Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment WPPSI/WISC extended norms?

Hi! I'm still trying to figure out the best test for my daughter (and am trying to figure out when to test) and had a couple of questions about extended norms on testing, and figured I'd take advantage of the forum's collective expertise!

Does anyone know if the new WPPSI IV will have extended norms (and is it worth waiting for it to come out to test)? WPPSI III doesn't have extended norms, right? Will DYS accept both the WPPSI IV and III, or stop accepting the III?

And, since I'm on the topic, does anyone know when/if a WISC V is coming out? Will it, too, have extended norms? I heard that the WISC IV does-- is this correct? Do extended norms really make a difference in testing gifted kids? Thank you!

How old is your child? It's my understanding that a lot of highly gifted kids hit the test ceiling for the WPPSI III as they get closer to the age cutoff. I think that it is 7 but you could double check. WPPSI IV should be on its way. Gifted Development Center did some work re-norming the WPSSI this spring. I don't know how DYS handles this transition.

As for the WISC IV, it does have extended norms that do help to further differentiate the top 99.9 percent. My understanding is that it has a much higher ceiling than the WPPSI so if your kid is old enough, it probably would be the better choice. WISC V also is rumored to be out soon.

FWIW, My DD had PR scores that went into the extended norms on the WISC-IV. The tester did not report the extended norms because she did not feel that they had been sufficiently vetted at the time. She did give us all of the raw subtest scores so we could figure it out on our own. For our purposes, the extended norms did not make a huge difference. DD already met the cutoff criteria that we needed. If you think that your child may need the extended norms reported, you may want to discuss this issue with your tester and make sure that they will give you an official score with the extended norms applied.

I took a quick peak at your previous posts - I think your dd is 2 1/2 - 3 years old, is that correct? And bilingual? I think if it was my dd, I'd wait to test unless you had a pressing reason to test (such as a program you wanted her to get into). I think she's still too young for DYS (I didn't double-check but I think it starts at 5?). Preschool age is such a fun age for our kiddos - they are usually so eager to learn and so full of questions! I'd enjoy the time with your dd now, let her be exposed to lots of new experiences, and think about testing down the road in a few years when she's a little more mature, when other people will be a little bit more likely to believe the test results.

polarbear

Hi! Yes, she will be three in a month, and learned English in September (she was a monolingual Spanish speaker until then). I think you're right on all fronts-- DYS would be the reason we would test, and I'm pretty sure it starts at 5. She's having a great time in her very play based preschool, even though she just taught herself to read (not something school or her parents taught her). It's a darling age. I think that my anxious posts are mostly trying to get a handle on the situation, "figure things out" "get ahead of this," etc.

My parents met in Mensa, I ceilinged an IQ test in second grade and my schooling was a train wreck. I was shy, socially miserable, had terrible citizenship grades, and was bored out of my mind in school, even when I got sent to the GATE program in third grade. I'm scared because she's so much like how I was (except, thankfully, so far less shy and has a sunny personality). The fact that this kind of thing might be hereditary terrifies me. Clearly, I've got my own issues to work out around this. I just want her to get the help I never got, which it seems like DYS provides.

There's just not a lot on bilingual kids and gifted testing, either. My husband and his family are also super bright, but no testing was ever done on that side-- they're from S. America.

Despite my anxiety, I am having a great deal of fun with her-- she's a blast.

And thanks so much to both of you for the information-- I'm just trying to gather as much "data" on all of this as possible. Just my way of coping.