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    Joined: Aug 2012
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    I'm no professional, but I could add a couple points based on our experience:

    Find out if it is WISC IV or V. If it's the WISC-IV, make sure they are ready to offer "extended norms" questions. They use these when a kid hits the maximum score on the typical norms. The extended norms allow a much better picture of level of giftedness for highly gifted kids. And - they CANNOT go back and add on extended norms after the fact (as I understand it). They have to just keep going through questions after a kid hits the normal ceiling.

    [My understanding is that there are no extended norms for WISC V, though I don't understand why not.]

    If your kid does hit extended norms on one or more subtests, the WISC IV could take a lot more than an hour. DS7 hit ceilings on 4 subtests, AND he is a serious perfectionist. So his WISC IV took in excess of 4 hours and we had to split it up over a couple days. His brain was TIRED after two hours even though he enjoyed it. So make sure they are willing to split the test up over a couple days if - preferably before - kiddo gets exhausted. Oh - and I'd send fun snacks, drinks and chewing gum, whether they say it's necessary or not. Better safe than sorry.

    FWIW - if they look at you with blank stares when you say "extended norms" or "GAI," it's a good bet they aren't that experienced with highly gifted children. It doesn't sound like you have much choice in who you use, but it will be good to know if they are up to speed on this challenging, interesting sort of kid. And I do find that the idea of extended norms is a real tell for gifted experience.

    As always, ignore this if aeh or other pros contradict it. I'm just a mom feeling my way in the dark!

    And best of luck with the stress. Whatever the outcome, you'll get some useful info that will be helpful for working with your child!!

    Last edited by suevv; 07/07/15 07:21 PM.
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    One more thing re what to say about the test - I told DS who was 6 at the time that the test would help us understand the best ways for him to learn. I also told him that if he did his best, it would probably mean that he would get to do more interesting work at school SOONER. I didn't suggest that anything would be lost if he didn't do well. Seemed to be enough oaf a carrot for him, with out making him too anxious.

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    Originally Posted by suevv
    Find out if it is WISC IV or V. If it's the WISC-IV, make sure they are ready to offer "extended norms" questions. They use these when a kid hits the maximum score on the typical norms. The extended norms allow a much better picture of level of giftedness for highly gifted kids. And - they CANNOT go back and add on extended norms after the fact (as I understand it). They have to just keep going through questions after a kid hits the normal ceiling.
    Not exactly. They have to keep going until they get to the discontinuation criteria, even if the child cannot normally score any higher on the subtest by getting more question right. Then, if the child qualifies to use extended norms, they look up the raw scores on an extended norms table to get subtest scores that go above 19. But there are no extra questions or anything like that - it's just giving the test in the standard manner, without stopping it early because there's "no point" in going farther. Ask for the raw scores, as well as the indices, if you are interested in this, because you can calculate the extended norms without having them do it, if you want to.

    Originally Posted by suevv
    [My understanding is that there are no extended norms for WISC V, though I don't understand why not.]
    Because no one has tested a large group of gifted students with the WISC-V to calculate gifted extended norms yet. Someone may eventually, or they may not.

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    Ah - thanks for clarifying. But so the tester needs to keep going, not stop, when kiddo hits the maximum score correct? So still worth double-checking to make sure the tester will use extended norms as appropriate?

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    Originally Posted by suevv
    Ah - thanks for clarifying. But so the tester needs to keep going, not stop, when kiddo hits the maximum score correct? So still worth double-checking to make sure the tester will use extended norms as appropriate?

    I believe the rule of thumb is to calculate extended norms if two or more subtest scores are a 19. Fewer than this and I don't think extended norms are going to yield a wildly different answer than the regular ones.

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    OK - I'm going to stop trying to explain myself here, because I'm making a mess of it.

    But to the OP - when our tester used extended norms, my DS's FSIQ went up by almost one standard deviation (14 points) and his VCI went up by more than two standard deviations (33 points). So I'm darned glad we have that data. When it makes a difference it can make a huge difference. I'd want to know they would be prepared to provide this for your child if, as George summarizes, it's appropriate to calculate them.

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    Originally Posted by suevv
    Ah - thanks for clarifying. But so the tester needs to keep going, not stop, when kiddo hits the maximum score correct? So still worth double-checking to make sure the tester will use extended norms as appropriate?


    Basically, the tester just needs to use the actual stop criterion for the test. Some will stop before a child has missed the requisite number of items, because they "know" it won't make any difference to continue.

    I personally would be too nervous about asking for extended norms before my child has taken the test the first time, because I would think it made me look like "that mom" too much. I would ask for the raw scores, and also ask if they used the stop criterion given by the test, if I saw a couple of 19s on the report.

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    If it is a standardized administration (according to the rules), there will be absolutely no difference in testing process between the regular norms and extended norms. It's just a question of which tables are used to convert the raw scores.

    I would agree that asking about extended norms should only enter the picture after the results are obtained. They are also relevant primarily when there 2+ 19s among the subtest scaled scores, and when the index score in question is near the top of the regular norms (140s and up). If there are no 19s, the extended norms won't change anything. If the index scores are all below 140, then differences resulting from use of the extended norms probably reflect outliers among the subtest scores, which means additional clinical interpretation is necessary anyway.


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    Thank you everyone for the additional information. The test is set up for Monday at 9am. Hopefully the results won't take too long to get. We told her about the test and she is excited to take ot. Hopefully she will feel comfortable around the person administering the test.

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    She is going to be taking the WISC-IV and they are looking for a score equivalent to a CSI of a 132 on the InView according to the Principal when I inquired about what qualifications they were looking for. Is this test scored with a CSI? What score would be equivalent?

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