Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - WISC-V

My 7 year old son was tested for ADHD by a Psychcologist and tested very high on 3 parts of the WISC-V but very low on 2 parts. (Scores below) The two sections that he was very low on were the Working Memory and the Processing Speed. The Psychologist did not score an overall IQ score so I have no idea where he may fall. I have read online that he should maybe write the GAI (General Ability Index) test as it does not include working memory or processing speed? I am troubled by the very low scores but also wonder if he would be considered gifted as they other scores seem very high? Any suggestions would be appreciated.


Verbal Comprehension � Percentile Rank 98 (Very Superior)
Visual Spatial � Percentile Rank 88 (High Average)
Fluid Reasoning � Percentile Rank 92 (Superior)
Working Memory � Percentile Rank 18 (Low Average)
Processing Speed � 6 Percentile Rank (Borderline)

Based on his VCI, he would be considered just into the moderately gifted range. His VSI and FRI are both on the border of High Average and Superior, thus not gifted range. His WMI is mildly weak, and his PSI is significantly low, as it is both a normative and a personal weakness of some magnitude. These two areas are often affected in children with ADHD, but may also be low in children with other exceptionalities. In his case, I would wonder about
1. Possible 2e
2. Were there differences between the WMI subtests? Did he do better with the auditory task (digit span) than the visual task (picture span)?
3. Are there fine motor or other reasons for the low PSI? Did he do better on symbol search (reduced motor demands) than on coding? Did he do better on the motor-free VSI task (visual puzzles) than the motor-involved task (block design)?
4. Do you see the testing profile borne out in real life? E.g., good oral language skills, slow to complete or reluctant to do written/fine-motor tasks, needs directions repeated, better in verbal tasks than visual tasks.

Just a few thoughts with which to begin.

Would you mind sharing the subtest scores with us, particularly for Visual Spatial, PSI and WMI? That might help us with guesstimating what might be up with the low scores. Also let us know if the tester made any notes such as your ds seeming to be distracted or was he on task and attentive etc.

It might also help if you could let us know what led to testing for ADHD - what specific behaviors/symptoms made you (or whoever) suspect ADHD? The reason I ask that is that my two kids who've had scattered WISC subtest scores were both suspected of having ADHD when they were in the first years of elementary school but the symptoms that led to that suspicion were actually caused by very different issues, and there were definitely clues to each in the WISC subtest scores.

Best wishes,

polarbear

Thank you so much for both of your responses.

Her are the subtest scores:

Verbal Comprehension Subtests:
Similarities: Scaled Score: 15 Percentile Rank: 95 - Superior
Vocabulary: Scaled Score: 16 Percentile Rank: 98 - Superior

Visual Spatial Reasoning Subtests:
Block Design: Scaled Score: 14 Percentile Rank: 91 - High Average
Visual Puzzles: Scaled Score: 13 - Percentile Rank: 84 - High Average

Fluid Reasoning Subtests:
Matrix Reasoning: Scaled Score: 12 - Percentile Rank: 75 - Average
Figure Weights: Scaled Score: 15 - Percentile Rank: 95 - Superior

Working Memory Subtests:
Digit Span: Scaled Score: 9 - Percentile Rank: 37 - Average
Picture Span: Scaled Score 7 - Percentile Rank: 16 - Low Average

Processing Speed Subtest Scores:
Coding: Scaled Score: 5 - Percentile Rank: 5 - Borderline
Symbol Search: Scaled Score 7 - Percentile Rank: Low Average

The reason that we had him tested for ADHD is on the recommendation of his teachers as he showed characteristics of ADHD. The Phycologist suggests that his profile is consistent of ADHD and his given him that diagnosis. One of her suggestions was that he would benefit from receiving enrichment activities at school.

He does have fine motor issues (penmanship is often quite bad). We have been scribing for him on his homework lately and the difference is tremendous. Homework is often done in a 1/4 of the normal time spent.

I hope this answers all of your questions. Thanks so much again.

Yes to everything that aeh and polarbear posted.

Just wanted to add that the GAI isn't a separate test - the scores from parts of the WISC are used to calculate it. With the WISC-IV it was 2 out of the 4 (excluded working memory and processing speed), I assume with the WISC-V it would use the first 3 out of the 5.

I also have a DS that we tested when he was 6.5 because the school was convinced he was ADHD. At that point he tested gifted/probable LD which made sense with what we saw/experienced with him. We recently retested (he's almost 9 now) to confirm the LD (which it did) and his GAI was way higher this time around which made even more sense.

As noted above there are a lot of possible explanations that can result in a similar test profile. Welcome to the club

What specific characteristics were the teachers seeing that they felt were indicators of ADHD?


Did the psychologist include any additional testing other than IQ/achievement? For instance, was there a test to differentiate if the reason for the low coding scores might be due to fine motor or visual (a common test for this is the Beery VMI), were there any tests to see if there are challenges with executive functioning? Was there any review of writing samples to look for issues such as punctuation, spacing, etc? Were there any recommendations for OT or visual assessments as follow-up to the testing?

Sorry for asking more questions! But they will help us with making some suggestions for what to look into next.

Best wishes,

polarbear