Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Help interpreting WISC IV scores

Aeh, you certainly know a lot about testing! Do you have a good resource that explains what each category is testing for? The psychologist briefly explained it to me but I didn't quite catch everything, and my toddler was dividing my attention. I have never thought my ds7 was verbally gifted, so I didn't expect a high score in that area. He was a very early talker and has always understood the mechanics of language well, but is not overly perceptive of things that are not explicitly stated, if that makes sense. Yes, his picture concepts score was 12. I got the results in the mail today.
Similarities 12
Vocabulary 13
Comprehension 10
VCI 108

Block design 17
Picture concepts 12
Matrix reasoning 19
PRI 137

Digit span 19
Letter number sequencing 18
WRI 148

Coding 12
Symbol search 12
PS 112

FSIQ 135
The psychologist did not calculate extended subtest scores. This psychologist is not super familiar with gifted children, but I would have had to travel and pay 10x as much for testing if I wanted one who was.

I am interested in getting one of the achievement tests that DYS accepts but does a psychologist have to administer it? Or is there a cheaper option? Paying a another $375 isn't really in the budget. He takes a yearly CAT test to satisfy the state homeschool requirements but has never taken another achievement test. I do feel confident that I could create a portfolio that DYS would accept, mostly using video of him explaining/teaching math concepts, which he does for a class he takes anyway. Students present weekly on any topic they want and he often chooses to explain math concepts, none of which his classmates understand, ha ha.

Thanks for all the replies - this is helpful.

Not expert in testing, but I would be curious to see what his score would be using the extended norms. It might bump the PRI score. Also, the picture concept score seems off to me. Someone might know this better than me, but could there be a possible vision issue? Fantastic working memory!

Many families find the information on indexes and subtests at wrightslaw helpful: http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/tests_measurements.html

Also this Pearson document, with a quick summary of indexes and subtests on pages 9-12:
http://images.pearsonclinical.com/images/Products/Wechsler/Wechsler_GAI.pdf

Another Pearson document easily found online discusses clinical interpretation and looks in detail at FSIQ, Indexes, Subtests, Items, and Task Components:

I strongly doubt there is a vision issue. He has never had difficulty with reading, writing, or depth perception, or learning age appropriate skills that require normal vision. If I understand the picture concepts subtest correctly, I think he probably didn't recognize many of the objects and therefore could not identify which objects had common characteristics. I understand picture concepts to be essentially analogies but in pictures rather than words? That goes along with his lower verbal scores. He is not perceptive or observant of things going on around him that he is not interested in, unless he is explicitly taught, so objects that may be common to most people are not necessarily familiar to him because he hasn't noticed or thought about them in everyday life. His area of giftedness is very specifically math, and at this point it looks like that will head toward physics and (mechanical or computer) engineering.

The links that have been posted should have good explanations in them. There are also brief descriptions in the manuals, which should be very similar to any presentation posted by Pearson. I'm afraid my own resource is the one inside my head, after years of writing evals!
An educational diagnostician (usually certified as a special education teacher) can also administer and interpret achievement tests.

I mentioned uppost that picture concepts has significant verbal loading on it, and may reflect his average verbal reasoning, in this case. Vision issues should have affected block design as well.

With only one 19, and an index score only in the 130s, the extended norms are not indicated, and probably would not raise the PRI enough to hit DYS-level anyway. I agree that the PRI is probably a low estimate, though, and would think about re-testing in two years.

I'm no expert, but his verbal scores seem surprisingly low if this is the case. The above sentence approximately describes my DD's verbal capacities at your son's age and her verbal score was in the high 130s. He certainly sounds verbally gifted to some degree or another if he was comprehending 5th grade books at age 6. Could there be another issue at play here?

Actually, this may sound surprising, but, based on the linking studies, the predicted grade equivalent on the WIAT-III reading comprehension subtest for a seven-year-old with a PRI of 137 is exactly 5th grade (keeping all caveats about grade equivalents in mind). This is equivalent to a standard score in the High Average/Above Average range (117). Using the PRI as the cognitive measure would generally be done in situations like this, where the VCI is significantly lower.

I would still keep an eye on the development of verbal abilities, though, moving forward.

So in other words, you might expect a high reading level based on the PRI even without a high VCI? Interesting. I guess I don't get it, but maybe it's because VCI measures verbal abilities beyond reading/comprehension? I was surprised that the Vocab score for this child was what it was if he is reading significantly above grade level.

It's both because VCI measures verbal reasoning beyond reading and reading comprehension, and because reading comprehension also involves abstract reasoning skills captured by the PRI. As multiple factors lead into reading comprehension, one can use strengths in one factor to compensate for weaknesses in another.