Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Advice on WISC IV results

Hello,

My 9 years and 10 months daughter has just been tested using the WISC IV. She came out high in three of the areas and much lower, but above average, on processing speed.

I am wondering two things:

Should a GAI have been derived/what would it be?
As she reached the ceiling in two of the subtests and 18 on two others, could a higher IQ have been extrapolated?

Here are the details:

Full scale IQ 147

VCI 146
Similarities 19
Vocabulary 18
Comprehension 16

PRI 137
Block design 14
Picture concepts 16
Matrix reasoning 18

WMI 144
Digit span 19
Letter-No Sequencing 16

PRI 118
Coding 12
Symbol Search 14

Any feedback welcomed.

Thank you very much!

Yes, her GAI should have been calculated and it would be 151 and, yes, her GAI and FSIQ both might come out higher depending on how high the scores were that fed into those 18s and 19s. My dd12's profile looked similar but with all of the scores somewhat lower (high on the same three just not as high as your dd's and lower on PSI -- lower than your dd's). Like your dd, my dd's FSIQ and GAI only differed by a few points b/c the WMI was also similarly high to PRI and VCI.

eta: With your dd's scores, I'd definitely look into applying to DYS!

It's not that unusual for gifted students to have a lower PRI relative to other scores. As far as the GAI vs the full scale IQ - I'm not sure that it is needed in that the FSIQ is very high and I would suspect she'd qualify for anything you are looking at.

Thank you for those replies. Maybe I shouldn't worry about trying to get a few extra points by asking for the GAI or extended scoring. I don't know. It's just that I don't like ceilings and was hoping to get a real picture of the extent of her strengths and weaknesses.

I think that, although her processing speed is not low, it is significantly lower than the other areas and this does cause her some frustration.

I am in the UK, so I'm afraid I would not be able to join the DYS although something like that is sorely needed! Is there any international project?

Thanks again!

Unfortunately not that I know of . My dd's processing speed was, like I mentioned, lower than your dd's but technically not "low" in that it was about average. However, like your dd, it does impact her. She's more of a deep thinker than a kid who powers through everything and wants more fast. Her insights and analyses are where she really shines. School accelerated classes that rely on doing more work faster aren't the best fit for her, though.

Amyvictoria-
Hi and Welcome! Your daughter's testing came in with really unusually high scores. And it's my understanding that it is even more unusual to score that high at her "advanced" age as there isn't as much headroom on the test. I completely understand your interest in the extended scoring; there is something about having the "correct" numbers, even if they wouldn't make a difference in how you formulate your plan with respect to her education. With 2x 18 and one 19, I think the extended norms should have/ could have been used. I am not familiar enough with WISC to know if they would have made a difference to her score. I think you would need her "raw" scores to calculate them, though. (I think)

How is school going for your daughter? I hope you all have found a way to keep her challenged!

I hope you are getting lots of ideas and accumulated wisdom from reading this board. I think I spent a full 40 hour week using the search function and educating myself when I first found this site!

The GAI is 151.

Welcome amyvictoria - always good to see more UK posters here. Looking forward to hearing more about your DD. (I'm in Scotland with a DS7. He has a great school situation for now, but I'm not sure about senior school at all.)

Thank you. There were two 19s and two 18's. Does the digit span not count?

Yes I have spent a lot of time on this board since finding it too! Very interesting. My daughter could really do with meeting some like children, (although she does have some lovely friends).

School has been really up and down.

They have just had end of year testing and, despite the teacher knowing how clever she is, she has been given the same year 6 test as she got full matks on last year and the year before. It's ridiculous. (She is in year 5 in a uk school)Thankfully, they did decide not to test her in maths this year as, for the past year, the local high school have let her go up to them once a week to work on maths several years ahead. She loves it. That's the only real opportunity she has.

I didn't ask for it, but at the time of the recent IQ testing she also did achievemnet tests. She ceilinged on all of those getting adult level/16+ in reading, spelling, WISC mental arithmetic, BASB arithmetic.

Oh I wish there was DYS here! Colin's mum - glad to hear your son is well in school. I think DD9 has a lovely teacher, but that's not enough and DD goes through very unhappy phases and quite often says she wants to be like ... so and so in her class. If we were still in London I would home ed, but being in a rural area I'm not so sure it would be a good idea.

As another poster from the UK: what was the goal in testing? did you initiate it or was it the school?

[We actually don't currently live in the UK but it's looking likely we will move back there in the near future. We have IQ and achievement test results for our DD6 and she is grade skipped by three years in her current school, as well as working at university level with us in maths. But we haven't found any UK school, private or state, that has much understanding of her IQ/achievement test results. So I would be interested to hear if your results are going to be useful in developing e.g. some kind of GIEP for your DD...]