Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Subtest scatter

How much is considered significant? Would a difference of 7 within an index be indicative of a learning disability? What about a difference of 9 among all the indices?

I have searched the web and can't seem to find an answer for this question. Thanks!

I think it takes a really well trained person to answer this sort of question for any individual kid, looking at not just the numbers, but how the numbers compare to the child's daily life.

Just like there is not way to look at the numbers and say 'Oh, this child needs X level curriculum.'

Have you posted WISC scores before? (Are these WISC or some other test results?) Is this your child who is already diagnosed with dyslexia? Are you concerned about some other challenge?

Smiles,
Grinity

mountainmom, which test are you referring to?

According to our neuropsychologist, any scatter less than 1 standard deviation (SD) is usually considered insignificant and random. Greater than 1.5 SD might be significant, might not.

Our school district will argue that anything less than at least 2 SD discrepancy is really no big deal

And some of us with 2e kiddos have seen scatter > 3 SD.

Scatter doesn't tell the whole story though, it's just one part of it.

polarbear

It is the WISC-IV and I'm just trying to prepare myself for her IEP meeting coming up next week. I just want to make sure I ask the right questions and get honest answers. It's for my older dd who has dyslexia. The school doesn't feel that her dyslexia is impacting her learning since she isn't in the 12th% in her testing (that they did anyway). I'm now beginning to suspect she may have dyscalculia as well.

Scatter within subtests on the WISC-IV is interpreted differently that differences between WISC-IV index scores and performance scores.

For DD's testing, her WISC verbal comprehension index was 2-3 sigma higher (so more than 45 points in some cases) than verbal subtests on the WAIT. When paired with low phonological processing (25 percentile) on the C-TOPP, this lead to the dyslexia & dysgraphia diagnoses. Lower working memory was considered a contributing factor for DD's struggles, but was not a component of the diagnosis.

Our school is accepting this and has put DD on an IEP as a result. However, 12 months ago they wouldn't. They would have laughed me out of the room. The school is cowering in fear from the state's department of ed because of past misdeeds in refusing help to children. I believe that 12th percentile performance would have been above their cutoff for granting an IEP because they wouldn't consider the child's cognitive abilities.