Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment need help with WISC IV test result interpretation

Hi, my daughter's WISC IV test result is:

99th percentile for Verbal Comprehension;
99.9th percentile for Perceptual Reasoning;
GAI: above the 99.9th percentile

I am wondering can we tell her IQ based on this test?

Thank you very much.

She is definitely gifted. Have you started your application to Davidson's YS Program? If not, get started.

IQ tests only tell people things in context of a specific child. Wanna share a bit more of what was on your mind when you got the testing and what your child and school situation is like? What were the percentiles for Working Memory and Processing Speed, if those were done? How old is she? Is she 'like you?'

Best Wishes,
Grinity

Grinity,

Thank you for the reply. The reason she took the test is her teacher recommended her to take a test.

She didn't do the test for Working Memory and Processing Speed.

All the best!

Thanks for the help.

Yes those are the only numbers we were given. Does the high percentile in GAI shows a child has high IQ? or only shows a child has learned well?

I am also curious about the verbal comprehension test. If a child didn't read a lot and didn't have a well developed vocabulary, he/she won't be identified as gifted even actually he/she has high IQ?

Best wishes to you.

It's takes a while to figure out what IQ is. From my perspective, a high IQ is what helps a child learn well. When a child is 6 or younger, there usually isn't a lot of 'work ethic' or pressure on the child to learn well, so what you see in the IQ is usually mostly what they were born with + no truly awful parenting/life experience + maybe a little help from being in an environment where learning is enjoyed.

Of course after the age of 7, work ethic, motivation, people skills, and good habits start to play a bigger and bigger role in achievement - up to a point. When I was given an IQ test in my early 20s, after an accident, I wasn't given a number, but was told that I could 'persue any career I was interested in.' ((LOL copy editing wouldn't have been a good choice, though!))

I was one of those parents who enjoyed sharing little 'academic tidbits' with my son, (because I'm like that) so when he learned them I naturally assumed that he was just living the life he knew. I even went so far as to write letters to the editor of parenting magazines sharing the 'fun learning activities' I had discovered for my son. Since then I've seen gifted kids from all kinds of backrounds, and I currently think I was naieve back then to give myself so much credit. Yes, I helped my son by not doing street drugs or alcohol while I was pregnant, and yes, talking to a child has been shown to really help, and I certianly am a talker, but my choices of what books to read, and what topics to discuss, were more about being subtly aware of what he enjoyed than 'making' him high IQ.

I hope that's what you were asking!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Grinity

Thank you Grinity, it really helps!

This semester, I have been working with college developmental English students. While I am never certain about high IQ, I am beginning the understand the difference in high vs low IQ.

These students have no retention. I am explaining concepts that they should know such as plurals and verb tense. In contrast, my daughter learns something once, makes a big deal about it, and the lesson sticks.

I asked them to make a list of new words they learned in class. They all said that they already knew all the words. Then, I ask them to type the apostrophe key and they ask me what that is. They have no clue what they know and what is new.

My daughter and I learn new words every day and look them up and find their origins. We are both fascinated by something new.

I wonder how the students with lower IQs cope. They tell me that they learn, but don't remember things. I wonder what the point is and understand why they are disinterested.

When my youngest was in K (age 6.5) he was tested for the gifted program at our public school. He was reading at a 4th grade level and comes from a family of "gifteds". As is the procedure at the school, he was pulled out of class one day and taken to a room for testing. WISC-IV was done. My son did not like the tester who is the school counselor. Testing results came back with a 117 IQ. We agreed to let time pass and thought nothing more of it. This fall he participated in NWEA MAP testing (second grade) and came back with raw scores of 208 for both math and communications, placing him in the 98% and causing him to be referred back for gifted testing. Under the district's policies he does not qualify for retesting because his WISC-IV is too low (less than 125). Can anyone help me understand how these two scores can be so far apart? This kid is not exposed to anything unusual other than a generally smart and active family environment. Looking for answers and considering retesting WISC-IV with someone else. Would that change anything?

Given that enough time has passed that a second testing of the WISC shouldn't be artifically inflated by recall of the questions from the last testing, I'd strongly consider re-testing on the WISC. If you didn't have a family history of giftedness, it might be possible that he had just had a good education and was a high achiever. A child with an IQ of 117 is well above average and can certainly perform quite highly.

However, given that it doesn't sound like the first testing situation was ideal and you do have a family hx of giftedness, retesting might come back with totally different #s. I know that I'm not the only one who has had a child tested more than once with rather different scores from one testing to the next.

First things first - gifted is as gifted does - Reading at a 4th grade level in kindy, and getting 98% on MAP point to a gifted kid. An IQ test is just a snapshot of a child's performance on a particular day. I, personally, don't really believe in such a thing as 'overachievement' except in the limited sense of a really stressed kid who is getting unusual pressure (from a parent, from within, or from sibling competition) to spend hours and hours performing an activity not out of sense of joy, but to protect someone's ego. So unless you've been home drilling your child on Math and English worksheets for over 45 minutes a day, daily - then the MAP test isn't a fluke, it's who he is.

I would strongly suggest a meeting with the gifted coordinator to ask this very question to her or him. I would ask the coordinator to tell you where your child's scores fall in comparison with the kids in the gifted program. If there are within the middle 2/3rd of the kids in the program, ask for a temporary placement, to be evaluated in 3 months. If they are in the bottom 1/3 then I would only move him if he seems really unhappy in the regular classroom. If they are in the top 1/3, I would ask for a totally different set of accomidations.

(How many hours per week is this program? - if it's less than 3 hours a week it may not even be worth your energy)

I would also suggest testing with a private tester. Why?
1) To rule out if your son has additional learning issues that led to the first IQ scores. It doesn't seem likely, but I would want to know.
2) In case the school system is being silly.
3) So in the future if someone is trying to say that school is working for your kid and it really isn't working for you kid, those test numbers can give you that little extra confidence to stick your neck out and say, "Take another look at him, there is more that you aren't seeing."
4) In case he is really beyond what the gifted program can handle. I've heard quite a number of individuals with 'way gifted' kids who 'played with their food' during testing. (In other words, were more interested in psyching out the tester than being compliant with the test- think 'Good Will Hunting.') What if the 98% on the MAP test is an under-representation of your child's abilities, and he needs a lot more than he is getting at school, but because of a 'whily' personality doesn't fully show what's on the inside.

So that's how your post hit my brain...good luck!
Grinity