Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Woodcock Johnson Test of Cognitive Abilities

My 8 year old daughter will be tested next week at a Children's Hospital for a learning disability and one of the many tests they will be using to assess her is the WJ test of Cognitive Abilities. Is this an actual IQ test? How does it compare to the WISC? I've tried searching the forums but the results I come up with for Woodcock Johnson seem to be for achievement testing. Are there two types of WJ tests?

This is all uncharted territory for me and apologize if these questions have already been addressed in this forum.

Welcome mountainmom,

There are two different Woodcock Johnson tests - the WJ-III Test of Cognitive Abilities is an IQ test. It's used in our school district for IEP eligibility evaluations; our ds12 has had the WISC when tested privately and the WJ-III Cog Abs when tested for IEP eligibility for LD at school. Our school district psych told us that the district chose to switch to the WJ-III because they feel it gives more detailed info plus it's directly tied to the WJ-III Achievement Test battery which they also use. According to the pscyh it also does not have the same ceiling issues for gifted kids that the WISC-IV does. I'm not an expert on testing, so I may not have explained that correctly, I'm going from memory re what the school pscyh told us. I feel like I am much more familiar with the WISC-IV since we had that testing through a neuropsychologist eval and were given a ton of info and input from the neuropsych re our ds' results, plus there is so much more info online in forums like these about WISC results. OTOH, I felt like we had more definitive info from the WJ-III re our ds' particular area of challenge, and our ds did score higher on the WJ-III in the areas he hit the ceiling on the WISC. When the WJ-III Cog and Achievement tests are administered together, there is a way that the scores are combined to give a child's predicted vs actual achievement which was also helpful in defining ds' area of challenge. When ds had his neuropsych eval comparing WISC-IV ability testing vs WJ-III achievement testing, you can see the same patterns of asynchronous achievement but they took a bit more analyzing and charting to really get the full picture out of it.

What kind of learning disability do you suspect?

polarbear

ps - also meant to mention, my knowledge of the WJ-III Cog Abilities test is also somewhat limited simply because that testing was through our school, and our school didn't give us anywhere near the type of analysis ds' neuropsych did, and we weren't able to ask the same type of detailed questions of the school (well, we could ask but the school had no answers they were willing to share!). You'll probably be able to ask as many questions as you can think of with the Children's Hospital eval as well as get much more info on the test results

Thank you polarbear for the very thorough response. At first I was hesitant to hear the tester would be testing on the WJ III, seems like so many here are tested with the WISC. Based on your reply I think this will be a very good test for my dd. We're not entirely sure what is going on, we suspect it could be dyslexia but she also fits ADHD, auditory processing difficulties, and dyscalculia. If I recall correctly the other tests she will be given are:

Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing
Test of Word Reading Efficiency
Gray Oral Reading Test
and I believe the WJ achievement test

She knows that she will be tested, she just doesn't know we have an actual appointment now. She is an anxious child and I am concerned that if I tell her too far in advance she will stress herself out. I may even wait til the morning of the appointment because she already has a hard time falling asleep as it is.

My son was given that test at a children's hospital to diagnose his dyslexia at the same age. Unfortunately, I didn't know I should have asked for an actual IQ number at the time as well, so we didn't get it. We later got the WISC to get an IQ score. The tester at the hospital did say he was highly gifted, and his scores had a 60 point range, so his dyslexia was quite easy to diagnose.

Our tester told us to tell my son that someone was going to ask him questions that would give us information about how he learns best.

My son took the W-J III. So the scores don't count as IQ scores, they just look like IQ scores? I only have subtest scores, not a general IQ score or any kind of mean. Does this have a pretty high ceiling, or not? How do I get the grade equivalent?

Actually, the WISC-IV is not a Woodcock-Johnson Test, however, it is similar. WJ-III and WISC-IV are both commonly used by professionals to gauge a subjects Intelligence Quotient.

The WJ-III, published in 2001, is the third and latest edition of the Woodcock�Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities. It was first developed in 1977 by Richard Woodcock and Mary E. Bonner Johnson, then revised in 1989. The typical battery of Woodcock-Johnson Tests consists of 7 evaluations, and an additional 14 are included in the extended battery. The WJ-III examines factors of Cattell-Horn-Carroll Theory such as Comprehension-Knowledge, Long-Term Retrieval, Visual-Spatial Thinking, Auditory Processing, Fluid Reasoning, Processing Speed, Short-Term Memory and Quantitative Knowledge and Reading-Writing Ability.

The WISC-IV, or Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children 4th Edition, published in 2004, was originally developed by Dr. David Wechsler. It is an individually administered intelligence test for children between the ages of 6 and 16. The first WISC was an adaptation of several subtests contained in the Wechsler�Bellevue Intelligence Scale and several subtests that were designed specifically for it. The subtests were divided into Verbal and Performance scales and evaluated a subject's Verbal IQ (VIQ), Performance IQ (PIQ), and Full Scale IQ (FSIQ). The WISC was revised in 1974 and published as the WISC-R. The third edition, WISC-III, was published in 1991, and contained an additional subtest designed to measure processing speed. The WISC-III also included scores for Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI), Perceptual Organization Index (POI), Freedom from Distractibility Index (FDI), and Processing Speed Index (PSI)in addition to the original VIQ, PIQ, and FSIQ scores. Subjects that age 16 or older are usually evaluated using the current edition of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), the WAIS-IV, published in 2008.

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