Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Re testing, achievement testing, 2E issues, etc.

Hi,

We had my DD, then 4.10 assessed with the WPPSI, partially to give us a better idea of where she was and mostly to apply to private gifted schools.

The testing left much to be desired, DD was ready to go, but the tester sort of butted heads with her. DD took a bathroom break about halfway through the test. I think in 2 years of preschool prior to that, she had probably been to the bathroom once. We don't speak English at home, so we knew going in that her verbal score would be an under-estimate. However, the way the test was done, accentuated those differences.

Her subtests scores were in the 13-17 range, with an 11 in one subtest. The good news is that she did score in the top 3% so we applied to a few gifted schools. Tester then did a substitution, since the rest of her verbal scores were 15-16. This put her in 98th FSIQ and 99th for verbal.

She got accepted at one of the gifted schools where she finished K. She had a great year there, connected with kids there like she doesn't with other kids. She was finally at a place where other kids also engaged in complex imaginary play, etc.

We always thought the test was an under-representation of her abilities. She stood out in her class in reading and writing. She was a late early reader (started at 4), but she entered K reading at about a 6th grade level. This summer we finally let her read HP (first 3 books, breezed through them in a few days while reading other things), and she's read early middle school fiction books. She is a voracious reader. She is writing/spelling very well; is always engaged in complex story telling, creates and designs complicated Lego creations, is always inventing things, etc. Math wise, she still hasn't memorized all her addition/subtraction facts (she is not quick with bigger numbers), but she can add with regrouping; understands all basic operations, etc. Math wise she is probably at a mid-2nd grade level, although conceptually she is higher.

We have been having some behavioral challenges with her. They started worsening in March, we waited to see if vacations brought a change. Things only got worse w/o the structure of the school. She started seeing a psychologist familiar with gifted children several weeks ago. We have seen some improvements, but therapist is worried she might have some significant 2E issues (but no LD). She has suggested she be evaluated by a psychiatrist. I mentioned Webb's book to her, and she is not familiar with it, but she said she was interested in reading it (Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnosis).

We think it is now more important than ever to figure out if she is HG++. We understand that HG kids are much more likely to be wrongly diagnosed. We think it is time to get a full picture, so we are going to go ahead with IQ and achievement testing. Does anybody have any suggestions regarding tests? I am strongly leaning towards the WISC-IV since she is stronger verbally, and with the new GAI and extended indexes we might get a better idea. We think that part of her issues come from her uneven profile, with her verbal abilities much higher than non-verbal.

We are also interested in achievement in case she does qualify for DYS. (I am pretty sure she wouldn't in all sections, but I think verbally she might. Also, having those scores, would make advocating for her in school easier. K was great (lots of enrichment), but there was not that much differentiation. She did have a lot of freedom in delving deeper, was allowed total access to library, etc. However, with the more academic nature of 1st, we want her to be more challenged.

Is there a significant difference between WIAT and WJ? Would you recommend one or the other? Any other comments? How do the ceilings work with those tests? What difference does it make which grade they are in. That is, how do those assess out of grade level achievement? Should we ask for anything specific of the tester?



Thanks for reading all the way through and for your input.

ETA. I forgot to mention she is now 6 and half.

Dottie - at what ages are the WJ and WIAT not compatible? So if a DC had timer-issues or processing speed issues, you'd recommend the WIAT?

Thanks! She is indeed a deep thinker, and usually takes her time when answering harder questions.

In the WPPSI her processing speed (not sure if that is related or not) was low (116/86th %), but certainly not as big a contrast as with many other gifted children.

This helps in starting the conversation with the tester.

Just scheduled it. Tester did not have WIAT, so WJ it will be.

Dottie,

I've just gotten my DS(9-1) WIAT results back. For the two subtests hitting 160, he's gotten either >12.9 or 11.4. For another one >12.9, he actually got only 155. Those actually match pretty well for him being a verbal and mathy kid. Is it worth to bringing this up with the teachers to see if they can give him some accelerated learning in math?

Background -- He is in a fourth grade classroom that uses 5th grade math curriculum for all kids. They do pre-test before each unit. He did not pass those because he did not know the terms (but he knows the concept). He told me that the teacher said that it was very rare to have kids pass those pre-tests. (Maybe it is just him telling me). One example is divisibility. He's always understood those as dividing without remainder and no decimal part, but not the word "divisible". Then it took them four weeks to work on this concept and prime numbers, both of which he knew over a year ago.

Thank you for any insights and recommendation.

Dottie,
Thank you so much for such a quick and insightful reply. 155 is in math reasoning. His spelling is the weakest (130 only, with GE8.5, while all others of at least 11.4). This also reflects in his weakness in his writing assignments at school, while he is coasting through the spelling homework. He is in a GT magnet this year. Due to his weakness in writing, I am hesitant bringing up any topic on moving faster on anything. Maybe I can just mention the math side at our upcoming parent-teacher conference casually to see how it goes. Thanks again.

Dottie,
Thanks again for the expert opinion and to help me to put things into better perspective.