Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment New; looking for help decoding WJ III test scores

Hello,
My son (age 5 years, 1 month) was recently tested for the WJ-III. I am looking for help to decode some of his sub test scores. Based on these scores, would you say he is gifted or just academically advanced ?

Here are his Broad Reading scores

Broad Reading

Passage comprehension : 137
Basic Reading skills 172
-- Letter Word : 168
-- Word Attack : 159

Brief Math
-- Calculation skills : 120
-- Math Reasoning: 131
-- Quantitative concepts: 131
-- Applied problems: 121

The person who tested him remarked he had very asynchronous skills. If it helps, it said that his reading level is that of a 9 year old, and that his math skills are equivalent of a 6.5 year old.


I am wondering if I should request any academic enrichment through the school district. My son tends to not do the work or space out, if the work is repetitive (for example, the letter tracing pages). However, he seems to learn things fairly
easily.


Thanks in advance.

No one ?

My son seems really bored with the worksheets at school. He says he prefers hands-on learning. Socially, though, I think school is the best place for him to be. He has started questioning why he must talk about letters and letter sounds when he can read so well. He also likes math -- and says all they do is counting at school, and not real math.

I do try and give him interesting things to do after school, but I am wondering if I should ask for some sort of enrichment based on his reading/math scores.

Please advise.

Thanks

Sorry no one got back to you. I'm not sure that you can tell whether a kiddo is gifted or not based on achievement scores, but I would definitely suggest seeking more of appropriate academics for yours. First discuss things with the teacher, and ask if they do any grouping for reading/math, etc. If they don't group in the classroom or if there's no other kids at his level, ask if there's any chance he could join the first (or maybe second?) graders for reading and math.

Along with Tamara Fisher, I agree that school should be about learning new things. http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/unwrapping_the_gifted/2012/09/what_it_really_boils_down_to.html Granted, kids learn a lot of other stuff in kindy (i'm assuming that's where your son is? I might have missed that), but if your kid already knows all the academic stuff they're teaching in his grade, the school should provide something else.

Was your testing done at the school or outside? Not all schools will look at outside testing, but the WJ is a common one in the school system, so maybe they will work with you if you share the scores. (The teacher won't care about scores, but maybe the school gifted coordinator/psychologist/principal will help you if you ask for advice on what to do with the scores, along with your son's complaints about the work he's doing and desire for more.)

ETA - where are my manners.... Welcome! Hopefully others will chime in with their experiences with the WJ and advocacy too.

Thanks, St Pauli girl.
Testing was done at school and he is in Kindy.

He has always been curious and goes through a lot of phases (solar system, dinosaurs, geography etc) -- and seems to retain everything in his head. He is also very sciency. Socially, he seems somewhat of a misfit, because very few five year olds seem to share his interests. I will ask about more appropriate academics, and update.

Welcome to the forum mom2one! I agree with St Pauli Girl that it's not straightforward to be able to tell if a child is intellectually gifted based on achievement scores such as WJ-III when that's the only thing you're looking at. These types of achievement tests are made up of relatively short subtests that focus on very specific sets of skills, which is why you'll see large variations in achievement in some children. I also think that tests such as the WJ-III are more likely to be influenced by environment in the very early years of school than ability tests - if a child has been to preschool or been exposed to some basic reading and math skills, they will score much better than a child who's been left to imaginary play all day, even if they have the same IQ.

Another potential gotcha with this type of achievment test, if you see scatter in the scores (like your ds has) - it's helpful to look at what exactly is required on each test - is the question read to the student or does he/she have to read it themselves? Does the student reply verbally or with handwriting? Is the test timed? Sometimes in young children, or in children with disabilities, dips in test scores reflect challenges with those issues rather than actual knowledge.

Re should you advocate for differentiated work for your ds in school? Absolutely! If your child can do the work they're being given easily, if they're getting bored, no matter whether or not they have a "gifted" test score, as a parent you should try your best to get them work that is meaningful and challenging. One of the best bits of advice I've ever had came from a college-aged teen who was working in the playroom where I dropped off my kids when they were little while I worked out. She was a "gifted" book in my hands - one of the usuals, maybe the Davidson's book, I have no idea at this point, but it was when I was stuck advocating for my ds when he was very young in early elementary. The girl asked if I had a gifted child, which makes me uncomfortable - I hadn't meant for anyone to even see the book, I just wanted to read while I was on the treadmill lol. I mumbled something about trying to advocate at school and she gave me the HUGEST pep talk about advocating - she said she and her sister were both gifted and had been bored to tears in school so many times, and that whenever that happened her mom was at school advocating for them - she also added that in their case, it didn't do *much* good (it did help some), but the fact it didn't help wasn't what mattered - what made a lasting impression for her was that her mom was always there, standing up to whoever, advocating for what she needed, and that in turn taught her to stand up for herself

Best wishes,

polarbear

This does make a lot of sense. He did have an abbreviated version of an IQ test performed. Apparently he scored in the superior section in Verbal and Performance, but did not do well (average) in processing speed. The person who tested him said he probably should do a full IQ test when he is 6 or older. He is a young 5 now

He has had a lot of exposure to books, and numbers and sciencey stuff. He has had part time preschool experience (3 days a week, 2.5 hrs a day) as well. He started reading around 3 years, 8 months or thereabouts -- he scored exceptionally well in the WJ test on reading.


This is awesome. It does matter a whole deal, I think. At the same time, I am just afraid that his teacher may be viewing me as one of those parents who thinks their kid does no wrong and is just smart and brilliant and all of that.

He is also taking a very long time to color things. His K seems to focus a whole lot on coloring. So far, he has flat out refused to do one worksheet (he said it was too babyish), but has atleast attempted to do all other worksheets (except for the coloring).

Thanks again.