Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Question about WISC iv and 7 year old

After strong encouragement by family members I finally bit the bullet and took my 7 year old for private testing. He seems to be struggling with finishing work at school, but I know he is very bright.

Anyway, it will be a week before I get the results, but can anyone tell me about the block design part of the test? He correctly finished all the problems for this test. Does anyone know what that means in terms of scoring? He seemed to do well (in my totally un-educated opinion) on the rest of the tests too, but this one stood out at me as he finished all the problems correctly (the others he always hit a point where they were too hard). I thought all the tests got harder to the point where they wouldn't be able to complete them. Can anyone set me straight or advise me on this? Any thoughts are appreciated :-)


I apologize, I know I'm just being impatient because the pshycologist will explain it all to me in another week.

My only two thoughts on this:

Yes, they do get harder and he probably will get a high score on that test. However time counts as well so if he didn't do them quickly he might not have a ceiling score (at the top of the test 99th percentile+).

Also, as far as I understand it, the psychologist is not allowed to show parents what the questions are which includes not lettting the parents observe the testing session or sit in during testing. I am surprised if they let you do so.

I'm not a WISC-IV expert but if DD7 answered all of the block design questions correctly that would put his block design score at 25 using the extended norms (the score varies based on age -- this is the max score for a seven year old) He would be in at least the 99.9 percentile in this area.
On our report, the psychologist gave us scores for the four subtests:
verbal comprehension (VC),
perceptual reasoning (PR),
working memory (WM), and
processing speed (PS) and a
full scale IQ (FSIQ).
She also gave us the individual test scores which helped when she failed to calculate the extended norms. Block design is one component of the PR score. Our report also included a GAI score which is a combination of the VC and PR scores. This number can be useful if you have a 2e kid who has memory or processing issues.
Here is a link to the extended norms technical report:
http://www.pearsonassessments.com/N...C-8E4A114F7E1F/0/WISCIV_TechReport_7.pdf
Hope this helps!

I knew that someone would have a better answer than I would ! So, would it be at 25 even if the questions weren't answered quickly? I thought that the block design score was a composite of correct and speed in getting them correct. One of the times dd9 was tested we were told that she didn't get any points for some of the ones she did correctly b/c it took her too long to get them put together (i.e. there was some maximum time in which to assemble the blocks). I could, of course, be wrong and time may only count for bonus points.

Thanks for the replies! I had no idea that parents weren't suppose to observe...an oops on the psychologist's end! She did ask that I sit back and behind him if I was going to stay in the room, so I didn't really see much in terms of detail. But I heard lots I guess. I didn't notice the timed factor on that one, and I was busy filling out paperwork at that point so I wasn't paying much attention until it was done and he wanted to do more like that and she told him "wow! you did them all! There are no more that we can do!" She gave lots of encouraging praise similar to this throughout the test, so I'm sure it's also just how she encourages the kids she works with on whatever they are doing.
Anyway, I'm totally new to all this (can you tell) but I find it fascinating and I appreciate the info. I'm sure there was a timed factor and I just didn't catch it. And perhaps he didn't actually get ther all "right" in terms of time, it could have been just praise. The report will obviously detail all of this. I'm sure you can all relate with the curiousity factor at this point, the waiting game.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with this.
Kind regards.

I can't imagine that she was lying to him so hopefully he really did as well as it sounds. I would expect something in the upper 90s even if time played into it and he didn't hit 99.9. Then again, maybe he did!

eta: and, I'm sorry if my first response came off a bit curt! I was just checking in here briefly and apparently didn't give a lot of thought to how to express my quick thoughts .

In our experience in having dds tested, if the psychologist is telling the child that s/he is doing really well, s/he is probably going to come out with a reasonably high score. How high is anyone's guess: 97, 99.9?? I wouldn't expect an overall score (FSIQ or GAI) below the 90s somewhere, though. Hopefully the wait won't be too long!

Oh, you didn't seem curt at all. I was looking for real honest possiblities, and you gave them to me. It was a good answer. I don't like things sugar coated generally anyway. I will post the results once I have them, incase anyone is curious. At the end she made a couple comments about him doing "really well" and then it seemed like she hesitated and backpeddled and said something about doing really well sitting for that long. Then she asked if I happened to have his report card with me, and said she'd be very curious to see what kind of comments his teacher made. She also said maybe he could teach a class on creative reasoning becasue he pulled the answer "91" to a question that he figured out on paper in the most bizarre way. She thought there was no way he would get the right answer, then it was right?

I would be embarrased to discuss this in real life, so I'm rambling here. I'm totally overanalysing everything that was said, first in one direction, then in another. That must be the real reason parents shouldn't be in the room. Because we (I) are crazy. LOL. I feel like I'm waiting for an U/S result....boy or girl? :-D

Hang in there Joyce! We all understand.

Thank you Dottie. Your answer actually makes me feel much more calm about the whole thing, which is what I was looking for. I really do not want to go into this meeting next week with inflated expectations, because I know my son is bright, which in many ways would be an easier answer than gifted....no question about removing him from french immersion, or special programs etc., and whatever she says to me should be interesting and educational with reagrds to how he learns, and not disappointing.
Thanks!

Well, the results are in, and overall his FSIQ was 132, with a relative weakness in working memory (114). His block design subtest in particular got him an 18. I'm sure I'll be developing a thousand questions now that I have all these details and results, but overall it's kind of exactly what I expected. Gifted, but not *too* gifted.....or "nicely gifted" as the psychologist put it...LOL.