Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment V superior result on WPPSI-3, *update* at bottom

Hi, I am new here and somewhat dazed and confused...please bear with me. We have always suspected that my DD is fairly gifted and have had long debates about what we should do for her for school. She will be entering kindergarten this fall and is 5.5 yrs old. We had her tested last week with the WPPSI-III and have just received the results.

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The tester says she is in the "very superior range", but that range starts at 130 and goes to the top. So...what does that really mean? I saw on the hoagies website that 154 is considered PG, but I always thought that was just for children who teach themselves to read at 2, if you know what I mean. My DD is clearly very bright and is reading 2nd grade chapter books, but she didn't start really reading until 4. She does do addition and subtraction beyond what a kindergarten student would and plays board games for 10 & 12 year olds. As far as I can tell, she will learn nothing new in her kindergarten class (which is why we finally decided to have her tested).

But is she really PG?

And if she is, what does this mean for her schooling? Will she be OK in an age graded classroom? We do have (very expensive) gifted schools in our area. Do I need to drop everything and try my darnedest to get her into one? These would be an extreme financial strain, but doable.

I guess I am just sort of reeling from this news, and would appreciate any advice you all could share. I don't have any friends with children as bright as she is that I can turn to.

Thanks in advance,
Dawn

Hi, welcome! Folks around here consider this good news, after the initial big shock. One of the best things is, you have some information to make some decisions with. Another good thing is your child is still the same fun child you've had all along, and you seem to be doing a wonderful job with her.
Have you considered homeschooling in lieu of an expensive private school which might or might not offer the challenges your child will need? I myself don't homeschool, but leave it on the table as an option.

Thank you for the replies!

Did the tester make a mistake with his scoring? I could post the subtest scores as well, if that would help?

It sounds like she may or may not be PG, but it doesn't really matter since she will need some accommodation at school in any case.

Would it be worthwhile doing achievement testing on her now? She enjoyed the test, so it wouldn't be too big of a deal. My main thought was that I could use her test scores to get her school to make accommodations for her...like allowing her to read with another grade, etc. We have enrolled her in a parochial school rather than public since our public schools are rather lacking here.

I have considered homeschooling, but we have baby twins as well and I'm not sure how I could juggle everything. We do a lot of 'enrichment' at home in any case, which she loves. Her preschool just smiled and nodded at me when I told them what she is capable of.

I know she will enjoy the social aspect of kindergarten, but I'm concerned that she will be very disillusioned when she realizes she isn't learning anything. I will look at the differentiation and acceleration articles.

Thanks!
Dawn

Welcome,

Hopefully this info will help. We tested DS4 2 months ago on WPPSI, here are his subtest numbers. DS has lower scores, FSIQ 133, but hopefully these numbers will help resolve any potential error in scoring.

Verbal
information 16
vocab 17
word reasoning 12

Performance
block 18
matrix reasoning 17
picture concepts 14

Processing
coding 11

General language
receptive vocab 14
picture naming 11

I think Dottie is correct with regards to symbol search, but either way very impressive scores.

cheers

Guy

Let me first say that those scores ARE impressive and you will for sure need to look for accommodations for you DD. She is without any doubt gifted.


I agree with Dottie. I think the tester made a mistake when calculating the FSIQ. It's quite possible that she/he did indeed added another subtest score to the test.

I am not an expert when it comes to scores but I do have my son's results in front of me. His subtest scores are higher by quite a few points than your DD's results but his FSIQ is noticeably lower.

Dottie, my son's report includes General Language score.

Thanks for all the replies! I will for sure ask him about the score when we do our appt. He was recommended to me as an expert in these tests, but even experts make mistakes now and then. He did an excellent job of making her comfortable, and I was very worried about that. So I am still happy with him.

Honestly, I would not be disappointed to lower her score out of the PG range. Raising a PG child to their potential seems a daunting (though rewarding!) task. Based off my research, I expected her results to be in either the highly or exceptionally gifted range. I had to sit down when I read the results, LOL.

The only thing I still wonder about is that shortly after the test she was sick with the stomach flu. Do you think that would affect her results? She started telling me her stomach hurt on the way home. Its a bummer to pay all that money and wonder about the accuracy.

I will try to post back after I talk with him. I still think that her scores (if needing correction) will be a useful support while discussing accommodations with her school.

Thanks again everyone!
Dawn

Possibly, but only to lower them, not raise them! We're in a similar spot, but we haven't gotten results back yet. DD, on the day she took the SB5, had a "woozy" feeling head, stuffy nose, head cold type of thing going. I, too, didn't know about it b/c dh took her in and I only heard about it when I got home from work that day.

Just for comparison, here were my son's scores. His FSIQ was 149.

Verbal
------
Info: 14
vocab: 19
word reasoning: 19

Performance
-----------
object assembly 16
block design: 17
matrix reasoning: 18

processing speed
----------------
symbol search: 15
coding: 17

That's a bummer if the psych miscalculated, but the scores are still high!

Thanks for the replies! It seems like he must have miscalculated. Unfortunately, I will have to wait until Tuesday to find out the corrected value. On the plus side, I have until then to think of a diplomatic way to ask him if he made a big mistake!

I see that your son did object assembly rather than the picture concepts my DD did. I wish he would have done that subtest with her, as that would have probably helped her score. She's pretty good at those type of logic puzzles. Oh well, I'm sure she will be tested again at some point!

Someone mentioned above that she might have hit the ceiling on this test? Does that mean that she might score better on a different test?

Thanks!
Dawn

We spoke with the tester today and he gave us her correct FSIQ. The correct value is 138, which appears much more in line with her composite scores. I'm so glad that I posted on here and you all mentioned the possibility of an error. I doubt that we would have caught the error until much later, at which point we probably would have already made many educational decisions based on the erroneous value.

Her FSIQ appears to be right on the border between moderately and highly gifted according to the hoagies website. I must admit that I thought it would be slightly higher than that, but he still stressed that her scores were very good across the board and recommended a educational environment in which the entire program is accelerated. (As opposed to subject acceleration, which is what we have been considering for the school we have currently lined up.)

Any thoughts?

Thanks again to everyone!
Dawn