Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment what do I do with this? WISC results in *GOOD NEWS

block design 18
similarities 17
digit span 7
picture concepts 14
coding 12
vocab 12
letter-numb. sequ. 11
matrix reseasoning 17
comprehension 10
symbol 10

FSIQ 120
GAI 132

?????

Can you post the WPPSI results as well? What did the tester say? Do they absolutely require FSIQ> 130 or would they go with GAI with the recommendation of the tester?

Here are the WPPSI scores:
FSIQ 130 98th %

Verbal IQ 129 - 97th%
Performance IQ 129 - 97th%
General Language 138 - 99th%
Processing Speed 113 - 81st%

Subtest Scaled Scores
Verbal Scale
Information 13
Vocabulary 14
Word Reasoning 17

Perf. Scale
Block Design 15
Matrix Reasoning 16
Picture Concepts 13

General Lang.
Receptive Vocab. 18
picture Naming 15

Processing Speed
Symbol Search 13
Coding 12

The school says it's a strict 130 but who knows.

I'm baffled!

It seems to me that her reasoning of all kinds (tested by Similarities, Matrix Reasoning, Picture Concepts and Block Design) is very good, but she has a weakness in fund of knowledge (Vocabulary where you are given a word and have to define it, perhaps she doesn't know too many words) and a real weakness in rote attention (Digit Span where you have to repeat increasingly longer strings of digits either forward or in reverse). However, when the working memory task is cognitively more demanding (ie Letter-Number Sequencing where you have to reorder letter-number strings in your head as opposed to just repeat them forwards or in reverse as in Digit Span), she does better. Also, open-ended, adaptive reasoning as required by Comprehension is a little weak.

It seems to me that she is extremely smart as far as raw brain power. And, although I am not an expert and may be wrong, she doesn't have an LD. When the problem is neurologically based, Coding is almost always effected and often Block Design and Symbol Search are as well. However, this is not the case with her. It seems to me that her problem is in lack of maturity and her scores should go up with age. She might not understand that she has to give precise answers on Vocabulary and that she has to give clear, logical, and complete answers on Comprehension. Also, she might not understand that she has to put her utmost effort and do her best on a boring, nonintellectual task like Digit Span because the test is important. So again, she is very, very smart and her reserved personality and lack of maturity lowered her score.

no, Dottie - I appreciate your input!! I am baffled because the results don't make sense to me so I am confused, don't know why she scored so very low on that 1 area. I just don't know if it means there is a problem. I don't know if the school will review everything and make a decision or if it's like the school board told me - that they just plug the numbers into a computer

asiral, thanks so much for that explaination

My explanation of Digit Span was probably clear, but just in case you still have questions about it, let me tell you what it is.

Digit Span subtest is composed of two parts: Digits Forwards and Digits Backwards.

Digits Forward:
In this section, the tester reads to the child a string of digits (the child never sees the string, she has to get it auditorily and there are no repetitions) and the child is to say this string back in the same order as the examiner pronounced it.

Example:
psychologist reads: 9-2-5-3-6-8
child has to say back: 9-2-5-3-6-8
The section starts with 3-digit strings and gradually progresses all the way to 9-digit strings with two strings at each length.

Digits Backward:
In this section the psychologist reads to the child a string of digits. The child has to say this string back to the psychologist in reverse order from how the psychologist read it.
(Again, the child never sees the string and has to get it auditorily and there are absolutely no re-reads).

Example:
psychologist reads: 4-7-1-3-9
child has to say back: 9-3-1-7-4
The section starts with 2-digit strings and gradually progresses all the way up to 9-digit strings with two strings at each length.
The scores for Digits Forward and Digits Backward are combined into a single Digit Span subtest score.

Letter-Number Sequencing subtest, however, is more demanding:

In this subtest the psychologist reads to the child a mixed string of letters and numbers. (Again, the child never sees the string and has to get it auditorily and there are absolutely no re-reads). The child has to re-order the string in her head and say it back in such a way that all the numbers come before all the letters and are in ascending order and all the letters come after all the numbers and are in alphabetical order.
Example:
psychologist reads: 2-D-5-A-1-G
child has to say: 1-2-5-A-D-G

Another example:
psychologist reads: S-F-45-H-27
child has to say: 27-45-F-H-S
The subtest starts with 3-item strings and gradually progresses all the way up to 9-item strings.

Can you tell me if there is something I should be asking the psychologist? Is the test not really accurate/useable when you say it's uninterpretable?

The psychologist seemed to think there is a problem with auditory processing and that maybe there is a LD. I don't even know how to follow up on that and it conflicts with what some of you are suggesting.

*sigh*

thanks again, Dottie.

I don't know where you are getting the 116 from though? she had FSIQ 120 and GAI 132