Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment wisc subtest substitution

Now that DS is 6 we are thinking of getting him tested, to have results available if we (as we hope to) move midyear to an area with more school choice.

Reading the descriptions of the wisc iv subtests it looks like he might a hard time with coding due to fine motor issues. He tires fast when writing and is a perfectionist, wants to erase. He has legibility issues and has trouble making things a correct size. He's on the other hand surprisingly fine (probably low average) with activities that just use fingers.

Apparently cancellation is an alternative to coding that is a little less dependent on pencil skills?

When a subtest is "substituted" do they actually administer both subtests and then substitute scores, or do they truly substitute one for the other in the administration? I don't want him to essentially have to do nearly double the writing.

How affected do fine motor skills need to be before it's recommended to substitute a test? Is there a feeling that coordination is to some extent part of what's being assessed in processing speed? I can see it from that perspective, that one way to view processing speed is a test of the global ability to absorb info, process it and produce a basic level written communication. In which case perhaps I shouldn't be considering asking for a substitution.

Or is it more that the processing speed score is supposed to represent purely the mental processing aspect and fine motor skills are not really supposed to be being tested. Perhaps the level of pencil skills they are asking for is set at such a low percentile that they assume the instances poor fine motor skills would spoil the result are too few to worry about?

We are in an area where most kids being tested will be having it done to assess learning disabilities. My guess is the tester will be reluctant to or unaware that they can alter their typical administration for my child as overall he appears relatively advanced. Is there some reference somewhere that says under what conditions to substitute? (that I could show them, if indeed it's relevant?)Should he have a note from his OT? or pediatrician?

Thanks,

Polly

The new WPPSI-IV goes to age 7:7, and it had many modifictions such as using stamps to record answers, so that fine motor issues don't impede the score. You may want to go that route...?

We had one substitution when DD9 took the WPPSI-III years ago. It was because her score on the Picture Concepts was way, way lower than her other scores. The tester said, "In spite of standard practice examples and extra explanation, apparently this task was unusual enough that DD did not grasp what she was expected to do. Because of the discrepancy between her score on Picture Concepts and the other visual reasoning subtests, an additional supplemental visual subtest, Picture Completion, was administered to give a more complete picture of DD's visual reasoning abilities. Her score on Picture Completion was highly commensurate with her Block Design and Matrix Reasoning Scores, supporting the view that her visual reasoning ability is very high, but that for some reason she did not comprehend the task on Picture Concepts." (She got an 18 or Block Design, a 16 on Matrix Reasoning, a 17 on Picture Completion ... and a 3 on Picture Concepts.)

I don't know if there are other reasons that they substitute besides a spoiled subtest, or how they decide. I've only heard of it being done after the fact, the way it was for DD.

One link I found online says that you can only substitute in the case of a spoiled subtest or if there is a temporary reason that a test cannot be given (e.g., a broken finger). That's for the WPPSI, though - I don't know about the WISC. This link says

But it still strongly advises against substitutions in general.

You may want to consider the perspective that doing the cousin is a useful diagnostic tool that can be use to support accommodations. Assuming you see someone good with gifted kids and willing to calculate a GAI if there is a processing speed issue.

I agree with MumofThree, that if its slow processing speed, the tester will calculate GAI.

With my ds who was just tested, she did additional subtests on another day, because block design was so bad. (He has some vision issues and is starting VT). Also, my ds has poor handwriting. It's not completely clear if it all the vision issue, but we are going to work on that. If the handwriting doesn't improve, we will more on to OT.

I did find it helpful to hear from the tester what she saw, where his strengths and weaknesses were, and her recommendations. As a side note, my ds loved the tester and thought going was fun.

Keep us posted!

FWIW, my DD took the WISC-IV at 7.5. Her pencil skills were terrible, writing was a huge chore and she ultimately got a dysgraphia diagnosis from this same tester. She still scored well on her coding. I would make sure that the tester knows that pencil skills are a concern so they can coach your child ahead of time that they don't care how things look, i.e. size variation, etc. and to just keep going.

Thanks everyone for the comments.

That's especially nice knute to hear that with your dd's dysgraphia she still scored well on the coding. It's hard without knowing more exactly what the subtests are, how many letters or whatever they write, to know whether to push for substitution or not.

I guess we will just go with the flow and I'll bring up his motor skills some weeks ahead so the tester can have a chance to think about how best to handle it.

Polly

Now that I know that my DD has visual motor integration issues (from Beery VMI) and "undiagnosed disgraphia", if I needed to have a WISC score for her to get her into a certain program, I would definitely push for substitutions on both coding and block design (which requires manipulation of small blocks under a time constraint). In her case, her WISC scores were such that a GAI could not even be calculated. In any event, some of our programs locally only accept FSIQ.