Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Trying to make sense of all of this information

My 9 year old is in 4th grade and has always scored well on school administered, standardized tests (99.5% and above). However, due to a combination of changing schools a couple of times and formerly living in districts that do not have funding or programs available for advanced students, we have only just begun our journey into educational enrichment inside the classroom.

My son has been attending his current school for two years. Since the school is located in a district that does provide educational enrichment, they noticed the trend in his MAP and STAR scores between last year and this year and reached out to me to ask for consent to test for giftedness.

I just received his scores back and have discussed with the school, how best to meet his academic needs going forward. I have to say though, I am at a bit of a loss as to how to interpret all of this information. I saw some other posts here where people listed data and were able to receive insight into what it all means. I sincerely hope someone will be kind enough to lend me a hand, also.

Here is what I have been given:

Fall MAP scores:

Reading - 235 (99%)
Mathematics - 234 (99%)

November STAR score - 10.6 (GE)

WISC-V Test Scores:

Verbal Comprehension (VCI) - 142 (99.7%)
Fluid Reasoning (FRI) - 140 (99.6%)
Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) - 137 (99%)

Subtest score summary

Similarities - 19 (99.9%)
Vocabulary - 16 (98%)
Block Design - 12 (75%)
Matrix Reasoning - 16 (98%)
Figure Weights - 18 (99.6%)
Digit Span - 12 (75%)
Coding - 14 (91%)

Not sure of all the details of what they measure, but if I have the gist, I would say this...

From what I can gather about the measurement v.s. what I know of my son, if Block Design is a timed test, the pressure of being timed may have got to him. No way of knowing for sure, really.

If I am correct in that Digit Span assesses short-term memory, well...he's probably inherited that from me. My short-term recall is not great. My observation of him though, is that he doesn't have a deficit in this regard, though he may not be especially adept in this area at this time, or if ever. What I have noticed though, is that his long term memory is impressive, and that he is also able to recall minute and/or esoteric details.

In general, he is a global thinker. The kind of thinker who can stare into a matrix of disconnected data points and see lines connecting the points, lines that haven't yet been drawn. If that makes any sense. The school psychologist who administered the tests described the way he thinks with a different example, but it rang true when she said it. She said it was like watching him ping from seemingly unrelated information to arrive at exactly the right answer and he was able to explain, "This made me think of this, which made me think of this, which brought me to the answer."

He loves school. Always has. His challenges are mostly social. He (like me) can blurt, is generally impatient, and doesn't always have a socially acceptable "filter." For example, a teacher says, "Way to go, kid!" and his response is, "Don't call me 'kid'." Then he quickly backpedals and says something like, "It's just that I don't like being called kid very much." I asked him about it and he responded that he was uncomfortable with being called, "kid" by someone who is not me. In his mind, that is a term of endearment that is only tolerable if it is coming from his mom. LOL We often work on joke creation and telling as a tool for understanding social norms. Things like timing, what makes a joke funny, how a wordy punchline can kill an otherwise successful joke - I keep telling him, the time to be wordy is in the set-up! The punchline needs to be succinct to be most effective. LOL

He does not have attention issues.

Attitude-wise he is a very, very positive kid. Extremely polite...considerate...compassionate. Tries to see the bright side of everything. Emotionally though, he is prone to heightened sensitivity - especially when he feels he has disappointed someone. He very rarely expresses anger, but he can be quick to tears.

He loves Greek mythology, all things magic, logic, chemistry, Harry Potter. He's a pretty developmentally on-target 9 year old. Not mature beyond his years. I like him that way LOL. No growing up too fast, that's not allowed!

He is good at most everything he tries. Recently I got him started on essence of essay writing. I felt it was important to give him a tool he can use to organize his thoughts for those times when they may be moving too quickly for him to keep up. We also discussed how essay writing compels the writer to consider the point of view of the reader in order to make a convincing argument. I am hoping this concept with help him more effectively communicate with people who may not think the way he does.

Any enrichment we do at home is pretty casual. As I think of things that might benefit him in the immediate sense as I observe his progress, I will bring something up or we'll chat about something that might help broaden his perspective. I don't do test prep or coaching or tutoring or any of those kinds of things. I have a background in chemistry and biology, although I am a self-employed fabric artist now. But when the mood strikes, we will often have impromptu discussions about fluid dynamics or covalent bonding...usually because something he says will remind me of something in my schooling and I'll use a scientific concept to explain seemingly unrelated (haha!). We're a mess.

Digit Span does measure short-term memory, or more exactly, working memory - how many digits can you hold in your mind at once. This is a factor in IQ because it affects whether you can keep track of everything that is happening at once in a complicated problem.

It sounds like you are doing everything right in parenting him. Good luck - it can be a wild ride with these kids!

Ahhhh...Well, pobody's nerfect. As long as it's not a hindrance, I'm okay with that. If it ever becomes a hindrance, we'll work together to figure out a way around it.

Welcome!

His test results are very strong all around. Yes, BD is timed. If you wanted to find out more about whether his score was affected by speed, you would probably want to ask whether his BD no-time-bonus score was different from the standard BD scaled score. For example, if he solved most of the items, but not within the time limits, or without receiving bonus points for speed, that would be more indicative that timing/speed was the reason for the lower score. In contrast, if he received this scaled score simply because he didn't generate enough correct solutions for a higher scaled score, but did receive some bonus points for speed on the correct items, that would lead to different conclusions.

FWIW, his processing speed subtest (Coding) is not unusually low compared to his reasoning subtests. Sometimes it's not really pure speed, but more perfectionism--expending extra time tidying the blocks, or questioning the accuracy of his response. Or they may even complete the items too quickly, resulting in careless errors. These are clinical observational data that you would have to get from the school psych.

And while the working memory subtest is lower than the other subtests, again, it's not hugely discrepant. Nor is it by any means below age-expectations (most would classify it as upper end of Average to High Average). Working memory does not always closely track long-term memory/retrieval. He has excellent reasoning skills, both verbally and quantitatively, so high average working memory is probably perfectly adequate for most things, since he likely makes quick associations between incoming information and his existing pool of information, limiting the amount of time he needs to hold it in working memory while he finds a place to file it in long-term memory.

In any case, for both BD and DS, I would be hesitant to read too much into a single subtest, especially in the absence of IRL concerns. These would be more interpretable if you had the other subtest in each index, and thus could obtain an index score in Visual Spatial and in Working Memory, but since this was a GT assessment, and not a learning disabilities/special education assessment, it probably wasn't considered critical.

And I have a background in chemistry and biology as well, though I too have moved onto something different professionally. I see no reason that introducing fluid dynamics or covalent bonding into everyday conversations should not be normative.

Reading this gave me actual, physical chills. That is exactly what I was thinking.