Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment WAIS-IV gap

Hi all,

27. Just got the WAIS-IV done for the first time in my life and am very confused by the score results...the psych was not helpful at all.

I was tested following a head injury, but the psych who did the testing does not think the head injury played into it (but maybe it did, I am not sure I agree with him). At any rate although I did well in school and did well on the SAT at an early age, I did always struggle with organization, task completion, paying attention, etc so it is possible the scores are a valid measurement of me over life.

At any rate, he said he full scale isn't a valid measurement because of the scatter. But could anyone give me any insight into what the scatter profile means, pragmatically?

Scores:

VCI: 138
PRI: 100
WMI: 117
PSI: 114.

I don't know about this myself but wanted to respond to give your post a bump. Welcome.

It would probably help to have a breakdown of subscores for the individual tests in each category, if they gave you those.

Socergem, how much do you know about IQ tests? The gap between your VCI (verbal ability, which is well into the gifted range) and your PRI (visual spatial ability, which is exactly average) is quite signficant, 2.5 standard deviations. Gaps like this, along with problems in life that support the diagnosis sometimes lead to looking into a diagnosis such as Non Verbal Learning Disorder, you could read about that and see if it makes sense to you?


The WMI (Working Memory) and PSI (processing speed) are both above average and at a level that it is not uncommon for gifted people to score on those tests. If you look around this board enough you will see that many, many gifted children have their WMI and/or PSI scores somewhat lower than their VCI/PRI. On the other hand the gap is 1.5 standard deviations from your VCI, which can be associated with problems. That gap may, or may not be meaningful in your case.

Its really hard to know what to make of these scores without more detail from the subtests and without a pre injury baseline.

I am really sorry you had a head injury serious enough to lead to an IQ test!

Would you mind posting your subtest scores? With scatter like this, it is usually helpful to look at how the subtest scores vary and consider what each specific test is measuring, then relate it back to what you experience in terms of strengths and challenges. Did the psych who administered the IQ testing administer any other tests? Most of us who are parenting 2e children with similar type of scatter in scores have found neuropsych testing helpful - the neuropsychs typically administer additional testing to determine the reasons behind scatter in the scores - for instance, a slow score on a processing speed subtest could be due to fine motor neurology, or could be due to a visual processing issue. Executive functioning tests are usually included which can help tease out the root issues behind symptoms such as challenges with organization and attention etc. If you had any other tests included, you could list those results here (if you're comfortable doing so) and we might be able to help decipher what's up. Ultimately, it helps the most to have a good psych who is interested in helping you understand what the scores mean - it's too bad your psych wasn't more helpful.

Best wishes,

polarbear

Hi, all,

Thanks for the replies...sorry for the delay in following up.

My test scores as a kid: I maxed out on the CAT in 7th grade so they gave me the SAT at 12 and I got a 580/580 (this under the old SAT in 1997). In high school my SAT was 14something - high 600s for math and mid 700s for verbal. 800 on SAT II writing. AP English 5, AP Calc 4. Math was always my weaker subject and although I did well in calc never felt I really 'got' it.

I got an executive functioning test - the one where colors are written out but in a different color - like 'blue' printed in red ink. You need to read either the color or the word, or it switches. I did fine in that (I don't have the scores in front of me, sorry). But that absolutely does not correlate to all my trouble with organization and time management, imo. I also got the Wechsler memory scales and the results were in the normal range except for my visual/spatial memory, which the delayed recall was a 6. My Rey-Ostrreith (sp?) was fine - I think actually I did well.

I do have a history of strabismus (crossed eyes) and surgery. I am sure it affects my vision, but I compensate well as I played competitive soccer as a kid.

My subtests were:

VCI 138
Similarities: 15
Vocabulary: 18
Information: 16

PRI 100
Block Design 10
Matrix Reasoning 12
Visual Puzzles 8

WMI 117
Digit Span 12
Arithmetic 14

PSI 114
Symbol Search 11
Coding 14

Socergem, if you dont mind me asking, do you remember how much digits you recollected forward and backwards?