medphysnerd, I have a few thoughts for you - but please keep in mind, I'm not a professional, just a mom of two 2e kids, so take my thoughts for what they are - - just random thoughts from another mom, things you might want to think about.
My first suggestion is - can you ask for any follow-up thoughts from the tester? Was you dd compliant, on task, distracted, tired, etc during the testing? Did the tester notice any queues that might relate to issues with vision or attention? Did she stop early on any of the tests when the tester thought she might have been able to continue?
I just want to ensure she doesn't have a LD that we may not know about.
There is a large difference between her VCI and PRI - enough that the FSIQ is (from what I understand) not valid. That doesn't necessarily mean she's got an LD, but it is something you'd probably want to first try to think through yourself - look up descriptions of each subtest and see how they differ, and compare that to your dd - does it match what you see in her academic performance at school?
The other large difference in the #s is Symbol Search - the example of Symbol Search that I saw when my kids were tested looks like a large "Where's Waldo" type of exercise - you have to find and circle specific repeated symbols in a large field of random symbols. The large difference there *might* be a red flag that there is a vision issue. If you haven't had her eyes checked by a regular eye dr, it's worth doing now, and it's also possible that the type of vision issue that could cause issues with Symbol Search are issues with how well eyes track together, peripheral vision etc - the types of issues a Developmental Optometrist checks for. The key is - a child may not realize they are having challenges with vision and she's young enough you might not be picking up on clues suggesting a vision issue. A few things you can look for (but they aren't "have to be happening" clues) - does she tilt her head in an odd way or wiggle in her chair or hold a book really close to her face when she's reading? Is she clumsy or does she bump into things a lot? Is she messy when she's eating - crumbs everywhere etc? Does she look into your eyes when she talks to you or does she avoid eye contact?
Re whether or not there is some kind of LD - if you determine that her vision is ok and that there are no other reasons to suspect the testing was somehow not accurate due to distractions/tiredness/etc - then the next step is typical further testing that would help determine why there is such a large gap between VCI/PRI and the dip in Symbol Search. These are the types of tests neuropsychologists typically run, and there are different types of tests based on what the neuropsych is trying to chase down based on their impressions (which typically include an interview with a parent covering school behaviors/academics, looking at examples of classroom work, and developmental history).
I probably shouldn't have had her tested when I did. We completed a cross country move a couple of weeks ago, she was recently diagnosed with sleep apnea, and she knows I am leaving for several months in a couple of weeks. I think she may have been too stressed out for testing.
While any of these might have impacted her test results, there is one thing that stands out to me on her testing as a reason *not* to dismiss the results out of hand - the subtest scores appear to be very consistent within each category (VCI/PRI/WM) other than PSI with the low Symbol Search score. VCI/WM/PSI scores also seem to be relatively consistent across groups. The consistency within each sub-group of subtests and the range-similarities of VCI/WM/PSI leads me to suspect that the test was probably representative of her abilities - with a HUGE caveat. It is *just* a test - if the overall results are lower than what you'd anticipated, it doesn't change who your caughter is - she is still the same girl with the same personality traits and intellectual insight you've already noted. IQ #s don't represent *everything*
Likewise, I am not a huge fan of the RUF categories - they are somewhat subjective and also among the gifted and not-so-gifted kids I've known, I haven't really seen a good correlation that supports having faith they can be used as a for-sure data point in identifying gifted children.
Last thought - if your dd is doing ok in school now, I'd take these results just as a data point, and watch what happens in school this next year. If your dd begins to struggle in any area or if she is falling behind what your gut feeling is telling you she's capable of, take her back for private testing one year from now but take her for a full psych-ed or neuropsych eval so that if there is a hint of LD, you can get in-depth testing to understand the root cause of the score discrepancies. You could also request the testing through the school, but many of us who have 2e children have found private testing to be invaluable.
I hope you're able to get some more feedback from the tester.
Best wishes,
polarbear
ps - a few other thoughts re her performance in school so far - if she has an LD, it might be "hiding" at this point in time due to her abilities to compensate for it. This happened with both of my 2e kids - they hit their brick walls in 2nd grade for my ds and 3rd grade for my dd - before that no one suspected they had any type of challenge. I also have a non-2e dd who had severe vision issues in early elementary, and they also weren't discovered until 3rd grade.
You mentioned that your dd skipped K - was she given any kind of assessment or testing prior to the skip? How do those results line up with the WISC results?
