Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment School wants to do more testing...

Gail makes a good point.

On the WISC-V, for most children, I actually prefer it for documenting NVLD, over the WISC-IV, because it separates fluid reasoning from visual spatial abilities. Some learners with perceptual deficits have strong enough abstract thinking that their fluid reasoning scores drag their WISC-IV PRIs up, which clouds the NVLD picture at the index level.

aeh - you've flagged a question I've had for a long time now. Would you mind clarifying: you would expect NVLD to show much lower visual spatial scores but not necessarily fluid reasoning? Thanks!

NVLD is the subject of ongoing discussion in the field, so you will hear different views on what constitutes NVLD, or even if it exists, from different professionals (it is not a DSM-V diagnosis; closest related Dx is probably SLD in mathematics). For those who find the data to be supportive of its existence, the most convincing descriptions of the profile I've seen emphasize the perceptual-visual-spatial deficits (social skills deficits are actually secondary effects).

The intent of the WISC-V FRI is to assess abstract thinking and problem-solving, as distinct from verbal reasoning or spatial reasoning. Of course, one must use some means of accessing the items, and the need to reduce language effects results in more visually-oriented tasks in the FRI, but they're not as strongly reliant on perceptual or spatial thinking as the visual spatial tasks are (partly because they are accessible to using either visual or verbal reasoning to solve). On the WISC-IV, the FRI-type and VSI-type subtests were combined into the PRI, which means that some children, who had high FRI-type scores, but low VSI-type scores, didn't show a difference between VCI and PRI at the index level. A reasonable fraction of clinicians noted and reported the differences anyway, at the subtest level, but a pretty sizable proportion did not, leading to underidentification of NVLD. Hence the improved identification of NVLD on the WISC-V.

In the past, I have sometimes selected the DAS/DAS-II to address this confound of visual spatial with fluid reasoning, as the two areas have been separate on that instrument from the beginning. It also can be picked up, for some children, on the SBV (not as well, because of the paired verbal/nonverbal structure of each area), or if enough additional subtests of the WJ are given.

Of course, some persons who could be described as NVLD have deficits in both visual spatial and fluid reasoning. They were easily identified on the WISC-IV, and continue to be readily identified on the WISC-V.

There's a decent description of NVLD, and its distinctions from ASD, in this little article/book excerpt. Note that the end of the comparison chart is off by two rows, beginning from the section headed "Behavior" (you'll see the two extra rows of "mostly" or "sometimes" at the end--back them up two rows, and they will be lined up again):

http://www.nldline.com/yvonna.htm

I didn't vet it in its entirety, so I can't vouch for 100% accuracy, but the gist of it is reasonable.

AEH--would you mind sharing what an NVLD profile would look like on the DAS? Low non-verbal, low spatial, or both?

Thanks aeh! Much appreciate your help as I continue to struggle with trying to figure out what relation - if any! - our weird PRIs have to our weird real-life challenges.

You are correct: an NVLD profile on the DAS could be low spatial, low nonverbal, or low in both. But more likely low spatial or low both, than only low in nonverbal, as the core deficit is believed to be visual spatial.