Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment What age is the oldest you'd want to do a WISC

if the child is MG?

And then what test would come after that, age-wise, if we waited?

Just thinking ahead... dd9 was tested about 9 months ago and will need re-testing sometime in the next 12 months (long story). Optimally for our other purposes (planning middle school - school selection - and checking on progress of some LD-ish issues), I'd like to do it sometime next summer, when dd will be 10y and a few months.

WISC IV goes up to age 16 years and 11 months. So, once a child turns 17, he has to be tested on the adult test, WAIS IV. However, WAIS IV starts at exactly age 16 and goes up to very old age. So for the one year between age 16 and age 17, one has a choice of whether to test on the WAIS or the WISC and WAIS should be slightly harder.

So, obviously in your case there is no choice and your dd will be tested on the WISC. However, some here say (and I can't comment on this at all) that WISC becomes too easy for gifted kids starting from early teens. The test being too easy is good if you are looking to qualify for GT programs. However, if you want to document LD issues, having some headroom and thus a harder test is probably better.

Actually, the test being too easy can paradoxically make it more difficult to get a high score because there is not enough headroom for gifted kids to show what they know.

The SB5 is designed a little differently though. There is one test for all ages and the test items are adapted to the person's abilities as the test progresses. Maybe it would be a better choice for older gifted kids?

Maybe, but I recall Dottie mentioning that the high scores she had seen on the SB-5 came mostly from much younger kids. I do know that the SB-5 generally scores lower than the WISC and Debra Ruff recommends a score of 120 being considered gifted on that test. While she may recommend that, I doubt that coming out with a score in the low to mid-120s would benefit the OP's child in terms of school advocacy. (Of course, her dc's score may be much higher than that; I'm just extrapolating on how a MG who winds up with that type of score might not appear even MG on paper.)

Thanks ladies, I appreciate your comments.

My guess, from what you've all said, is that 10y+5m will probably be fine for my dd to re-take the WISC. I just vaguely recall that some gifted kids start to ceiling out at some point and I couldn't remember when that was (and maybe "only MG" will make it ok)

I'm guessing that our psych will probably want to stick with the WISC as long as is reasonable, if only to make the scores more comparable (we're dealing with a language processing issue that caused dd's verbal score to drop more than a standard deviation in between the two times she's done the WISC; we're hoping that language therapy will help). Or, at least that's my thinking. The psych's recommendation list in the report said to retest in two or three years from last Dec, but next fall she'll be in fifth grade, time to apply to private middle schools (if we go that route). So a year from now I'll be needing the psych's advice. And, naturally, I can't wait to re-test to satisfy my crazy curiosity. For now I'll satisfy myself re: her progress with the school's MAP tests (wonder how accurate those are).