kindergarten is extremely conventional.)

Thank so much for the reply aeh, that is very helpful. He is the child who doesn't approach problems conventionally and yet it stresses him out when he doesn't do things the "correct" way. So perhaps that is part of the issue.

He is so precise typically in his expressive language that it makes me think perhaps something else is going on- eg. at 5 he asked what literally and technically meant and then he has used the terms appropriately ever since.

We will take him for further assessment. Thanks!