Third, that particular test probably took about 10 minutes or less to measure. 10 minutes is not much time to stamp his working memory for life.
First, thank you all SO much for being so willing to share your stories and insight. And Dottie, you're quite right. I totally hadn't looked at it that way, but you're spot-on. It's such a variable, complex meter -- certainly this helped us get a diagnostic snapshot, but it isn't the last word on his WM ability. In fact, the psychologist was very encouraging about the WM. She said that we know you can't "improve" raw intelligence, but that working memory is something that you really can practice on and grow. She wants to work with him on that, as well as his anxiety issues.
And his PRI
was 133. (Nice work figuring that from the score info!) With the subtests, His BD and PC were 13 and 14, respectively, but his MR was 19. I figured he topped out on the MR subtest, but I was figuring that if that score were higher with extended norms, the overall PRI might be higher, though I'm not super concerned with that since he's within thresholds to qualify for most gifted programs.
We haven't done any achievement testing, actually. He will be taking a standardized achievement test later this year (Alabama tests 3rd graders). When I picked him up today, I talked to his teacher for a moment (we're going to have a longer meeting about the scores in early March) and gave her an overview. It was funny because I was telling her about the WMI scores and she said that when she reads aloud to the class, he doesn't seem to have trouble recalling things, etc. Then she paused for a second and said, "Wait. Did they use
numbers?" I laughed and said yep, that was the lowest score. She said that made more sense, and noted that he is a lot better at complex word problems in math than he is with much more basic number-only arithmetic. She also was concerned that when they take the test in March, he might perform lower than is accurate because the tests are timed. I think he'll probably do fine, but it's a valid concern.
And @Grinity, that's funny about music -- I'm the same way! I used to make up songs for math equations and Spanish vocab in high school to help me cram for tests! I will try some of those WM games with him -- it would probably help me, too!
@Cricket2, I hear you. Like I said, I waited much longer than I maybe should have to get him tested because I was worried about the tester having a good rapport with him and understanding his processes. Because there is a certain subjective element to the scoring, I'd wonder if the 2nd tester just didn't "get" her, and that affected his test administration. When DS was 3, I took him to the local public school testing offices to get him tested for a gifted Pre-K program they had. The tester basically asked him a lot about numbers and never once asked him anything about letters or words. He wasn't (and isn't) a math genius, but he was reading books at 2 years old. She came out of the testing and said basically that he was a sweet kid, but not exceptionally intelligent. The look on my face must have been priceless, because she got immediately defensive. I asked her if she'd even asked him to read or do letters and she looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Of course not. Kids this age aren't supposed to be able to do that." I could have punched her...and she's probably the reason I never got him adequately evaluated until now. But my point is that the testers own expectations and biases can affect results, even with widely-accepted IQ tests. I'm surprised they didn't think the score discrepancies were more notable than they did.
Overall, I think my main concern was that he have a number that accurately reflected his intellectual abilities. And that's not for me or for him, but for schools, etc., that want to assess/place him based on the testing. I wasn't comfortable with 135 because of the extreme deviation issues, but I think 153 is much more in line with his abilities. That's not to say, however, that I want to just forget about that WMI number, of course -- it does give us a really good look at his attention control issues. It's scary to test a 2E kid...well, it was for me, at least. But wow...I feel so much better after posting here and getting your thoughts. Thank you SO much for being both helpful and welcoming!
