Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment question on DYS application

We had only done the WPPSI IV on DS (then 4.5, now 5). He is trilingual, and at the time of the test, had had 3 months of pre-school exposure to English (plus occasional TV, chatting with people during walks); at pre-school entrance, he was essentially non-verbal in English. With testing in English, he got a GAI of 143, when the tester asked the questions he missed in English in the verbal parts in his second best language instead (using the official manual from that language), his GAI score reached 145 - but of course this is not an offical way to test. Is it worth applying?
FWIW, he also reached ceilings in 3 subcategories (including hard ceilings in Block Design and Matrix Reasoning).

Yes, I would say that it is worth applying. Make sure the testing report includes the language information, and you may want to send some supplemental material. Good luck!

I couldn't tell you what DYS would do with this data, but, some thoughts:

Did the examiner write it up this way, with the clinical observations about testing of limits using the standardized version in a language he knew better than English? If all of the requisite subtests were administered, it should also be possible to calculate a Nonverbal Index, and perhaps submit that as supporting evidence for the verbally-laden FSIQ/GAI being artificially lowered by having had only three months of English immersion at the time of testing. (In addition to those included in GAI, you would need Picture Concepts, Picture Memory, and Bug Search.)

It's also not wholly true that filling in the verbal items with questions from a publisher-endorsed translated manual is illegitimate. That's actually the test design for the Bilingual Verbal Abilities Test (derivative of the WJ used for non-English speakers). Though the difference in GAI obtained in this case is negligible, and might be partially explained by the cueing involved in re-administering an item.

Aeh, thanks! Yes, the tester included all the relevant testing information in the (very detailed) report (the nonverbal items were actually administered in his second language entirely). She also included lots of supplemental tests - in Receptive Vocabulary for instance, his English score was abysmal (25th percentile), with the Vocabulary Acquisition index only at the 9th percentile (I am not sure what these tests mean exactly, but I suspect they would show that his command of English at the time was still very low).
Unfortunately, Picture Memory was a low score for him (75%, much lower than Zoo locations, 91%, in the same category - again, not sure what the difference means), so that pulled down his Nonverbal Index to 139 (Fluid Reasoning and Visual Spatial were his best categories, Working Memory and Processing Speed his lowest; he apparently fooled around a bit during the Processing Speed tests).
When you say "cue-ing in readministering an item", are testers allowed to repeat the question in English? In that case, repeating the question in French may not matter that much...

DS5 is a very mathy and especially visual spatial kid who absorbs new concepts incredibly quickly. Very worried about school (he'll start 1st grade), where repetition seems to be the mantra.

I mentioned cueing on re-administration because the examiner appears to have re-administered only those items that were originally answered incorrectly, which may have tipped him off that his initial responses were wrong, thereby increasing the likelihood of changing to a correct response. This is factored into the BVAT norms, but not into the French WPPSI-IV norms (to my knowledge). I wonder why the examiner didn't just administer the whole thing in French to begin with, knowing that he was stronger in French than in English, and use those norms.

With the clinical information included in the report, it might very well be worthwhile applying. Actually, now that I think about this, this might not be that difficult of an application. He just needs to have two 145+ scores, which can be Visual Spatial and Fluid Reasoning. And it sounds like those are in that range?

Unfortunately, Fluid Reasoning was only 142...(hard ceiling on the Matrix Reasoning though).
In the Verbal Comprehension Index, asking in French really only lead to one more answer (he actually reached a soft ceiling in one of the subsections, even in English!). But that one answer makes the difference between qualifying and not qualifying.

In the text, the tester mentioned that the verbal sections were administered in English due to the norms used (might have been before they started using WPPSI IV in Europe...I had thought about having him take it in Germany, in his best language, and they were still administering WPPSI III). And it was primarily given for admission to a private school in the US:)

Overall, it's quite annoying that he reached so many ceilings, even at only 4.5 y old...

You could still go ahead and submit these materials, given the narrative by the examiner, or you could wait a year, and have the WISC-IV/V done after he turns six. (If you're still in Europe at that time, it is questionable whether the -V will be ready.)