Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Wisc IV Scores Question/Inexperienced Sch. Psyc.

Last year when my son was in 2nd grade the school psycologist gave hime the wisc-iv and told me she had never tested a gifted child before. She could not tell me what his gai was after the test and did not feel it was necessary to look into it. Would her inexperience effect his test scores? How do I determine the gai? He excels in every subject. The school does not know what to do with him but does not feel grade skipping is an option. They think he would need to skip at least a few grades, I agree with that from knowing him but I'm not seeing that from his test score. He scored poorly in the comprehension subtest. At the beginning of the school year he was doing poorly on the comprehension portion of his class tests but then the teacher realized his answers were way outside the box and he has an odd way of looking at things. Not knowing what kind of things are asked on the wisc iv, would this effect his comprehension score? Processing Speed was also considerably lower than other areas?
Also, what does the scaled score (145) vs. composite score mean (134)? What does raw score vs. scaled score mean?
I'm just really at a loss on what to do with him and need help. He constantly wants to learn and study everything but I can only do so much for him at home and he cries about school because they don't give him anything to challenge him.
Please Please advice?

lmauro if you are able to post more of the scores you have access too there will be someone here that can hopefully tell you what each score relates to or how they all work together.

From what you have said I am guessing that the 145 is maybe his VCI or PRI score and the Composite score is his FSIQ? Suggesting that maybe one or more of the four main sections was not as high as the VCI? It's hard to know without more numbers.

The Comprehension section of the WISC is not like a reading comprehension test, it's more a verbal/social comprehension test.

The scaled score is not his IQ score or the total score for any of the IQ index scores. Essentially, you get raw scores and then scaled scores from those raw scores. The scaled scores are dependent upon the age of the tester. The total of all of the scaled scores from each of the four indices is then used to calculate a composite score or full scale IQ score (FSIQ). 134 is likely his FSIQ, which is right at the 99th percentile.

The GAI is something that you could calculate yourself (or we could help you do) if you have all of the scaled scores for each index. The 145 includes the PRI, VCI, WMI, and PSI indices. We'd need the scaled scores for just the PRI and VCI to get a GAI and it should only be relevant if he did much worse on either the PSI (processing speed) or WMI (working memory) index.

The comprehension part where you mention he did worse than other parts is part of the VCI (verbal comprehension) index and it isn't testing what it sounds like. My dd12 did much worse on that segment as well and it, like you mention of your ds, was likely due to her being a very out of the box thinker. It may also have had something to do with intentionally being "funny" or socially deviant. Comprehension tests social comprehension (i.e. - what would you do with a letter you find on the ground addressed and stamped?). My dd seemed to enjoy saying that she was going to steal all kinds of stuff although she also may have come up with some truly unique ideas that didn't comport with the test designer's ideas. Perhaps your ds also had unique ideas.

As to the tester having no experience with gifted kids, that could have impacted the scores. Whether they came out too low is hard to say, though, but it is certainly possible. Do you need higher scores for any reason? 134 really should get him into any GT programs that he is interested in taking part in save for DYS.

As to the grade skip not being sufficient so let's not do it at all thought of the school, I'd really disagree. My one dd who is grade skipped (not the out of the box one) could easily have been doing college courses in many subjects by the time she was about 11, but the one year acceleration really was a good thing. No, it didn't put her at her readiness level in most subjects, although it was probably enough in math, her weakest subject. On the other hand, it was much better than no acceleration at all. It also helped place her in a better place socially b/c she relates better to older kids.

Ah, I see that I cross posted with Dottie, who is a much better test score expert than am I (and more concise to boot!).

Thank you. I want to try to get him involved in something for gifted children outside the school since the school refuses to do anything for him but I don't think his test scores are high enough.
Here are his test results:
Scores Summary
VCI 124
PRI 133
WMI 135
PSI 115
FSIQ 134

Subtest Scores
Similarites Raw 26 Scaled 16
Vocabulary Raw 37 Scaled 15
Comprehension Raw 18 Scaled 11

Block Design Raw 48 Scaled 16
Picture Concepts Raw 20 Scaled 15
Matrix Reason. Raw 23 Scaled 15

Digit Span Raw 20 Scaled 16
Letter Num. Seq. Raw 20 Scaled 16

Coding Raw 31 Scaled 9
Symbol Search Raw 28 Scaled 16

My concern is that his scores aren't high enough to get him involved in anything outside of school and since the school is unwilling/unable to do anything with him I feel that my only option is to involve him in outside gifted activities. Would it benefit him to be tested by an experienced tester? Or a different type of test?
Thank you for your replies.
Anyway, his scores (age 8 years 3 months) are as follows:
Scores Summary
VCI 124
PRI 133
WMI 135
PSI 115
FSIQ 134

Subtest scaled scores
Similarities 16
Vocabulary 15
Compreh. 11
Block Design 16
Pict. Conc. 15
Matrix Reas. 15
Digit Span 16
Letter Numb. 16
Coding 9
Symb. Search 16

I am by no means even close to an expert or nearly as knowledgeable as others here... But, at least in PA a FSIQ over 130 gets you a "gifted" tag and while there may be other requirements depending on the school 130 is the qualifying wisc score. Does the school not have a gifted program at all? Also, the comprehension subtest is sort of weird (imo LOL) it asks things like "why do we brush our teeth?" and the a response something like "to clean them" is worth one point and a response like "to prevent cavaties" gets 2 points. The other one I remember them asking my DS form this section was somehting like "what would you do if you saw a house on fire?" I am thinking the one point response was something like tell an adult and then the higher point response was something like "call 911." HTH you somewhat!

Thank you for your replies and advice.
The school does have an enrichment program for his grade level however it is one day a week for 45 minutes. Because he is so well behaved and causes no problem in school they have always allowed him to bring in his own work and/or reading material but most of the time he is working alone. Really just to keep him busy. For instance, last year in 2nd grade from January to March he read the entire Harry Potter series during school(except the last book- he was saving that for Spring break reading - LOL). Also, a 6th grade teacher has allowed him to work with some of his students on a project. But I feel bad for him mostly working alone or reading.

They did not do any achievements tests just the wisc-iv. Should I be requesting more?

Push for him to be in the gifted program at least he more than qualifies! Good Luck!

I am unclear: is he taking part in the 45 minute once/week enrichment program at school now? I'd agree that isn't enough, but again, it is better than nothing. You mentioned earlier that you were concerned that his scores weren't high enough to participate in gifted programs outside of school. I can't imagine that he wouldn't qualify with the scores you have here. Most gifted programs take kids either at the 95th or 98th percentile and he makes both of those cut offs.

What types of programs outside of school do you have available to you? Or, do you need some suggestions for us?