I'd agree with Grinity. My dds have lower WMI and/or PSI as well but it makes such a difference for the dd who is low in both. My older dd is only low in PSI. Her WMI was around the 95th percentile which was nearly in line with her other abilities. She has been well able to achieve very highly in school with just some accommodations for a little extra time in a few areas.
Dd10, on the other hand, had the exact same score are your ds on VCI although the 15 and 17 were transposed (15 for comp and 17 for similarities, and 19 for vocab). She was also in the 99th for PRI, which overall makes her GAI higher than her sister's. She doesn't appear anywhere as able in a school setting, though, and I do wonder if having average WMI and PSI rather than just one lower might be part of her issue.
She was recently dx with ADD and anxiety. The way I am coming to think about it over the years of seeing my girls (hopefully not wrongly so!), is that VCI and PRI tell you the child's potential or intellectual ability whereas WMI and PSI give him/her the ability to express that potential. Both WMI and PSI can be dropped to calculate GAI b/c they are less of a part of the general ability, but they are important if you want to be able to show that you have that ability. For a child with weaknesses in both, it really is hard to appear as able as you are. I know that my younger dd has had a lot more academic frustration than her sister.
eta: I've also known a very few kids with higher WMI and/or PSI than the other two (average in VCI and PRI) who are also quite high achieving and ided as gifted despite fairly average FSIQ scores. Speed and memory can make a child appear more able than he is b/c he can remember the info and feed it back on a test, for instance, even if the conceptual understanding is lesser.
Last edited by Cricket2; 01/05/11 06:28 AM.
