Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional 68 points between PSI and GAI! Disability?

Also, her teacher at school thinks she may have some tracking issues. I have an eye appt. for her next week with a pediactric opthmologist. Her older brother has esophoria. I did vision therapy with him, it was a waste of 5 grand.

It is great to know that you guys are out here. Especially since my DH thinks I am making a big deal out of nothing. He seems to think DS is fine/normal leave him alone. He can't spell and he survived. I guess I don't want my DS to 'survive' I want hime to thrive. FYI DH did the minimum to get by all through school and put all of his energy into sports instead. He owns his own business and is successful today but he has a VERY hard time communicating in email or on paper and reading is not easy for him either. He complains of headaches and such. I know this is not about him but I think it is an issue because he has undiagnosed learning issues and does not want DS to be singled out like he was. ADD was suspected as a kid.

So, back to the basics. Should I push and/or pay for further diagnostic testing for my son?

PRI = 143 VCI = 140 WMI = 107 and the PSI = 83. What are some of the reasons for large spreads in the scores, performance vs. memory/speed? What effects the PSI? What are tracking issues? The tester I would send him to specialized in Gifted kids and even uses the old test that extends the ceiling in addition to other things. I am not sure what it is called. Maybe it is the stanford binet? He did have 2 18's and 2 19's on Similarities comprehension, picture concepts, and matrix reasoning. But a 6 on coding and and 8 on symbol search.
She really seems to know her stuff. I guess another question is if I have him tested what is the end result? What do I do with the info? Would it actually diagnose something? He is in a 5 day full time PS gifted class in a magnet program. The teacher says he is in the middle of his peers in performance and will offer him more time to ease his anxiety but is this enough? She seems to think if he is performing well just let it go.

But the gap in scores is really worrying me? Thanks

Also, sorry for keep adding but..... he really doesn't seem all that different from his peers. I knew he was smart. He has always been ahead developmentally and had a great vocabulary but I was actually surprised at the results of the testing. The scores are a bit vague and I have read posts about some of the kids with similar scores and they seem to have unique interests etc. He enjoys drama and music and can memorize songs and movies easily. He can also play the piano by instict. Not copying anything fantastic but by making up his own songs. He will play for 10 miunutes straight, with his whole body, and both hands just crazy. It always sounds different but pretty good. Is this a talent? He has no interest in reading music. Should I be looking for some special talent or capabilities that he has that relate to his scores? I know there are alot of questions but all of this has been brewing for over a year and I just never posted. Thanks

Hi. Totally New to this board, but here is a report from the Gifted Development Center that is totally on point for this discussion:

http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/About_GDC/whoaregiftd.htm

The WISC-IV VCI and PRI are much better predictors of giftedness than the WMI and PSI. The article gives specific ranges for differences that indicate the full scal IQ on WISC will not be accurate. E.g. if Index score on the four composites show delta greater than 23, the FSIQ is not accurate.

This article is a MUCH easier read than the WISC Technical report, which was a real slog to understand.

Good Luck.

Welcome, EngineerMom! Hope you'll post again!

I recently heard Dr. Paul Beljan on the subject and he was fantastic. http://www.paulbeljan.com

Does anybody know anything about the Dumont-Willis indices that are referred to in the link EngineerMom posted?

I'm not sure why the test publishers are so insistent on keeping subtests that are poor measures of 'g'. It messes up the predictive validity and construct validity of the IQ score. It's important to remember that IQ subtests are *not* designed to measure specific cognitive abilities. They are designed to measure components of the statistical concept of 'g'. Too many different types of cognitive skills are involved in each subtest. There are many other more 'pure' tests of things like working memory and processing speed. If you really want to break down a child's strengths and weaknesses outside of general verbal and non-verbal measures of 'g', other tests give you a much more useful measure.

Here's one example...
http://pearsonassess.com/HAIWEB/Cultures/en-us/Productdetail.htm?Pid=015-8570-049