Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Wiatt iii results & advice

Hello - so my son has scores that fall short of qualifying for DYS. After a challenging first grade year in public school where the teacher did not differentiate and basically labeled my son a behavior problem, we had psychoeducational evaluation done and found his FSIQ to be 140 on WISC-V, with verbal comprehension, processing speed, and working memory being his three highest scores - 98 percent, 99.7 percent, 99.9 percent respectively).

Since my son exhibits all five types of overexcitabilities, we decided to have a full nueropsychological evaluation at the end of second grade. He had a teacher that was much more compassionate and understanding of an energetic, curious 7 year old and she did not see him as a behavior problem. However, my son continued to complain of boredom and show signs of anxiety/depression related to school. The neuropsychologist did not redo the IQ testing (as the that would not be ethical one year later). However, he referred to my son as exceptionally gifted from his observations and suggested he be seen by a psychologist to "rule in" or "rule out" generalized anxiety disorder, low level depression and ADHD to see if they are true diagnosis that fit and need to be treated on their own, or if the symptoms of those things are a result of overexcitablities from giftendness and perhaps exacerbated by a poor educational environment. We are currently working with a psychotherapist and I guess those answers are TBD.

My son's WIAT III subtest scores were as follows: math problem solving 99.9%, sentence comp 99%, work reading 99%, reading comprehension 75% - neuro said this is likely inaccurate low score because my son was restless, fidgety, seemed tired and did not go back to look up answers even though he was allowed to, pseduowork decoding 92%, numerical operations 90%, spelling 99%, math fluency addition 99%, math fluency subtraction 99.6%, math fluency multiplication 94%.

Sorry for the long post, but as my son is about to start third grade, I'm worried about how the year will go. Any experts out there who can guide me as to reasonable expectations for accommodations to ask of a public school based on these test results? I don't have any unofficial "diagnosis" at this point, and his scores are high but seem short of qualifying for some great resources and help (like DYS). However, I know he is very different from the "norm" and he is definitely struggling (socially/emotionally) in a general ed class. Any insights/input would be greatly appreciated.

The good news is, other than the reading comp score, which the neuropsych feels is a low estimate, his other achievement scores are very much in line with those predicted by his FSIQ. So underachievement does not appear to be a significant issue at this point.

On the second exceptionality side of the discussion, the behavior reported during the reading comp task could be consistent with the dysregulations in attention and behavior that presumably underlie your current rule-out diagnoses. The subtest is only the second task administered for most students, and appears to have been the first one for your DC (since the earlier subtests aren't reported). One would not expect him to be more fatigued for that task than for all of the later achievement subtests. Also, he did the best out of all of the subtests on the very next task. Lower reading comp scores are not unusual when attention is compromised, whether because of ADHD, emotional interference, or other factors; IOW, this might be a real result.

It may be worth examining the idea that both instructional mismatch and a separate dysregulation of attention are factors in his school experience. If either or both are documented, there may be some value in approaching the school regarding a 504 accommodation plan (say, for documented anxiety, depression, or ADHD) or GIEP. In both cases, some accommodations that might help include:
1. Reduced workload/item sufficient to demonstrate mastery (this means he only has to do as many items as necessary to demonstrate that he understands how to do them--good both for ADHD and GT, both of whom have reduced accuracy of performance when required to do a great deal of low-cognitive-demand repetition; the school may find this odd, given his high processing speed, but it really has to do with excessive repetition, not necessarily the need for extra time).
2. Alternate assignments to demonstrate mastery of standards (mainly so he can make choices--this is helpful for a number of concerns, including GT, ADHD, anxiety, and depression, as it allows GT and ADHD individuals to select higher-interest tasks from those available, and provides individuals with anxiety and depression to exert some additional control over part of their environment).
3. Curricular adjustment to instructional level. I would suggest, as we've discussed elsewhere, using the school's own curriculum materials to find his correct placement, ideally using a built-in placement test, or by pretesting through unit/chapter assessments until he falls below a cut score (such as 70% or 80%). Particularly in mathematics. His reading placement will be affected by written output, including some maturity factors, which may make identifying that placement a little more complex.

You may wish to investigate other supportive resources for high-cognitive learners. DYS, while excellent, is not the only organization out there. You may also wish to look into CTY (https://cty.jhu.edu/), which serves students down to current 2nd graders. They have online and summer academic and enrichment programs, and decades of experience with HG+ children. Some families have found Mensa to be helpful. Your state has an active G&T organization, that may have additional resources or advice specific to your state.

There is also a poster (NJgifted) on this forum who runs a GT afterschooling center. (I have no direct experience with the center, but it may be worth you checking it out.)

Thank you for taking the time to provide such a detailed and insightful response. Much appreciated.

Advocacymom, my DD15 had a very similar profile in the WISC-IV and WIAT-II when she was tested at 8 years old. She was also tested with the WISC-IV at 6 years old, with similar results. We have run in to very few gifted kids with this profile, but over the years we were able to figure a few things out. This may or may not be relevant to your son.


1) DD is VERY literal. This has caused all sorts of issues, especially with reading comprehension. She had a photographic type memory when she was younger, and could pull out anything that she read. What she could not do, however, was relate to context. (She was grade skipped and subject accelerated, but we kept her very sheltered so she did not have the frame of references necessary to draw the correct conclusions.)

2) DD was a very early reader, and could phonetically attack any word and her word per minute count was off the charts. However, the schools she went to did NOT teach vocabulary, so there were many words that she knew how to read, but did not know what they meant.

3) On the WIAT, she basically had top scores on the Math and Writing broad scores. Everything was high except her Reading Comprehension, which showed up as a relative weakness.


4) Like your son, my DD had a high processing speed. As a result, her reaction speed would often result in "mis-clicks" on computer tests or she would make careless mistakes because she did not read thoroughly. She still has the "need for speed".


5) With gifted kids, everything comes easy in the early years, but as educational material gets harder, they may not fully understand everything. (Teachers typically blow GT kids off, and concentrate on the lower learners, and I can tell you how many times my DD has been told to "figure it out by herself".) The GT kids don't want to "look dumb" by asking questions, so they interpret things their own way (right or wrong), which will often result in a knowledge gap later in life.


If I were you, I would request that the teachers answer his questions and try to help him overcome any of his relative weaknesses. Try to increase his vocabulary (online vocabulary builders work great). Also, have the teachers go back and revisit any comprehension questions that he misses. This is a great tool for learning HOW his mind works and brain thinks. Also, I would suggest that they keep "feeding" him math topics at higher levels, and possibly look at subject accelerations or full grade skips, while keeping in mind, they may have to go back and fill a few knowledge gaps here and there.

It has definitely been an interesting journey for us! Good luck!