Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment New WISC-IV test for DS9

We had our annual IEP meeting today for DS9, and I found out that they recently gave him another WISC-IV test. Consensus is that it still doesn't reflect him with great accuracy, but it was interesting.

He maxed out the Working Memory thing for the most part, and that was his highest score. He scored right at Average for Processing Speed Perceptual Reasoning, which was his lowest score. Everything else was Superior, Very Superior, and I think one High Average.

The tester said that the test just isn't smart enough for his kind of reasoning. There was a type of question where he had to pick things that were most closely related and he spent his time musing on the interconnectedness of all things, as Douglas Adams would say. He was making connections that made perfect sense, but were clearly not what the test had in mind, and it showed on his score. I think the problem is that this kind of kid thinks everything is a trick question. It just can't be that simple, right?

So he had 99th percentile on Working Memory, and 16th percentile on the bit where he was off thinking in the clouds. My kid, master of the spread!

Close psych friend of mine who tests gifted kids has said this subtest is very difficult (to give the "right" answer) for highly abstract thinkers for reasons like you indicated. My son too scored quite poorly on this subtest (compared to others).

She actually predicted it may be "scrapped" in the next WISC..... And can be an issue in identifying gifted kids, especially as she put it the highly abstract thinking ones.

You might want to edit out the actual test question as they are supposed to be controlled or non-accessible to people who aren't authorized to give these tests.

FWIW, my dd11 had a similar issue with abstract thinking on parts of an IQ test.

Are they allowed to test your child without permission? (can you hear the panic in my voice?)

When you get back on forum, you should delete any reference to exact questions used on the test. Gotta make it fair for everyone

Per suggestions, removed some bits. It's not much of a funny story anymore! Sorry, didn't figure any kiddos would be reading and memorizing. That was stupid.

Also fixed my mistake -- I'll take "things that start with P" for 100, Alex. Perceptual Reasoning it is, not Processing Speed. And the other scores were all Superior or Very Superior, with that one Average. You can tell I have no working memory, myself.

Oh, and I'm sure we've probably signed a blanket permission for whatever tests they feel like giving him -- they're pretty good about proper paperwork, so there must be something on file that let them do it without a new permission form. I don't mind tests, as they are always at least entertaining if not informational.

My DS hasn't done a WISC yet, but I have this concern with the CogAT he just took at school as a screener for the gifted program. And in that test, you can't explain your answer to the tester.

They worked on some practice prep in class beforehand just to get them familiar with the types of questions and boy do I hope the actually questions were better written than the practice ones! I remember reading ds's answer to one fill in the blanks in the sentence question in which his answer made total sense to me, but was clearly not the intended response.