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    Joined: Jul 2010
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    Help! My DD just completed WISC-IV and WIAT-II testing (8.7 years old) and her results were as follows.

    WIAT-II
    Reading 130
    Mathematics 160
    Written Language 160

    Subtest Scores (RAW/STD/Age Equ./Grade Equ.) are as follows:
    Word Reading 107/ 121/ 11:4/ 6:1
    Reading Comprehension 132/ 116/ 12.4/ 7.0
    Pseudoword Decoding 50/ 127/ >19.11/>12:9
    Numerical Operations 37/ 160/ 14.0/ 8:8
    Math Reasoning 54/ 151/ 14:0 / 8:6
    Spelling 39/ 139/ 14:0/ 8:5
    Written Expression 37/ 160/ >13.8/ >12:9
    Listening Comprehension 32/ 130/ 14:0/ 8:8

    WISC-IV
    VCI 138
    PRI 119
    WMI 129
    PSI 121
    FSIQ 134

    Raw Score/Scaled Scores are as follows

    Similarities 25/15
    Vocabulary 46/19
    Comprehension 26/15

    Block Design 34/13
    Picture Concepts 17/12
    Matrix Reasoning 24/14

    Digit Span 18/14
    Letter-Number Sequencing 21/16

    Coding 44/13
    Symbol Search 25/14

    The WISC-IV FSIQ was 3 points lower than prior testing at 6.1 years. One interesting item was the VCI and PRI scores basically switched and the PSI was significantly lower. (I am actually wondering if the past 2.5 years of her teachers telling her to slow down on her work actually impacted this.)

    DD grade skipped K and has an additional acceleration in Math. I just received these and have not been able to talk to the tester yet. Any suggestions on questions I should be asking?

    Thank you.


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    My first question is why she was tested. Are you trying to get her into a gifted program or were there other concerns?

    If the program has a "cut off" score, and that's at issue, you'll want to ask about confidence intervals. The idea behind a confidence interval is that you get a single score (e.g. VCI 138) when you test that day, but you know that results would vary a bit if you tested the same child multiple days. The 95% confidence interval is a statistical projection of scores. The idea is that your child would have tested somewhere within that range on 95% of attempts. For another example, 3 points difference in the two FSIQ scores is probably well within the confidence interval and doesn't mean much of anything.

    A great question to ask any time the assessor doesn't state it outright in the reports: In your professional opinion, is the FSIQ the best summary of her cognitive potential? Sometimes there's a significant discrepancy between the measures within the WISC-IV, and the FSIQ is not considered a good summary. I've seen reports where the school pysch says the highest subscore is a better measure for that reason, in particular. There are certain areas where I just defer to the expertise of the school psychologist, and this is one of them.

    If the VCI and PRI switched in the past few years, that's probably because she's been doing more verbal work in the past few years than perceptual reasoning, which is hardly surprising. Some of the activities in this test are like things she does all the time in school, and she's more confident with those activities, that's all.

    I'd be a little suspicious about a word reading score that's lower than both the pseudoword decoding (pure decoding of mostly nonsense words) and reading comprehension (of longer passages), but there's no reason that particular score should have any bearing on the discussion as far as I can tell. I'd put that one down to unfamiliar task as well. Teachers rarely hand a student a list of words in isolation and ask them to read the words out loud.

    When we are testing for learning disabilities, we use these two assessments to look for unexplained underachievement: WIAT (achievement) scores that are significantly lower than the WISC (potential). Your daughter has the opposite phenomenon: measured achievement that is well above her measured potential. This is probably an indication of high motivation and quality education. Students with similar combinations and ranges of scores to this often grow up to be the most successful adults. There's a great deal in this world to be worried about, but I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about this kid.

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    Oh, and you'll want to know something about Renzulli's Three Ring Concept of Giftedness.

    http://www.gigers.com/matthias/gifted/three_rings.html

    Last edited by Beckee; 12/18/11 01:08 PM.
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    We had our DD tested because we will be transferring to a new school district next year. The new school district does not currently allow subject acceleration, so our DD may lose her math telescope. We wanted to know where she stood academically, so we could best determine how to advocate. She is currently in a gifted program and will also be eligible for the gifted program in the new school district.

    We were also curious about the reading comprehension. Comprehension has historically been a relative weakness for DD, which also showed up lower in the WIAT-II. However, the comprehension portion of the WISC-IV showed he biggest increase from her prior score.

    Thank you for your insight, Beckee!

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    The "Comprehension" subtest on the WISC-IV is social comprehension, not reading comprehension...just wanted to clarify that.


    Last edited by aculady; 12/18/11 09:49 PM.
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    Thanks Aculady. Does the WIAT-II test for social comprehension as well, or is it true reading comprehension?

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    The WIAT-II tests for reading comprehension in a fairly traditional way. There's a separate score for listening comprehension, which is a subtest we sometimes skip if a speech and language therapist is conducting an assessment in the same round.


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