Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment What to look for in a tester/test

I saw Mamaandmore's post today and didn't want to butt in with my questions...

A while back I posted regarding my kindergarten age son's WISC/WIATT test scores. Long story short, he had high WIATT scores (147 highest) but a lower FSIQ (118 but with scatter). As the new school year is approaching, I've been hearing grumblings about going back to school. His only hope is that fist grade will be more challenging.... and I didn't have the heart to tell him. It was really sad...at the end of the school yr each kid had to write down what was the "one" thing they learned for a fact in Kindergarten this year. My son wrote that "Easy work was just a fact of life". Needless to say this reiterated to me that I'm missing the boat with this kid.

DS seems to have grown by leaps and bounds again this summer (reading advanced chapter books, becoming obsessed with chess and robotics). DH and myself are seriously considering having a 2nd test. However, before I do so I want to make sure I educate myself on what to look for/expect out of a tester.

Our first test was performed by an education diagnostician connected to a local university. She provided a brief written report but didn't explain the findings to us (something she said she would do). Her teaching schedule made her impossible to get a hold of. It took us 2.5weeks to get the test results. Secondly, when she tested DS, both the WISC and WIATT were performed on the same day with a 40min break for lunch. Is this typical or should we have had more breaks? I think we were there 10-2:30. Thirdly, a teacher friend of mine suggested that he should have been screened with the SB-V vs WISC because he is so strong with math/visual-spatial relationships. I couldn't find any data suggesting one over the other. Does this sound familar to any of you? Finally, I'm curious if I should have taken him to a psychologist? Would they provide more insight?

If you have any suggestions; I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks a bunch!
TXMOM

Dottie, Thanks for your help!

Thanks.. I guess I should have stated that the tester's master work was in education not psychology. I think she had completed her masters and was working on a phd. I used her based on a friend who knew her from courses she took at the university.

However, after reading Mamasandmore's post, I realized that I didn't think to ask about testing times etc. I do know that I kept thinking during testing it was a long time for a Kindergartner to be sitting still. I'm not sure what part of the test came first. I know the second test took the longest. The first test was done in a hour and a half.

The other kicker to all of this was after all the tests were complete, the tester called us back into her office and said that DS was most assuredly gifted with very strong verbal and math skills (I'm not sure if she based this on subtest or WIATT). She said he was answering 7th grade math (I'm not sure what test that was a part of). Yet, when we got the report it seemed to contradict what she had told us. Like I said in orginal post it was extremely frustrating because I couldn't reach her to discuss the report. In her defense, I know she was traveling with the department in the April and then I'm sure she had end of the year..finals etc.

I am sure I'm coming across as slamming the tester . That is not my intent. I can't say even with the most qualified tester the outcome would/will be any different. That is why I haven't fully committed to a second test. I was just curious if the service I received was normal.

Hi TXMom.

I second Dottie's "Wow". My son took the WISC-IV as part of an acceleration assessment six months ago (at the age of 7 yr. 5 months). They may have given him other tests as well, so I can't say for sure, but I think they broke just the WISC-IV up into separate days? (He was pulled out multiple times over a two week period for all of the testing.) If not (and they did do it all in one day) he at least had a long lunch hour and recess to run around and burn off some of the test fatigue. I can't imagine him doing both tests back to back. That is completely insane.

I would add that many people have said that you need to find a tester who is experienced in giving the test to gifted kids. Gifted kids tend to answer more questions correctly, and hence have a much longer testing experience than most kids. Something that I recently learned is that the WISC-IV has an extended number of questions at the end, which can lead to a higher score. Someone else should really chime in here, but I don't know if many non-gifted testers know to keep asking questions if the child has hit the apparent ceiling on the test. (maybe the questions have always been there, and they are appending the scoring only on the Technical Report #7 for the WISC-IV?) But is seems like I have read of parents who were not sure if the tester stopped early with their child or not.

I'm new to all of this testing too. Hope this helped you some.

I have a book from the library (yes, if you go to my town's library, I have all of the books!) called Essentials of WISC-IV Assessment by Dawn P. Flanagan and Alan S. Kaufman. It has a chapter entitled, "How to Administer the WISC-IV". It say that some children may fatigue easily and may need several short evaluation sessions. So it is really up to the examiner to read the child. It also says that "Examiners should obtain sufficient information about a child's medical and behavior history prior to the evaluating him or her to ensure the validity of the findings." (page 48)

There are many books out there on the WISC-IV test. Of the ones that my library had, this was the best.(but that is not saying too much). They walk you through what the scatter patterns in the scores could mean and how to interpret the scores. I don't think I would actually buy the book, but it was an okay find in the library. It does not mention ceiling effects very much and only briefly talks about testing gifted kids. But it does list the most raw points that you can get in each subtest.