Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment WISC-IV Testing and tiredness

Hi

I'm new here, I am in the UK so unfortunately can't apply to the DYS program for my DD but I am hoping I can still find some help and support here.

My DD was tested on WIAT-IV(EDIT - SHOULD READ WISC-IV) privately when she was 6yrs 10 months. (there is no government funded testing here).

The tests took over 3 hours to do, the pyschiatrist said it was because each time she took a really long while to get to the point of failure to stop each test. While DD enjoyed it a lot to begin with in the end her concentration was really wavering. The blcok design test was the last one to be done and DD just did not seem to be listening to what she had to do, and consequently it took her quite a few to figure it out for herself and her score pulled down her overall score, when I know it is the sort of thing she usually excels at.

I am wondering if I should have her tested again now she is older (9yrs) but I am not clear how much difference that would make overall and what the benefits are (it costs a lot so don't want to do it if it is a waste)

Her scores were

RAW Scaled Extended
SI 27 19 19
VC 34 15 15
CO 26 18 18

BD 30 14 14
PCn 23 19 20
MR 28 19 23

DS 20 18 18
LN 20 16 18

CD 65 19 19
SS 38 15 15
CA

Total 172 179
GAI Total 104 109

GAI 155 161
FSIQ 153 158

(also I don't understand why her LN score changes on the extended norms scale if it was not topped out on the standard?)

Any advice greatly appreciated

Gemma

I'm not familiar with this particular assessment, but the school psychologists I've worked with in the past would treat any cognitive assessment given before, say, third grade, as provisional. The endurance issues you describe are one of the reasons for that.

And as far as what the benefits are, I'm not entirely sure why you are testing, so that question is difficult to answer. I'm going to recommend a book instead. 5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options by Deborah Ruf. I would think this book could help you narrow down to, say, two levels, even if only by comparing your behavioral observations with the ones in the book. And that should help you get a clearer picture of the educational needs of your daughter.

If you find a program in the UK, they will probably have their own requirements for testing. I'd cross that bridge when I come to it if I were you.

Welcome Gemma,
I'm not familiar with that particular test, but the scores do see to indicate that your child is unusually gifted. Have the schools been able to give her materials at a good challenge level? Has she been reasonable to try and parent?

What might you hope to gain from retesting?

Smiles,
Grinity

I was confused at first, but the results given seem to be a straight WISC-IV (the WIAT-III is the Weschler Individual Achievement Test battery from the makers of the WISC), except with subtest scores and no indexes except for the FSIQ and GAI.

It is possible that both achievement and cognitive batteries were done at the same time, with cognitive last (if the last test given was block design).

All results look like they are in the EG/PG range, even WM/PS. I have no idea what could be gained from retesting, personally. Are there any programs out there with a cut off above 153 for FSIQ w/o extended range??

The WISC has that problem, that the tester has to start at an easy level and go all the way through, and a lot of gifted kids get tired. Many testers combat this by doing the testing on 2 days. Did the psychiatrist who did the test have any useful advice for parenting/schooling your child?

It's certainly possible that both were given at the same time. We usually gave them on separate days, and had two different people administering the two, but I'm sure other districts do it differently.

The primary reason we give WISC and WIAT in our district as a pair is to look for learning disabilities. Asking schools to test for giftedness here just throws everybody into confusion.

{sigh}

Welcome Gemma - it's always good to see more posters from the UK. I don't think anyone can answer your question about what benefit there'd be in retesting without knowing what problems, if any, your DD has and why you chose to test the first time! What's her school situation like at the moment (if any)? Do you have a plan for secondary school (if any) that you're happy with?

Thanks for the welcome everyone - and apologies it was a typo when I said WIAT-IV, I meant WISC-IV as in the title.

She did do both sets of tests - the WIAT-III and WISC-IV, they did the WIAT-III first immediately followed by the WISC-IV

(her scores for the WIAT-III were:-

SUBTESTS RAW STD AGE EQU
Word Reading 103 126 10:00
Reading Comprehension 140** 125 12:00
Pseudoword Decoding 41 118 11:00
Numerical Operations 18 134 08:08
Mathematical Reasoning 44 143 09:04
Spelling 29 126 09:00

** Represents Reading Comprehension weighted raw score. )

I am not that clear on what to take from the WIAT-III scores.

We had her tested because she was having issues at school with getting into mischeif, nothing to hurt anyone but silly things messing about, we always seemed to be being called in. I was also frustrated that one day she was told off for putting her hand up too much.

To make matters worse, she was in the school grade group the year below what she should have been because the school wanted to balance its class numbers, and she was one of the youngest in her year so she was moved back a year. (she was a year 1 child in a reception/kindergarten class)

I felt it was all related to her being bored and frustrated but the school were not prepared to change anything or take any action (other than to say she could help the other children in her class when she had finished her work.)

I was confident in myself that she was bright but felt that I needed a professional opinion to back me up as I felt the school just saw me as a pushy Mum.

However even with this report, the school refused to move her to be with her own age group. I therefore emailed it to the local private schools explaining my problem and asked if any of them could help. One came back straight away with the offer of a supported place to start the next week. It was when I came to tell her that I realised just how unhappy she was - she was absolutely delighted not to have to sit on the carpet and do counting anymore (the new school did not have a carpet in its class rooms). She did not seem bothered about leaving her friends, they were people she played with but not close friends and she is outgoing and was looking forward to meeting new ones.

Her new class only had 11 children in it and was not constrained by SATs etc and she has been much happier. There are also lots more sports lessons and creative activities which helped her channel all that excess energy that was going into acting up and she has not been in trouble since she moved (other than for talking too much!)

We are now at the stage of having to think about Senior school and I am really reluctant to move her back to a state school having had a taste of the private sector, but we would need some kind of financial support to be able to do this.

I am wondering whether it would be a worthwhile investment to get her reassessed if that was to give a higher score and would increase the likelihood of her getting a scholarship to a Senior school.

I am not aware of any programs locally that would apply at this age, I think there is a maths master class for secondary age. We did enrol her in Mensa but I am not sure I know how to make the most of it.

Apologies this has ended up long, I tired to be brief in the first post but I can see more information is needed for you to be able to help me.

In short I just want to make sure I can continue to keep her in school where she is happy and not revert back to the situation we were in at her state school as I believe it was a local education authority policy that she was classed by age.

Gemma