Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment WPPSI test result - need help explain

My daughter is 5 yrs 5 months when she took the WPPSI (III rd edition).

From her report, it shows that significant difference between her Verbal index score and processing speed, as well as big gap between performance index and processing speed. Does anyone know what difference indicate?

Many thanks for your attention and feedback!

Below are her detailed scores:
FSIQ-134
Verbal Index (VI)-131
Performance Index (PI)-135
Processing Speed Index (PSI)- 119
General Language Composite (GLC)-125

DISCREPANCY COMPARISON INDICATING A SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE IN
INDEX SCORES
Statistical Significant Level .05
VERBAL IQ-131
PROCESSING SPEED-119
DIFFERENCE-12
CRITICAL VALUE-10.18
SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE-YES
PERFORMANCE IQ-135
PROCESSING SPEED-119
DIFFERENCE-16
CRITICAL VALUE-10.99
SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE-YES

Welcome threepeas! Someone more knowledgeable will be along in a moment, but let me just say that it's really common for kids to have much lower scores on processing speed than on the other subareas - pretty sure your DD's isn't that large a discrepancy by comparison with some we've seen! You may want to watch out for stuff like her having trouble with timed maths facts tests while being able to do complex problems, but it's not hugely worrying.

I'm not familiar with the WPSSI so I can't help you specifically, but fwiw processing speed is often lower than VIQ and PRI on the WISC-IV - most of the time it doesn't mean anything, other times if the discrepancy is large enough it can be a sign of either learning disabilities or simply a bottleneck in processing speed that can frustrate an intellectually gifted child.

Were there any subtest scores included with the testing? If more than one subtest is used with the WPSSI to determine Processing Speed it might be helpful to see whether or not one particular subtest was lower than others - that in particular might point to a potential challenge. You might also want to look and see if there is any significant scatter among the other subtest scores (scatter being differences larger than 1 SD) - children who have learning disabilities etc often have a lot of scatter in subtest scores.

FWIW, my ds has a disability (developmental coordination disorder and an expressive language disorder) which impacts his ability to produce written expression and impacts his fine motor skills in a significant way, and he has a significant difference in his processing speed index vs VIQ and PRI on the WISC - but it's much larger than your dd's gap. I'd watch for the things ColinsMum mentioned, however - fwiw, we didn't discover our ds' disability until testing at the end of 2nd grade, after he'd become so upset at school that he was having panic attacks and overall was a very anxiety-filled child with clueless parents. Ironically he'd had ability testing when he was 5 as part of a school district gifted program entry requirement; that testing showed a similar gap in scores and the psych who did the testing didn't think anything of it at all other than to tell us that he was a "slowpoke with a pencil". In hindsight I wish we'd realized that the gap could be telling us something so that we could have understood that he was struggling at school those first few years and wasn't just a quirky bored gifted kid goofing off.

polarbear

First, disclaimer, I am not a testing expert and am only providing an interpretation based on my DS6's WPPSI results in comparison to yours - my DS6 was the exact same age, 5 y 5 mo, when he took his WPPSI test.

His scores were FSIQ 130, 137 verbal, 123 performance, and 102 processing. We didn't get a GLC. The processing speed fell at the 55th percentile, meaning average. Your DD's gap between processing and highest other subtest is quite a bit smaller, and puts her processing speed much farther up on the second half of the bell curve. I'm not sure if they gave you percentiles associated with her processing speed or not, but that might be helpful for you to see. Even with our subtantial gap, our DS is still "average" in processing speed.

In regards to our DS's gap, the testing specialist told us at the time that a) kids rarely "grow out" of having a lower processing speed, so this gap would likely remain throughout his school years; b) it would likely mean that his written output and ability to take notes in class would be much slower than his cognitive abilities; c) this may lead to frustration on his part as he gets older, that he can't get his thoughts out on paper as quickly as his brain is working; and d) she recommends the following strategies to parents whose kids have this type of gap: allowing them to dictate while the parents write down the thoughts, and doing a lot of computer/keyboard typing instead of writing once they get old enough.

We didn't fully understand it at the time, but now that he's in first grade, we are noticing it, and her strategies make sense. The gap relates to the ability to rapidly take notes, the ability to take timed tests, and the ability to complete assignments within imposed time constraints. Although our DS's scores are average, they don't match his cognitive abilities, and his teacher is noticing it. She told us that she's always surprised how long it takes him to get things down on paper, and how basic what he writes is, because she knows he's capable of much more. Thankfully, she said she stepped back and realized that just because his brain is capable of much more doesn't mean his writing has to be stellar too. It was helpful for her when we explained the difference in processing speed versus verbal/performance intelligence, and how that affects his writing. I'm digressing, but my point is that we ARE seeing the gap playing out now that he's in first grade, but his writing is still on par with the rest of the class. We're also about to test him for dyslexia, and it's possible that his low symbol search score (50th percentile) was an indicator of that - but right now that's just a hunch, as he's reading at/slightly above grade level.

Your DD's gap is substantially smaller, but if you start to see some of these things playing out as she gets older, I think our testing specialist's strategies, along with ones others mentioned regarding timed tests, etc., may be helpful for you to have in your back pocket.

I have a 2E child, her gaps between indexes are real gaps, but my 2nd DD, when she did the WPPSI had a 42 point cap between her VCI and PSI - which is way bigger than the gap you are looking at, and it was purely disinterest in doing the coding exercise.

It was not explained to her that the coding exercise was a race or that it mattered how much she did. So she did 2 of each example, which she clearly felt demonstrated mastery, and then sat and looked at the piece of paper for the remainder of the test. She scored a perfect 10 - in half the available time. The tester did NOT seem to see that this is what was happening and would not have mentioned it if I had not seen it with my own eyes. Our tester clearly was not used to working with HG kids.

The psychologist should be able to answer your questions about how to interpret the scores.

FWIW (and I'm not a professional) I've seen a lot of scores for gifted kids on this forum, and a lower PSI is not at all unusual. Sometimes, it's because GT kids are more meticulous and not speedy with the timed tasks for those subtests. It can also be related to fine motor issues. Unless you have noticed everyday behaviors that you think might be related to lower processing speed, I wouldn't be too concerned about it.

Hi--I'm a school psychologist and my take is this: While the difference between your daughter's Processing Speed score and her scores on the Verbal and Performance Indexes of the WPPSI are statistically significant, the information is not that clinically useful. She is one point away from having a "superior" score on the Processing Speed Index, as she performed better than 90% of her same-aged peers on these tasks. While her Processing Speed score is a "relative" weakness for her, she still has excellent skills in this area! As the previous poster stated, "I wouldn't be too concerned about it".