Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional WISC IV subtest scatter

Hi all,
Does anyone have experience with extreme subtest scatter? My grade 4 nine-year-old received three 19s on the WISC IV giving him a GAI of 99.9%. But he also received a three in coding. Does anyone know the rarity of a 16 point (19-3) subtest scatter? I'd like to know because the principal tells me that there are lots of gifted/LD kids in the school and she avoids making accomodations specifically for my son. But this extreme? How many children out of 1000 fit his profile of being in the 99.9% in some areas and the 1% in others? I'd like to be able to tell her the statistical significance.
Thank-you,
August

Hi, I'm also new here, and I think there are others here who will try to reply to your concerns. However, I'm confused did you state that your principal accepts that you ds is gifted/LD and your school works with 2E but will not work with your son? Anyway, here is a thread from this forum that may help, it has info on low coding scores.

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted..../all/gifted_scores_and_severe_proce.html

Hi August,
Yes, it is very rare to have that kind of scatter - I'm not sure of the exact likely hood, but it is very very rare. My son has close to a 50 point spread between his VCI and PSI - and coding is also one of he's lowest scores. Your principal is right that it is not uncommon for a 2-e student to have a similar pattern of higher VCI &PRI scores compared to PSI. But it is not a typical pattern by any means.

Did you have him tested in hopes of getting acquiring accommodations? What issues is he having? Were there other tests? What were the index scores? Does he have any OT/motor issues? How about concentration/attention?

Generally, decisions about accommodations are based on a battery of tests, observation, teacher input, work samples and history. Your school should not rule in or out based on a WISC score alone. However, with such wide scatter, they SHOULD dig deeper and try to learn more about your child's learning profile and to rule in or out disabilities.

I anything more than one standard deviation is considered "statistically significant". The WISC subtests have a mean of 10 and standard deviation of 3. This article may prove helpful http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/tests_measurements.html#10

hi, my 6yr old also had a large scatter, not sure what it means. VCI=98
PRI=123
WMI=104
PSI=131
Anybody know what this may suggest?