Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Terrible WIAT-II experience. What can we do?

Our EG 7 year old took the WIAT-II a year ago, when she was not yet reading. She now reads at the 7th grade level and does math at a 4th grade level. To support her application to a gifted program, we had her retested to show her current achievement.

Our first tester specialized in gifted kids, and she was wonderful, but she was a long way away. We opted this time for a tester nearby who mostly deals with LD kids. That was a huge mistake. It was an awful test experience.

In general, her results are consistent with where we know she is. But she ran into some performance anxiety on numerical operations. Her numeric operations score was actually at a lower grade level than it was a year ago. That skewed result drags her math composite and total composite down to the point where she will probably not qualify for at least one program. And the whole write up focuses completely on her performance anxiety with the one subtest, not her overall performance. It frankly makes her look unhinged (which she is not). That will also probably disqualify her in at least one case. The tester agrees that the results are not an accurate reflection of her abilities or behavior, but is not interested in doing anything about it. She "followed the test protocol." So too bad for us.

These results will hurt her cause as much as it will help. It is our fault for not choosing a more qualified tester, but we don't know how to fix it. Can we have her retake the test with a more qualified gifted tester, or does she have to wait a year now? Do we have other options? What can we do?

For other parents of extremely gifted kids who read this, the tester you choose matters unbelievably. Take the time, do the drive, whatever you have to do. But work with someone who specializes in gifted children and will understand your child. Or you may just shoot yourself in the foot like we did.

Amen on the $$$. Can't one of these kids come up with a $$ tree?

We are struggling with poor test results too or maybe poor tester. Not sure. Sorry you are going thru this.

Thanks for the post/warning; we are looking around for testing right now. I had one sort-of recommendation, but this dr. asked for the full fee up front, and I could work with insurance; not ideal. In the end she was just rubbing me the wrong way and I did *not* get a 'cares about kids' feeling, more of a scientist, please pay here and we will check out the specimen for you based on the 'questions you decide you want answered'.

I am still looking in va., I found another clinical psych who sounded fantastic over the phone, very knowledgeable, nice, etc. Unfortunately *out of network* for insurance. I found another Dr. just today who sounded very solid, specializes in working with kids. He is out of town for a few days but when he gets back I will ask about his experience working with gifted kids. He was nice enough to call me back from out of town, so I figure that is at least one plus in his column.

Doc, were there any things you saw up-front that now you think might have been 'red flags' to avoid?

Hopefully the program your child is applying to will look at more than scores; I have experience in submitting work samples for my ds to apply for his current prog., and it did seem to make a diff. where there was a slight gap between scores he got and scores they 'like/need' to see. Perhaps some work samples would help in your daughter's case? You should definitely speak with the program folks about that.

Oh so sorry that you had a negative experience....we are in the process of looking for a tester as well...put in 2 calls so far, one I found that works out of a sensory integration center and sounded amazing, super friendly, very much a feel comfortable person...the other came highly recommended in "knowing her stuff" and is from a state university but the message she left on my answering machine screamed "cold, cold, cold" and she honestly sounded annoyed like I wasted her time with the call since I wasn't at home for her to talk to. I am going with my gut and staying away from the "cold", state university one that my son would not feel comfortable around....hope it pays off....gee..how do you guys get all of your insurance companies to pay for testing?????? Ours is an excellent insurance company and they all but laughed when I asked about coverage

I should clarify, I suspect some possible learning disorder with ds, along with being gifted - when I called my insurance company to explain that I wanted an evaluation they said I did not need a referral. I am *trying* to go 'in-network' if possible, otherwise I think there are still some benefits but not nearly as much...

for gifted assessment alone, I am not sure they would give benefits. Of course they never guarantee any benefits over the phone so it's still sort of a gamble.

That's really scary. How do you really know if you have picked the right person?? It just seems like it's such a gamble.

Unless you have a recommendation from someone, I don't know. I went to a guy who on his website specializes in GT kids. He administed the WISCIV. He has several calculation errors which I found and Dottie found, which would keep him from DYS (assuming he would make the cut on WJIII) but he doesn't have time to find his mistake and re-write the report. So I never got a final report. That was over a year ago and many, many phone calls.

For those looking for a qualified tester, start here: http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/psychologists.htm. This list comes from unsolicited peer and parent recommendations. We found our first tester here and she was fantastic. Well worth the drive.

We also had the experience of people who advertised themselves as gifted specialists, or were recommended by gifted schools, but seemed to have zero sensitivity to the kids or the issues. Trust your gut and avoid, avoid, avoid.

So sorry about your experience. I wish I had words of advice about retesting, but I don't know about that. Because DS seems so highly gifted to us, we decided to go with a psychologist from the Hoagies site. The downside is that she doesn't accept insurance unless she is ruling out some sort of disability (which is not the case with us). But she lives close and we have decided that this is an investment and we are going to make it worth. Not worth it us to just go with a tester because they are a bargain (but in most other things I am a big bargain shopper, LOL). We have already met with her and talked with her several times on the phone, she is quite supportive and we haven't even paid her yet. We are starting the testing in a few weeks. She scheduled 4 half days to do all his testing incase he needs more frequent breaksj, which I think is great. And she is going to observe him for a full morning at his pre-k and speak with his teacher too. She has told us that she does a very comprehensive assessment and goes into much detail from her testing. So we feel good about this. We haven't done the testing yet, but so far I think she is great.

I think good recommendations are very important...just because someone thinks that they are good with gifted children doesn't mean that they are good at it. Think about how many teachers think they are good with kids. Some truly are, and some truly aren't.

Follow up: We had to push really hard, but the tester did finally agree to allow her to retake that one section and rescore the whole test. And she agreed to take out the exaggerated behavioral observations since they were "not clinically relevant."

So for others who may find themselves in the same situation, at least according to this psychologist, they looked into it and there is no rule that prevents retesting on the WIAT-II. (There *is* a rule that prohibits WISC and WPPSI retests within a year.) If you got a bad test result and you fight hard enough, you might be able to get a better shake for your kid, too.