Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Woodcock Johnson and WISC to diagnose LD?

Having both ability and achievement testing was an integral piece of diagnosing my 2e children's challenges. My dysgraphic ds had had the WJ-III Achievement tests used along with the WISC, and this is how they were useful for him:

The WISC shows dips in processing speed subtest scores (and additional neuropsych testing combined with observations by the neuropsych while ds was writing as well as reviews of his schoolwork showed that the low processing speed scores were due to fine motor challenges).

The WJ-III Achievement subtests had scatter in the scores all over the place - some really high, some really low. When they are grouped together based on type of response (oral vs motor vs handwritten vs handwritten+timed) trends pop out. The oral response subtests have scores in the same range as ds' IQ. the motor response subtest (I think there was only one - where he had to circle or something like that) was quite a bit lower. The subtests that required handwritten responses but were not timed were around the 60th percentile (which is *way* low compared to what I had expected based on IQ), and the subtests that required handwritten responses and were also timed had scores below the 20th percentile. If you didn't know what you were looking at, it would be easy to think that either - hey, this kid isn't really doing all that well in school or isn't really all that smart, or - hey, this test is completely bogus and doesn't reflect my child's obvious out-of-the-box level of knowledge - and neither one is really what's up. What it *does* show, and shows very well - is that without accommodations, the act of handwriting is preventing my ds from showing his knowledge, and that's *exactly* what you want to have as data when advocating for a child who has a handwriting disability. So they are *very* useful tests to have, if you understand how to look at them, to determine if there is a challenge with handwriting and how it's impacting your child.

That's a *handwriting* challenge - but it's also possible there's a different reason your dd is slow with written work. Does it take her a long time to come up with ideas to write about? That might also show up in one of the WJ-III Achievement Writing subtests (I can't remember the name of it, but my ds had this challenge when he was first tested, and it showed up as another anomalously low subtest score).

If the challenge is simply speed of handwriting, it will be useful to time her while she's writing, count the number of letters per minute and compare it to age or grade level averages (which you can find online).


This depends on what you learn through the testing, and on what you know about your dd from observing. If you google "dysgraphia accommodations" you can find quite a few typical lists, and if you search through old posts here you can find suggestions. Your tester will also most likely have suggestions for you. Typical accommodtions for dysgraphic students include moving to keyboarding. If you don't find what you're looking for, let me know and I'll list out the progression of accommodations our ds has used through the years.

I think that the fact this is a business that specializes in LD is a good thing - combining the ability vs achievement testing is very *very* common for assessing LDs. My only concern would be that you might need just one more step to really understand what's up - for instance, your dd might have a low processing speed score on the WISC, and a separation on WJ-III Achievement that shows she's being held back by her handwriting and is quite possibly dysgraphic - but there are different *types* of dysgraphia (different causes), and these two tests alone won't tell you if it's a fine motor challenge, a visual processing challenge, or spelling-related etc.

Best wishes,

polarbear