Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment IQ test and Achievement Test Discrepancy

I can use some help from the experts here please.

My daughter Age 4 yrs 6 mos took the WPPSI to qualify for early entry Kindergarten. Her breakdowns were:

Verbal 124
Performance 129
Processing 133
FullScale 131

So she made the 99% for IQ

Then on Monday she took the TERA and the TEMA for Achievement.

Her achievement was well below what she should have been able to do. Her overall was a 87% TERA and 79% TEMA. You need to get a 98% achievement to qualify for early entry. While I think she had a great relationship with the Man that did the IQ I dont think she and the woman tester (achievement) bonded well.

Any interpretation to the discrepency? Could it be the sign of a LD? The report does say she was not working to her potential the last 20 minutes- but then goes on to say it was an accurate assessment. Is this to cover their buts? Not cooperating the last 20 minutes of a 30 minute test seems not a fair and accurate test.

She has been in full time day care in quality schools since she was 18 months.

So what should I do. I do have an opportunity for her to take the WJ III in June? Is it worth it? While money is not really a problem; I dont want to continue to spend it. But then $85 for WJ III is a lot less then another $12,000 for day care.

Beth

I don't know anything about the TERA/TEMA so take this with a grain of salt.

What I think when I see an IQ score that is higher but not dramatically higher than an achievement testing score is "You are not hothousing." (This is not to say kids with a high achievment test ARE being hothoused in any way!!! It's just what pops into my head with a close but not quite as high achievement score)

Taking these tests for kids can be a long process and they are sometimes tired and annoyed at being asked questions so much! I would consider having her do the WJIII in June. If nothing else, it's more data that will help you make your decision about school.

I guess I would ask what indications you have that she is ready to start K this year. If she seems solidly ahead on K skills, I think I'd assume that the test was inaccurate and try the WJ. If she doesn't seem to be pretty far ahead, I might not bother testing again until she's older (and the tests are likely to be more accurate). Her WPPSI scores look to be in the moderately gifted range (~98%), and she may do fine in a regular classroom if she's not too far ahead of her peers in terms of achievement.

As far as a LD is concerned, I wouldn't worry about it at this point if you don't have another reason to think that it could be an issue. Testing at 4 is really pretty sketchy.

No, I dont have any other reason for suspecting a LD.

I really think it is lack of exposure to material. She is reading on a mid 1st grade level and has a strong grasp of numbers and addition and subtraction. I honestly think she will be bored in going into K this year. But to get into early K you need to be 2-3 years ahead, so they want her in the 2nd -3rd grade level to be ready to go to K- which seems crazy!!

when will she be 5? I'm assuming she is just missing your states cutoff?

A lot depends on the demographics in your area. IF you're near a major university, your DD might be in good company going into K this year. In other places she might be bored. A friend's district would be a much better fit for my kids b/c of the demographics - scientific area w/ lots of scientists, historians, mathematicians so the schools teach to that level.

Is there a possibility that she can skip later if the work seems inappropriate later on?

In our experience, dds both went into K reading at about the level you mention (they were both just shy of their 5th bds and just made the cut-off). In K, reading a grade or two above grade level coming in seems to be something they can accommodate and there isn't a lot of math beyond patterns, so it didn't drive even my more mathy kid nuts with repetition. The degree of mismatch btwn the curriculum and their skills became a greater problem later in elementary or in 1st grade. One of my girls became really miserable in 1st and the other stopped showing up except in body only. We've dealt successfully with my oldest -- the one who started melting down in 1st -- & she is a happy kid now. My youngest has ongoing issues related to not taking responsibility for herself and not being particularly engaged in learning. We're working on that still.

My girls may be MG or maybe moreso, but I'm not sure even though they have been IQ tested. They just have a lot of unevenness in their profiles so I am not sure if the composite scores fully reflect their strengths, but they may.

I am wondering where they got the 99th percentile from her WPPSI scores, though. 131 should be well within the 98th percentile range, which is still gifted, of course. Not that the one percentile will matter that much as it is within the range of test error and even a 98th percentile kid may need to skip a grade. My oldest, who was at 132 on the WISC (albeit with scores ranging from the 25th to 99.9th within one subtest), has successfully skipped a grade and it was probably a good idea in her instance. More highly gifted kids may wind up skipping more than one grade. Mine won't need that.

Hm. Well, if she's reading and doing basic math at 4, I highly doubt she's in the 79-87% in achievement. That sounds like a pretty solid reason to retest to me.

I sent you a PM :-)