Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Low verbal but high perceptual reasoning scores

I am hoping that someone here can help me to understand my son's WISC scores.

Recently we had the school counsellor do WISC-IV for my 7 year old and I am struggling to understand what the scores mean and how we can help him.

They gave me the scores in percentile rank:

Verbal Comprehension: 47 (average)
Perceptual Reasoning: 94 (superior)
Working Memory: 75 (high)
Processing Speed: 94 (superior)

Why is there such a disparity between his verbal comprehension and other scores? What does this mean?

His low verbal skills are reflected in his reading. He is reading slightly above his age level but but it is based solely on sight words - he cannot sound out words and is at 7th percentile for phonological awareness.

His hearing tested fine and the speech pathologists said that there were no underlying issues (eg APD).

Does he seem 'age appropriate' in his general conversation level? When he talks about his favorite book/toy/TV show does he seem to have more insight than average kids his age? What is his vocabulary like?

A book I'm currently reading about how to teach reading comprehension you might find interesting:
'Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement' by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis

One thing to try is to read through this book and start spending some of your one on one time with your son talking about ideas - poems, song lyrics, picture books, audio books, so that his thinking about words can soar ahead if his decoding is holding him up.

Remember that an IQ test can confirm what you suspect, but it can also be a poor reflection of your child. See for yourself if you think your child's vocabulary, understanding of word-ideas, and general knowledge is average or above average.

In the meanwhile, be sure to provide as much chance for him to use that Perceptual reasoning skill as possible.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Why was the school psych testing him? Did he recommend any further testing?
I would be concerned that he may have some type of reading disability. Low phonemic awareness is considered one of the red flags for dyslexia. I would try to get the school to do more assessments to determine the source of his reading challenges. You may want to check out the international dyslexia website for more info.
http://www.interdys.org/
Another great resource is Sally Shaywitz's Overcoming Dyslexia book.

They were testing him because I had spent two years telling the teachers that my son could not read, hated it and did not understand his sound blends. The teachers kept denying it so I approached the school counsellor.

Thanks for the suggestion of dyslexia - I will look into it. They only suggested a hearing test and speech pathology to teach him his basic sounds.

I am not an expert but I wanted to share my DDs story with you. My DD12 had very, very similar scores when she was tested with the WISC-IV when she was 6.5. Her teacher had suspected dyslexia but the educational psychologist did not diagnose it, based on her IQ and achievement test at that time.

Like your son, my daughter could not sound out words and really just refused to read. She would also omit words like "a" and "the". She changed schools and her teachers all thought everything was fine. She read at grade level but it was such a struggle for her. I knew something was going on but her teachers all said she was "too smart" to have dyslexia. She was diagnosed with dyslexia and dysgraphia by the Eides (in Washington state) last November. I would recommend their books and website for more information.

Often teachers and psychologist are just not good at understanding how dyslexia presents in gifted children. Google "stealth dyslexia". My daughter has accommodations at school for extra time on tests and she listens to audio books after she reads the print version. She will work with an Orton Gillingham reading tutor and a writing tutor this summer.

One thing I wish I had done differently when she was younger was to focus on her strengths as well as her challenges. She learns math very quickly and is now subject accelerated 2 years in math and is very happy.

Her VCI and PRI WISC scores at age 11 were quite a bit higher than when she was 6, but her working memory and processing speed were lower. She still had a large gap between her VCI and PRI.


Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Hi tothebeach

I feel sorry that you have not found any answers with APD. Did your child have a TEA-ch test conducted for attention?
I have a similar situation with my son when he was 7 he was given the wechler IV and came out at 45% for verbal reasoning, 70% for perceptual reasoning, 92 % for processing speed and 75 % for working memory. He was also given the TEA-ch for attention deficit and got 88% for selective focus and inconsistent scores for maintaining and shifting focus which ranged between 12-80%, however he scored 1% in dual attention where he did not attend to the auditory at all. He is now 9 and has moved schools due to us being moved on medical grounds for severe environmental stress. Learning has improved and he is slowly learning VAK [Visual Auditory & Kinaethetic multiple learning strategies] because i use them myself. His speech therapy reports came up as needing to learn how to cope with information his brain processes through alternative learning strategies. He also has subtle difficulties with language and figurative language which is affecting his social interaction, as he takes it as literal meaning. Whilst this was all going on I was also going through a similar situation in university during my MA in social science - which as it turns out is the worst subject for low verbal reasoning, I discovered I had a specific learning difficulty which I had been living with all my life and thus had to experiment with VAK through my junior and senior year I gained a 2:2 in social science using purely VAK learning techniques on my own and as a consequence they are now telling me that i am operating within the gifted range for perceptional reasoning [over 135 score] with similar for working memory and processing speed and selective attention. The APD assessment and diagnosis is our next port of call because of the linguistic work I was doing in Russian and English at that time. But it does not look good for the Department - my supervisor is now advocating on my behalf because of the high percentile required in verbal reasoning to study social science at entry requirements AAAB. I am in the UK, Scotland by the way. The clinical psychologist consultant who conducted the weschler on my son cannot tell where his overall IQ is actually sitting but we suspect in line with his processing speed and working memory because of his audiological difficulties. Since then, he has learned to hone visual-spatial and some audio/Kinaesthetic strategies [through my guidance], so disruption on the playground due to environmental stresses and interaction has greatly lessened but appears up now, less as a behavioral problem and more as difficulty with social interaction. These Multiple Intelligence learning systems are excellent for children who struggle with Verbal reasoning because they offer alternative paths to learn outwith speech. My son can read off a book aimed two years above his average age Intelligence no problem and work through the pronunciation through auditory sequencing. It appears to be the verbal speech commands that we hear not pronounce ourselves, which, comes out more as dyslexia in me at University level verbal reasoning when I am writing using Visual-Spatial to Auditory sequencing because I then have to re-code what i see into a written format that someone with high average verbal reasoning IQ has. And that is a nightmare - but it can be done at that level of education [British Ivy league]. The problem is that, they cant do what I do to cope with my specific needs, and it becomes an institutional cat and mouse game of trying to submerge the gifted students. It is not easy. Also, when I talk to people I don't look at them so no eye contact can be read as something else which further complicates matters. I can work out what morphemic-stem sounds mean via VAK but it takes a huge effort to then re translate that into the verbal educational structures that most people take for granted. And I use oral resonance theories to try to make what I say 'sound' right to the verbal exchange, which means less talking back and less downright mental exhaustion. The problem is that mainstream classrooms are not equipped to deal with VAK learning systems as it is 'also' taken for granted in the curriculum that learning difficulties non-specific which make up the majority of cases, are struggling right across the board with their IQ functioning. Sadly, that is not true some people are just right brainers'. Parental input, advocacy for support, finding teachers willing to learn alternatives and local web support is essential in tackling the problem or it just comes back round in a circle until the matter is dealt with. Learning support is also important but for us auditory consultants are our next port of call. After a journey of 4 years towards a non-diagnosis of ADHD/ASD, we are now at the verge of a new journey towards APD and increased awareness of VAK both within middle school and university learning. It is not easy, but grasping the coping mechanisms for alternative learning is essential for maximum IQ functioning. Now I am also having to pursue specific learning support to do a second degree in order to move on from this. And believe me it has been devastating; just having social workers rampage through your life with their taken for granted verbal reasoning skills that earned them the degree to do so in the first place, is a stress. Gladly, that part is over. Take it from one who's whole degree was about experimental alternative learning right bang in the middle of verbal command educational structures! Needless to say, I didn't win any votes with the high end of the empirical verbal reasoning lecturers, but I did figure out what it was that was wrong.

PS. My sons hearing test conducted along with his speech therapy report showed that he has perfect 'hearing'. APD is a problem not with hearing but in processing speech from the CNS or brain and has more to do with 'proprioception' [which will explain his high score for perceptive reasoning] than with the actual ear-drum and function of the ear physiologically. Get a TEA-ch assessment done, because it might just be that he is not attending to the auditory part of the dual assessment on 'attention'. I suspect that is where you will find your answer.

My DS is 6 and has a similar spread. I think verbal is 114 and perceptual reasoning was 141. From the research I did sometimes this suggests autism, but we were able to rule it out in DS's case. What subtests were done for verbal, and what were the scores? That might give you a clue.

DS was a late talker and when he was tested at 3.5 he had a similar gap between verbal and non-verbal. Now both scores are just shifted upwards about 20 points from 3 years ago. He has dyspraxia/developmental coordination disorder so verbal expression is difficult for him--both the motor output and forming comprehensible sentences, I think. I don't think a gap necessarily indicates a disorder, but sometimes it does. Your ds may be dyslexic, but I don't really think that explains the gap on the WISC. On the WISC, it is more along the lines of defining vocabulary words, asking verbal reasoning questions, like having the child explain why people turn off light switches, or asking how two words are similar. One thing you could ask about is testing for a language disorder.