Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Confusing Results

My DS8 was given the WISC V. He is a tricky one test.

In the eval he was diagnosed with ADD. The neuropsych told us and wrote in the report that his effort was questionable. My son wanted to quit, kept saying "surely we must done" and giving incorrect answers on purpose. Sigh.

Here is a quote from the report and his scores. Would love insight from experts.

"It is our opinion that XXX is more intelligent than the scores he obtained. This is because across tasks he did not yield liable effort, and he made many inattention, impulsivity, and distractibility errors across all testing."

VCI 139.5
similarities 16
vocab 18
information 19

FRI 112
MR 11
FW 13
Arith 16

VSI 94
BD 8
VP 10

WMI 110
DS 14
PS 9

PSI 92
SS 9
CD 9

Thank you in advance. I am looking for insights and opinions as we decide next steps.

Why were you testing? To qualify for a program or to address an issue you are seeing? If to address an issue, do you think the ADD diagnosis explains what you are seeing? Do you feel like you have time to address the ADD for a while and then circle back to further (hopefully more accurate) testing?

Did the psych give any kind of qualitative estimates of ability? Or indicate which domains were most noticeably affected by lack of effort and inattention/impulsivity? It is likely that, once the ADHD is addressed, future testing will be substantially higher, especially in some areas, such as those with multiple choice answers (MR, FW, VP), high short-term memory demands (Ar, DS, PS, CD), and those most sensitive to sustained attention (SS, CD). In my experience, the verbal subtests are a little easier to manage in cases of poor effort and attention, as one has to generate an actual response, and the examiner is allowed to query responses, including those with questionable effort. That's probably why those are his highest scores.

Unfortunately no the psych did not give us an estimate of ability or tell us which domains were most affected. He just gave the vague quote above about him being more intelligent than the scores. Thus we are left scratching our heads.

We are addressing the ADD. We tried a short stint on meds at the end of the school year and that seemed to be successful.

But as I contemplate an important school decision between trying a new, unproven gifted school or remain at his challenging albeit achievement oriented private school, I am unclear as to what his actual ability is.

Is he verbally gifted only? What is his true ability? I agree that his testing would go up on meds but how much? Is the disparity between indexes due to the ADD, strengths and weakneses or ODD which the pysch came just short of diagnosing.

I do not want to put him through another round of testing on medication, Perhaps I can do a brief test? But I worry those are not accurate.

Thoughts?

Honestly, the question of his true ability is not one that can be answered based only on the information presented here. I would suspect that his quantitative reasoning skills are higher than the FRI currently suggests, based on his strong Ar score, but can't prove that using these data. ADHD could explain most of the lower scores, but it may also be that there are additional weaknesses in processing speed or fine-motor skills, which may feed frustration in school, especially at an output-oriented private school (which may contribute to the not-quite-diagnosis of ODD).

He cannot validly take the WISC again for two years, so that's not one of your options. Of comprehensive cognitives, the SBV is good, but showing its age a bit. You still have the DAS-II, WJIV COG, and KABC-II (also on the older side; it's undergoing a normative update). The only one with truly current norms is the WJIV COG, though I would take the DAS-II, also. Since the question is more his nonverbal/mathematical abilities, you could also try a nonverbal, such as the UNIT-2, WNV, or TONI-4, of which only the UNIT-2 is better than middle-aged.

Brief measures do have some caveats, but among them there's the WASI-2 (based on the WISC), RIAS-2/RIST-2, WRIT, and KBIT-2.

In any case, the decision-making process regarding schools also needs to include considerations related to his second exceptionality (ADHD), especially as there generally are escalating output and executive function demands in a a high-achievement placement. You may already have some information on how his existing school is likely to work with those aspects of his learning profile. The new school is, of course, an unknown quantity, but you can at least ask those kinds of questions. They may not live up to their claims, but if even their claims fall short of addressing his needs, then that will be telling.

I feel like clapping every time you post. You are such a brilliant resource. Thank you for dedicating your time to the parents on this board.

Anyhow - should we give him another full or brief test on meds? if so, which one? Or make a decision based on the information we have now?

The new gifted school is willing to accept him with his 140 VCI score even though his FSIQ does not meet the 130 cut off. Is that a red flag that they are not credible?

You're very welcome!

At the moment, his existing testing is not restricting him from access to either placement. It's just a question of which one is more suited to him. I don't think it's a red flag that the new school will take him based only on his VCI. There are both educationally valid and educationally irrelevant reasons for doing so, and it's not obvious in which category their rationale falls. Especially at a new school, which may be eager to boost enrollment. I'd be more interested in how they plan to address/accommodate his second exceptionality. Does your DC have opinions on which school he prefers? Have you been able to do a site visit (with DC) of the new school? (Or was there no operating school to visit?) What factors stand out to you and him pro/con each school, at a boots-on-the-ground level?