Coding was DS's lowest score on the WISC, but strangely he still got a 10. Nine points less than his highest score though. I assume this is a large discrepancy.
9 points actually isn't considered to be a large discrepancy, but if it's the only discrepancy and the other subtest scores are all within 2-4 points of each other, then combined with other indications of ADHD or dysgraphia etc, it's significant. Most psychs will only consider a discrepancy of either > 1 SD (15 pts on the WISC) or 1.5 SD to be statistically significant and meaningful.
Re the CogAT, my ds was given the CogAT at school *with* the accommodations of oral response, individual testing in a quiet place and extended time. The reason we were able to get those accommodations was that he already had an IEP in place with similar accommodations in the IEP, and he was given similar accommodations on testing in his regular classroom. I think that right now, I'd focus on being sure your ds has the testing accommodations he needs written into his IEP. Your district might be different than ours and use a 504 for accommodations, but I think it's typical for children who have disabilities and an IEP to have the accommodations written into the IEP and not carry a 504 while they have an IEP.
I wonder if the reason the school is offering up the Weschler non-verbal is that is a test the school psych is licensed to give or that the school district has licensed and possibly the WISC isn't? Or simply that it's a shorter test? Was your ds given the WISC as part of his IEP eligibility process?
I found having the WISC scores (ours was through a private professional, but having one through the school would have worked ok too) was really helpful in advocating. Our school gave only the verbal (or maybe non-verbal, I can't' remember which) version of the CogAT and ds' outside the box answers, while well thought out... didn't mesh with what the test wanted for answers and he scored significantly lower than he did on the WISC. When the school came back and told us they'd have to try another ability test because of ds' CogAT scores, it was so helpful to have those WISC scores in our backpocket so we could question *why* did the school insist on testing again when it was clear from a widely used, reliable standard IQ test that ds was qualified for the program. Something in my tone of voice when I mentioned that must have sounded either ominous or desperate... because it worked lol.
Good luck advocating!
polarbear
