Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment WISC-IV - How will school be for this kid?

My 10 yo dyslexic/dysgraphic son was given the WISC a few months ago, and I had a question or two about the scores. One general question is that he wants to go to school next year after always having been homeschooled. Some days I think it will be great for him, and then I see him struggle with something simple and I worry school will be a disaster. We are applying both to a public gifted magnet and several private schools.

Here are his scores:

VCI 144 99.8
PRI 127 96
WMI 110 75
PSI 88 21
FSIQ 126 96
GAI 143 99.8

Similarities 16
Vocab 18
Comprehension 18

Block Design 13
Pic Concepts 14
Matrix Reason 16

Digit span 13
Letter-Numb 11

Coding 6
Symbol Search 10

I had a specific question about Matrix Reasoning. The tester wrote that "Child's performance on this task fell in the very superior range, and he did not reach the ceiling/cut off criteria on this subtest."

I don't understand that. I thought a ceiling score for any subtest was 19. So how could he ceiling the subtest and get a 16?

I do see these scores in his actual academic performance. On the onw hand, he thinks deeply and has great ideas, but on the other hand, his actual performance on tests is usually in the "pretty good" range. He can also do great at one thing one day, and poorly on something similar the very next day. And he is slooooooow...

Thanks for any thoughts.

Reaching a ceiling in test administration is not the same kind of ceiling as the ceiling of the test. A test administration ceiling is a discontinue rule. In this case, it means he did not get four out of five consecutive items wrong, prior to running out of items to do. This does not mean he got every item correct all the way up to the last four or five items. When you see this happen, it suggests that the scaled score may be a low estimate of ability, as the test may not have had sufficient range to capture all of his skill.

Ahh! That makes sense. Thank you!

Thank you, MON. Part of what worries me is that the mostly Quaker private schools that we are applying to don't really accommodate -- or differentiate. I am worried he may be both overwhelmed and bored.

Excellent advice above. I have a DS8 with a similar profile in public school. On one side he is frustrated by his challenges. His writing is slooooow and at times it is really hard to keep up to the class. On the other side he craves more of a challenge than what the curriculum gives him. They supposedly differentiate but honestly it isn't even close to being enough. We end up doing stuff at home to satisfy his curiosity.

Adding to the PP advice, my advice is to be prepared for the school to only focus on the struggles and possibly not even recognize his strengths. Be prepared for grades that often have nothing to do with knowledge. Be prepared to teach him that it is the journey rather than the grade that really matters. Be prepared for him to realize how "out there" he is (in both his strengths and weaknesses).

Reading that it sounds very negative and yet we still do it anyway. In our case while I don't think he's learning any math or science in school he is learning a lot of other things that I personally would have a hard time teaching at home. Of course every kid is different. I do think that the fact that he wants to try it is a good reason to at least try and let him see for himself. Good luck!

It is possible just to do "specials" and sports through the school and keep the homeschool part going?

If I recall correctly, we live in the same general area. Have you looked at Woodlynne or AIM? I've met kids from those schools that are very "uneven" - really strong students in some respects, relative weakness in other areas - and those schools seem to cater to them.

I also know of a kid who went to a very small Friends school in the area (and the family is not Christian) and they really catered to this kid's strengths/weaknesses. Kid is doing well in college now. This is not one of the Friends schools that I knew much about (not one of the "big name" private schools in the area).

There are tons of schools in the area. I suspect there is one (or more) out there that can be a good fit for your son.