Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment WISC-IV and WAIT-II Test Results

Hey I would love some feedback on my son's tests scores. These were taken last summer when he was 8 years 10 months old. I have applied him to DYS and am in review for July. We also had new achievement testing last week and should get those results on Tues.

WISC-IV:
VCI: 138 99th
PRI: 143 99.8th
WMI: 94 34th
PSI: 88 21st
FSIQ: 126 96th
GAI: 150 >99.9th

I have all the subtest scores too if that helps. It was noted that the GAI is a more true reflection of his IQ.

WAIT-II:

Reading: 126 96th
Mathematics: 160 >99.9
Written Language: 99 47th
Oral Language: 117 87th
Total: 130 98th

Again I have all the subtests scores if that would help.

Would love feedback on what you see when you read these results. Since we are boderline on the minimums do you think we have much chance with DYS? These tests were last summer after 2nd grade...he "technically" (he has been homeschooled for 2 years, so we work at our pace) just finished 3rd grade and the new achievement test this summer was to check into skipping to 5th as he is entering into public schools. We are contemplating a 2 grade skip in Math into Pre-Algebra which is the 6th grade honors math.

Love Any and All feedback...thank you in advance.

Welcome. These are the qualification criteria for DYS:
http://www.davidsongifted.org/young...holars___Qualification_Criteria_384.aspx

Your son qualifies based on his scores, so he has a good chance. I haven't heard of anyone's child not being admitted who was qualified on scores.

Thank You lucounu...since it says Minimum requirements I didn't know if it would be enough or not.

There are such big difference in his VCI/PRI and his WMI/PSI I didn't know if that would hurt him. Does anyone have much experience with such a big difference. He does not have ADHD that we notice at all.

Anyone have kids that did grade acceleration that had similar scores?

Thanks again

I think it's not abnormal for a highly gifted child to have lower working memory and/or processing speed. Those are on the low side, but the speed might have been just because your son was taking his time to avoid mistakes. Is he the meticulous type, or do you believe he was being extra careful?

I think real experts will happen along and give their opinion, but I wouldn't hold off on a grade skip because of these scores alone. The working memory and processing speed are still within a normal range, even if those scores are accurate.

Think of it this way: would a child, in the grade to which your son would be skipped, be unable to perform if they had a similar working memory and processing speed? Your son's in the same boat, except that he's brilliant. In addition he is probably at least at the proper grade level academically to support the skip right now.

Just to show deeper into those 2 categories:

WMI:
Digit Span: 8 25th
Letter-Number Sequencing: 10 50th
Arithmetic: 19 99.9th

PSI:
Coding: 8 25th
Symbol Search: 8 25th
Cancellation: 9 37th

Figure I might as well post them all....

VCI:
Similarities: 17 99th
Vocabulary: 14 91st
Comprehension: 18 99.6th
Information: 12 75th

PRI:
Block Design: 16 98th
Picture Concepts: 18 99.6th
Matrix reasoning: 17 99th
Picture Completion: 12 75th

Thanks again for all opinions I know it says he is gifted but I look at a lot of the stories on DYS and feel like that can't be my kid. So honestly where on this gifted threshold do you think he is with these scores?? It feels a little overwhelming at times

Oh and the tester did note that his desire to have everything correct did hinder his speed some. Even on areas where speed mattered but spelling didn't he would stop erase and rewrite something spelled wrong even when she repeatedly told him not to worry about spelling.

She also noted that he didn't do as well on tasks that required less thinking. When he was more challenged he was more engaged and did better.

I would say with those scores that he absolutely falls into the PG range. The low processing speed and working memory might "mask" his giftedness to some extent, since many people associate mental "quickness" and fast retrieval with intelligence.

I think most on here use this chart, and this is in regards to the IQ score, not the achievement. The GAI would place him in the PG range.

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/highly_profoundly.htm

Sharon, it seems to me that a GAI of 150 would be fairly rare even among a group of children that tend to score in the 130s, and it fits with the math achievement score of 160. I'm not saying you haven't seen some children with similar scores, but if you have "quite a few" you are in statistically rare territory. As for "the PG range", it seems to be a matter of some vagueness and disagreement.

Sharon,

I would ballpark the PG range at around a full standard deviation above the usual gifted cutoff.

I'm looking at the WISC numbers more than the WIAT here, especially because low processing speed and working memory can significantly impact fluency scores and bring down the overall achievement numbers, but they are not strongly g-loaded.

The VCI of 138 is more than half a standard deviation above the usual gifted cutoff score of 130. The PRI is even higher. It is rare to have both VCI and PRI this high, which is why the GAI is even higher than either of the subscores. The GAI, which is essentially a Full-scale IQ taking out the effect of processing speed and working memory, is 150, 1.33 standard deviations above the common gifted cutoff score. Most kids in gifted programs tend to cluster around the low 130's for the excellent reason that there are many more kids scoring there than in the high 130's, 140's, and above.