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    Kelly55 Offline OP
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    Both my 4yo and 6yo were assessed using WPPSI when they were almost 5, because there's a gifted school in our area that takes applications in the Kindergarten year.

    My 6yo's results, two years ago, were not accurate. The FSIQ was not interpretable, but her average index score was 106, which I believe cannot be correct, based on her ability. I dismissed all of the index and subtest scores as not containing useful information.

    Now that I see my 4yo's results, I see that he has the same lowest subtest score, in Object Assembly. That makes me wonder if there is some common challenge the two share, and whether there is anything I can do to help them improve in that area.

    Here are the 4yo's scores:
    * Removed

    My 4yo did not meet the termination criterion of 3 wrong answers consecutively for Matrix Reasoning (I didn't ask whether he hit ceilings for WMI subtests). Tester says that he got three wrong in total, no more than one consecutively.

    I don't think my 4yo would be interested in doing lots of the tasks on the subtests. The tester really worked hard to engage him. So I think some subtest scores could be low because of his lack of interest, or high because of how hard the tester worked to engage him. Based on what I've seen of his abilities, I suspect his potential may be higher�than the test results indicate.

    Here are the 6yo's scores (from age 4):
    * Removed

    She is very strong at mathematical reasoning, and also very strong verbally. Her strong mathematical reasoning and capacity for abstract thought just don't fit with her score. She performs very poorly when nervous, and I assume that she got nervous during the assessment.

    For both of them, object assembly was 9 points (3 SD) lower than their highest subtest scaled score.

    Does either of their subtest score patterns raise any red flags? With that much difference between subtest scores, is it possible there's a learning difference, vision problem, visual motor integration problem, etc?

    I'd appreciate any insight. Thanks!

    Last edited by Kelly55; 11/20/19 02:50 PM.
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    aeh Offline
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    Welcome! First, our apologies for the lack of response...new posters are delayed in moderation for the first few posts, and then sometimes the posts just get lost in the flood.

    Some context on scores: this kind of cognitive assessment typically isn't considered stable for a few more years yet, until about age eight or so, with even more variability among learners with exceptionalities, or other factors affecting testability. Testing in childhood has some utility, but it's probably better to consider it a measure of state (temporally-local conditions), rather than trait (stable, within-person qualities). A few of the reasons for this include 1) the wide range of expected development in early childhood; 2) variable attention, motivation, and experience (both with academic/pre-academic and testing skills) in young children, 3) even more vulnerability to conditions in young children than in older learners (e.g., fatigue, hunger, anxiety, level of rapport).

    So I'd generally be hesitant to raise red flags based purely on preschool IQ testing, in the absence of any IRL concerns.

    Now on to the scores. Your second child has scores beginning solidly in the Average range, and extending into the Extremely High range. It would appear that his strengths are in abstract reasoning (both verbal and nonverbal) and working memory, and his lowest areas (not technically a weakness, as these are very comfortably Average scores, but low compared to his strengths) are in visual spatial skills and fine-motor speed. These strength areas are often associated with math strengths, especially in combination with each other. It's not particularly unusual for a high cognitive preschooler to post less dramatic scores in motor-involved areas, as having advanced thinking skills doesn't necessarily correspond to equally advanced hand skills.

    Given your description of your older child's IRL profile, I would take those scores only lightly into consideration, as test anxiety may well have played a major role in her performance. Consequently, I'm a bit reluctant to invest too much into interpreting the scores.

    Bottom line, they are both very young, and there are many and various reasons to believe that the relative weaknesses (only one of which actually falls below the Average range) are not yet cause for concern, certainly not in isolation. Until you see IRL problems, the lower scores don't have IRL meaning. I'm not ruling out any kind of learning difference, of course, but in your place, I would definitely take the approach of watching for actual concerns, and starting from that end of things, rather than worrying about an hypothetical concern. (aka, "don't borrow trouble!")


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    Kelly55 Offline OP
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    aeh, thank you very much for your thorough and informative response. I'm glad to hear your perspective on these scores, and on the stability of early testing. I've learned a lot from many of your other responses I've seen in threads on these boards too.

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    aeh Offline
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    You're welcome.


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