Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Looking for thoughts on WISC-IV & WIAT-II results

Hello everyone...

I'm a n00b here with some fresh WISC-IV & WIAT-II results. My DS11.6 had some summer time fun last week! If anyone has some insight into his results I would certainly appreciate your feedback.

Here is some background info:

He is a smart kid yet generally underachieves at most things. At times he acts like an adult and other times he acts like a 4 year old. He irritates his 8 year old sister and myself on a regular basis. He doesn't seem to understand that he has aggravated us. Sometimes he looks right at you when you speak to him yet he claims to have not heard a word you said. However, when he was younger he would read a book to himself while I read a 2nd book aloud. I would ask what I just read and he would repeat back the portion of the story I just read. In 3rd grade he would get in trouble with his teacher because he would hold a book under his desk and read while she was instructing the class. He didn't see the problem with reading because he still understood what she was saying. Yikes!!! He is happy with A's & B's and is not interested in accelerating or grade skipping. He is certainly capable but prefers to cruise. He has always been a spatial kid. When he was 2 years old I would dump a 30 piece puzzle of the USA face down and mix up the pieces. He would pick them up still face down and place them in the puzzle in the exact spot it belonged. This was a great parlor trick for visitors. And he is great to have around when assembling furniture that comes packed in a flat box. He likes art, especially sculpture. He loves reading and video games.

Some words that describe him. Smart, underachiever, odd, quiet, reader, forgetful, epicurean, sculptor, agitator, nocturnal.

We are hoping to help him with intrinsic motivation.


Anyway, here are the results. No GAI was given and I don't think extended norms were used:

WISC-IV
11 years, 6 months

Subtest Raw Scores Scaled Scores
Sim 37 17
Vocab 52 16
Comp 35 18

BD 67 19
PC 22 13
MR 30 16

DS 17 11
LNS 22 14

CD 57 12
SS 28 11

Scale Composite Score
VCI 142
PRI 137
WMI 113
PSI 109
FSIQ 135


WIAT-II

Subtest RAW STD
Word Reading 125 128
Reading Comp 200** 132 **Represents RC weighted raw score
Pseudoword Dec 52 117
Num Ops 39 130
Math Reasoning 59 129
Spelling 42 119
Written Exp 31 124

Composites RAW STD
Reading 377 136
Math 259 135
Written lang 243 126


While I have you captive, he did take the WISC-IV to get into his current school.
They only provided scaled scores for each subtest. No composites or raw scores and I can't get them.

WISC-IV
9 years, 2 months

Subtest Scaled Scores
Sim 17
Vocab 18
Comp 14

BD 19
PC 12
MR 18

DS 13
LNS 12

CD 11
SS 12


Comparing both sets of scaled scores highlight two things to me. His comprehension has really improved and he has a problem with picture concepts in relation to the other two perceptual reasoning subtests.

Thanks for taking your valuable time!

I'm not the score expert, but I'd want to know the GAI if I were you. That's basically the score eliminating WMI and PSI. A lot of gifted kids get their FSIQ score dragged down because of WMI and PSI. There has been a lot of discussion on whether or not PSI and WMI measure general intelligence. I think I did see that DYS for example, now accepts GAI if it meets minimum:

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV (WISC-IV) Standard score 145+ (99.9th percentile) Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, General Ability Index (GAI), or Full Scale

That was me at 11! I made sure to ask interesting questions about whatever the teacher was talking about - it made them generally not mind so much that I was reading in the back of the room. I was offered a grade skip from 2nd to 4th, turned it down, and happily underachieved until about 7th. I think the time I knocked my 3.5-years-younger sister's tooth out was about 11, too. I was not a very promising looking kid!


It kicked in for me at 13 or so - 7th grade, or maybe 8th. (Definitely not 6th - I nearly failed math that year.) I wish I could tell you what triggered it, but I have no clue.

Actually, Picture Concepts is a lot like Matrix Reasoning -- both load heavily on fluid reasoning (problem-solving, handling novelty, etc). I wonder if what was going on was that he was looking for more creative answers and not giving the obvious ones. Too bad the tester didn't come back after that subtest and ask him to explain his reasoning.

Note by the way that there is a bug in WIAT Reading Comprehension -- scores are based on comprehension of the passages at the kid's decoding level. That tends to pull up the scores of kids who decode badly (as compared to others their age) and to pull down the scores of kids who decode very well (as compared to others their age). (The test publisher claims this is a feature, but I honestly think it's a bug, because it obfuscates understanding of the kid's actual performance level. A kid who has average comprehension of harder passages has above-average comprehension, in my book. And I've seen this used by schools quite frequently to claim that a low-reading kid doesn't have a problem.)

As with other posters, I'm not sure what insights you're looking for.

hey everyone,

Thanks for the information and comments! I guess insight was a poor choice of words on my part since he doesn't have any issues other than lack of motivation. Input and suggestions are really what I was seeking.

Dottie, thanks for providing the adjusted numbers with the extended norms and thoughts on the Picture Concepts subtest. He quite often does not give obvious answers to questions, spending a good portion of his time outside the box rather than inside. It certainly can be frustrating at times when a simple response is warranted.

AlexsMom, thanks for the hope. We do hope it "kicks in" sooner rather than later. We will continue to expose him to stimulating activities and provide examples of success and achievement. Many of his classmates are high achievers and I think he finds that a bit tedious.

Aimee, thanks for your thoughts on the Picture Concepts subtest. If asked I'm sure he would have provided quite interesting explanations for his reasoning. He generally has an interesting point of view on most subjects when he engages.

Incogneato, thanks for pointing out the GAI, it appears he would qualify on the abilities requirement using the GAI.

Well, we will definitely look into the SAT or ACT this year. I wasn't planning on having him taking one this year but it certainly seems like a beneficial step. One nice side effect of the laid back attitude is the complete lack of test anxiety. He just goes in and does his business.

These forums are certainly a wonderful resource. I'm glad we found them.

Thanks again!!!

Dottie,
Am I calculating the extended norms properly? In Technical Report #7, I went to page 10 and used the Scaled Scores Equivalents grid for ages 11:4-11:7. Then on page 5 of the Technical Report #4, I located(VCI sum + PRI sum=) GAI sum and read across to the indicated GAI.

Subtest--------Raw Score--SS w/o EN--Scaled Scores with Extended Norms
Similarities--------37--------17----------18
Vocabulary--------52--------16----------16
Comprehension----35--------18----------18
VCI Sum----------124 -------51----------52
-
Block Design-------67--------19----------21
Picture Concepts----22--------13----------13
Matrix Reasoning----30--------16----------16
PRI Sum-----------119-------48----------50
-
GAI Sum----------243--------99---------102
-
Indicated GAI----------------148----------153

Thanks!

Dottie,

Thanks for double checking! I only caught the 17 because I checked all of the subtest raw scores.

I must say that this is all very interesting.

Have a great day!