Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Comparisions of Reynolds versus WISC IV

I am looking for input regarding how Reynolds compares to WISC IV. This is for my oldest who has taken WISC a half dozen times over the years (complicated medical history) but was administered Reynolds for the first time recently. Obviously, I am very familiar with WISC but have limited knowledge of Reynolds. It looks like the CIX on the Reynolds which combines the VIX and the NIX is comparable to GAI on the WISC which combines VCI and PRI but how well do they correlate? It appears that the VIX like the VCI represents crystallized knowledge whereas the NIX and the PRI represents fluid reasoning but do each measure their respective areas equally well.

There is a Composite Memory Index on the Reynolds which is not incorporated to form a FSIQ equivalent. How comparable is that to the WMI on the WISC? There was no processing speed measurement and the psychologist indicated that Dr. Reynolds felt that it was not useful to combine processing speed with the other measurements. She also indicated that the fluency measures on the Woodcock Johnson Achievement would tell you what you need to know regarding processing speed.

I don't know anything about the Reynolds so can't help you there, but I do know from our ds' experience that a child who has low processing scores on the WISC will most likely also have anomalously low scores on the WJ-III Achievement fluency tests - because they are timed and rely on handwriting, same as the processing speed tests on the WISC. The thing is, if you have a child who scores low on those fluency tests (WJ-III Achievement) chances are you're going to want to know *why* and having scores from a full ability test that tests those skills (such as the WISC or WJ-III Cognitive) helps clarify the larger picture of *why* the scores are low (it doesn't typically give all the info you need, but it's a very helpful piece of the puzzle).

polarbear

The WISC is given over hours, and the Reynolds is given in about 40 minutes, so that should be an indicator of how the two compare. The Reynolds is designed to give a rough estimate, and the WISC is designed to give a more complete analysis.

I believe this is the info you're looking for regarding RIAS - WISC IV correlation: study.

Thanks, polarbear. Your approach/reasoning is certainly correct. However, in DS' case, we are actually going the opposite direction as we already know why the scores are low so are only monitoring how low they are.

Thanks for the link. At this point, I am too cheap to pay $50 for the two articles. Since there were only 6 subtests on the RIAS and 10 subtests on the WISC, it does make sense that it is much shorter. By the way, the WISC can often be completed within an hour and a half.