Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Need help interpreting scores

I have a 10 year old, dx ADHD and struggling with test anxiety. Scored 155 on VCI, but 95 (37%ile) on Processing Speed. I am trying to get an IEP from the school for accommodations for typing and extra time on tests. Can anyone compute the GAI for me? They only gave me the FSIQ, which I am not sure is valid because of the big discrepancy with the processing speed.

19 Similarities
19 Vocabulary
10 Block Design
13 Visual Puzzles
14 Matrix Reasoning
16 Figure Weights
13 Digit Span
11 Picture Span
10 Coding
8 Symbol Search

He just started on ADHD meds a few months ago, so we are still playing with meds and dosages. He had the Woodcock Johnson done 2 years ago and the school psych did it again with the WISC V, but his reading and writing scores only went up slightly, and math actually went down pretty substantially (despite being in AoPS Pre-Alg). So, I am not sure what to make of them. I don't know how to compute the overall achievement score -- does anyone know?

Prior Current Scores
140 127 Broad Math
127 135 Broad Reading
121 129 Broad Written Lang
133 Total Achievement

This is a kid with a strong interest in science, but who seems to score highest on the verbal stuff. He is accelerated across the board, but struggles with test anxiety. I am not sure if there are deficits getting in the way of his ability to prove himself, especially with respect to math exams where he seems to really choke under time pressure. Any thoughts or help with interpretation is greatly appreciated.

I am also trying to determine my daughter's GAI, due to a large gap in subtest scores.

Welcome!

Before actually computing the GAI or FSIQ, I can tell you off the bat that they are unlikely to be substantially different (though yes, GAI should be slightly higher). There are three important discrepancies in this profile, including the PSI. The VSI and WMI are also much lower than VCI, but the impact of the relative weaknesses is actually highest for the VSI, because the subtest it contributes to the FSIQ and GAI is the lower of the two (Block Design). The other two indices contribute their higher subtest (in this case).

Portia makes a good observation--the lower subtests are largely in tasks affected by visual-spatial skills (VS and PS) (though I would include Picture Span only provisionally, as it isn't significantly weaker than Digit Span). And in answer to how this might relate to a child with strong interests in science: up until he secondary level, when quantitative aspects of science become important, an interest in science is easily supported by strong verbal gifts. There are minimal mathematics demands of even the arithmetic kind, and virtually no sophisticated quantitative reasoning demands. (And clearly, your child's assessed fluid reasoning is more than adequate to handle the ones that do exist at this level--and likely even at higher levels.) Although fluid reasoning is "only" in the MG/HG range, that is certainly quite strong enough for the math required in most STEM fields.

On the changes in achievement scores: the changes in reading and written language are within the confidence interval, and really just mean that he has kept pace with his own historical rate of learning; they don't represent any special gains. Correspondingly, the drop in math score doesn't mean he has lost any skills. These are standard scores, which represent the ordinal standing of an individual in their age-peer group. The change in math likely represents the changes in expectations between primary and intermediate grades. Two years ago, his nationally-representative peer comparison group had not yet been exposed to instruction in multiplication, and most of them were not fluent in simple addition or subtraction. Having even rudimentary multiplication skills would catapult a student to the top of the norms. This time around, the peer group should all have been instructed in all aspects of basic arithmetic, and is expected to have fluency in addition and subtraction. The curve is a bit broader at this age, which means that it takes more to go from above average to stratospheric in the norms.

In any case, these achievement scores are still roughly within the predicted range for this cognitive ability. To your question of how to compute the Total Achievement: that can only be done with the publisher's proprietary webware. You'd have to ask your examiner for that.

Bottom line, I don't see data to support meaningful changes (let alone regression) in normative academic standing. However he performs in the classroom with regard to time pressure, he did not do poorly on the WJ. If you want to see if timing has an impact on math achievement testing, I'd check to see how his Math composite (vs Broad Math) looks, as that doesn't include the timed fluency subtest. Similarly, look at his Academic Fluency composite vs Academic Skills and Academic Applications.

Welcome, geggie!

In general, you may find value in the GAI if the lower scores are concentrated in the relevant WM (digit span) or PS (coding) subtests, only, and not in any of the VC, VS, or FR subtests. If at least one of those two subtests is not markedly lower than the other subtests, then you will probably not see a meaningful difference between the FSIQ and GAI.

Also, the value of the GAI depends on whether it changes your understanding of your child's learning profile, and whether it changes access to resources. If either of these is the case, and if you care to share a bit about the profile, I may be able to give you an idea of whether it's likely to be worth pursuing the GAI.