Originally Posted by incogneato
Wow, just when I thought I had all this stuff down, you ladies are thoroughly confusing me. Are you saying a score can ceiling lower than 19 based on age child took it.

So confused.............

If so, just for the WPPSI or could this apply to the WISC. And Dottie, you have DD8's scores and age when she took it. So theoretically you could tell me if any of those 17's and 18's were hard ceilings?

This conversation is starting to make my brain ache. Take pity on me, oh wise ones.....

Hi Neato.

I found this article really helpful. It isn't the full story (Dottie can probably give you that ;)) but it is a start. http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10405.aspx

Here is what they say about ceilings
Quote
WATCH FOR LOW CEILINGS. A ceiling is the highest possible score that can be earned on a subtest, and most intelligence tests have ceilings that may be low for highly gifted children. Technically, a ceiling is defined by the score that would be obtained if every item on a subtest was awarded full credit. But a ceiling effect that underestimates a child�s true ability may actually be evident any time that all subtest items have been administered and the test discontinue threshold has not been reached. Consider an example with the WISC-IV Vocabulary subtest, which consists of 36 words for the child to define. The words are presented in ascending order of difficulty, and the subtest is discontinued after the child has given 5 consecutive incorrect or vague responses. It is common for highly gifted children to be administered all of the items on this subtest, because they are able to provide a correct or partially correct response to a few of the most difficult words, even their word knowledge may not be broad and deep enough to answer every item correctly. If the discontinue rule has not been invoked, then it is likely that even more difficult words could have been defined if they were presented. Any time your child has earned a score of 19 (the highest possible subtest score on the WISC-IV and SB5) on any individual subtest, OR any time your child has been administered all items on a subtest and the discontinue rule has not been reached, that subtest score and the overall composite score to which it contributes will underestimate your child�s true ability level, which is higher than the test is designed to measure. Ask your psychological examiner to consider including a statement in the report that test results may underestimate your child�s true ability level because of low subtest ceilings.