Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment WISC results!!!

Got a call from the psychologist who did DS7's WISC the other day. She said he's the highest kid she's ever tested in 30 years of practice.

FSIQ 150
Perceptual 153
Verbal 142
Working memory 132
Processing 126

This is a verbal report over the phone, and she did mention that he topped out a couple of the subtests. We have a little more testing to do (dysgraphia, attention stuff) before I get a final written report.

But WOW!

And you all are about the only people I can tell, other than the grandparents. :-)

Indeed, wow!

This is kind of a crazy question and not really related to your DS, as those are fantastic results, but do "they" just ignore guidelines about standard deviations between indexes when you have indexes into the 150s? You've got 2Ds between Perceptual and Processing there, which would normally be flagged right? I know you have mentioned dysgraphia, and that would certainly impact processing, but I am of the impression PSI and WMI would rarely go a much higher than low to mid 130s? So there would most often be a pretty big gap once VCI or PRI get into the 150s?

Again, Wow!

I don't know. She has more testing to do with him, we don't go back for a few weeks. I'll have to ask, but it's hard to get a diagnosis for something that you score at "only" 96th percentile in . . . so we may never really know.

That's wonderful!!
I'm not sure if you have read about extended norms and GAI calculations for the WISC IV on this forum. But since the psychologist has never tested anyone that high, he/she may not be aware of them.

Here is the link for the extended norms for the WISC IV.
http://www.pearsonassessments.com/N...C-8E4A114F7E1F/0/WISCIV_TechReport_7.pdf

Your son may have earned more than the max 19 scaled points for a particular subset (looking at his scores in Perceptual would be a good bet) and this report explains how to count beyond 19. You may want to bring this up with the pschologist and ask to look if he earned more than a 19 and have it recalculated using the extended norms. Not too many psychologist have experience or know about it because most of them do not test kids at the upper limits of the test.

GAI may be useful as well as the score takes into account the Perceptual and Verbal.
Here is the link for it: http://www.pearsonassessments.com/N...DA-05888C7CC082/0/80720_WISCIV_Hr_r4.pdf

That would be my advise to get the best picture you can from the WISC IV for your DS. There are other here who know a lot more than I do, but when we retested DS7 it helped get a better picture having the extended norms and GAI calculated.

Thanks, I will ask her. Since I'd been concerned about the WISC at the outset, she did make a point of saying that he hadn't hit the ceiling of the test; I guess he got a question or two wrong on those subtests that he scored 19?

FWIW, the psychologist came recommended by another educational psychologist -- he said he wasn't the person to test DS, and referred me to her. But if HG kids are only 1 in a thousand, even an experienced ed psy will only see a few over 150 in her whole career, I would imagine.

I expect we'll get more info when she's done testing, and I'll get a full written report. Will definitely ask for a GAI.

Thanks for the links -- they were helpful. I was a psych major in college, but the technicalities of these tests always baffle me.

So I finally got a written report.

Composite Scores Summary
VCI 142
PRI 153
WMI 132
PSI 126

FSIQ 150
GAI 158

Verbal Comprehension Subtests
Similarities 19
Vocabulary 17
Comprehension 15

Perceptual Reasoning Subtests
Block Design 18
Picture COncepts 19
Matrix Reasoning 19

Working Memory Subtests
Digit Span 15
Letter-Number sequencing 16

Processing Speed Subtests
Coding 14
Symbol Search 15

What does it mean when the processing tests are a standard deviation below the GAI tests? At any rate, maybe it'll help us with the school. Already forwarded for the DYS appication.

I'm sure that one of the testing experts will comment here soon. From the looks of your report, your tester did not apply extended norms (?) Our tester wouldn't officially calculate the extended norms because she did not believe that they had been sufficiently vetted. Yours may feel the same way but you can calculate them yourself if you have the raw subtest scores. Your DS's scores may be even higher. At the same time, I don't know if you gain much from calculating them -- he's already DYS level.

My Dd's scores were somewhat similar to your DC's, though her VCI was only 98th percentile. We were looking at 2e issues so we specifically asked about the WM and PS scores. Our tester thought that these sections did not indicate any reason for concern. She said that DD displayed strength in these areas and we should not consider them a weakness just because of the relative difference to her PRI scores which were exceptional. FWIW, looking at the WISC technical report,the test doesn't really have extensions with respect to processing speed scores so you can only go so high, i.e. my DD had 65/65 on the coding section and a 19 on the coding subtest is as high as you can go even with the extended norms.

She specifically told me that he didn't max out any of the subtests, so I'm assuming that she had a reason not to calculate the extended scores. I had to nudge her a little just to get the GAI, which is 8 points higher than his FSIQ.

I also wonder, as I always do, to what extent the relative weakness in processing is due to his relative weakness in writing, and of course there's the attention issue -- the processing portion of the test is a little less interesting, and his attention tends to drift pretty quickly with that type of mundane activity.

Nevertheless, I think this score is about right. He's very bright, but not the kind of 160+ kid who goes to college at 11 or 12.

Am I the only one in this forum who thinks of Sheldon from "Big Bang Theory" a lot when contemplating my child? I love that show.

I'm glad you were able to get the results and add them to your DYS app!
I had to laugh at your last sentence about Sheldon. My dad tells me every week after he watches it that he envisions our son in 10-12 years being exactly like Sheldon lol

Not my kid, but I rarely hear a Sheldon line I couldn't envision coming out of my niece's mouth. Bazinga.