Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment How to interpret WISC IV scores?

My son (age 6.5 yrs) recently took the WISC IV. He had the following scores:
FSIQ = 131 (98th percentile)
VCI = 124 (95th percentile)
PRI = 135 (99th percentile)
WMI = 132 (98th percentile)
PSI = 103 (58th percentile)

The above scores suggest he has a significant discrepancy between processing speed (PSI) and cognitive ability. However, it is not clear to me whether this will be recognized as a significant discrepancy by our school district and qualify him for additional supports on his IEP (his only area of qualification now is Social/Emotional).

We know that although he has 20/20 visual acuity, he has significant deficits in binocular vision and visual tracking. His OT has described him as having difficulty with "motor-planning"; fine and gross motor skills are age appropriate. His handwriting skill and ability to write stories are relatively weak. He is currently being treated for anxiety. The psychologist who administered the test (along with several other tests and assessments) diagnosed him with Anxiety Disorder NOS. He did not fit neatly into either Asperger's or ADHD diagnoses, although he has some "traits" of each.

Any input on interpretation of the WISC IV scores would be appreciated.

Nancy

That's almost exactly what my dd#1's WISC-IV scores looked like at 7.5 except her VCI and PRI were the flip-flop of your ds's. Her PSI was also lower than your ds's at the 42nd percentile I believe.

How was the spread w/in subtests? Our dd had wide ranges within subtests. For instance, while her PRI total was at the 95th, within the 3 tests that made up that subtest, she had scores ranging from 25th percentile to 99.9th+ percentile.

Dd is 11 now, so it has been a few years. I would not describe her as a 2e kid (gifted with a disability). She is gifted and she isn't the fastest processor. She has accommodations for extra time and a quiet testing environment written into her ALP (accelerated learning plan) at school. She hasn't needed the extra time all except once last year on one math test. Even then, she said that she only needed about an extra 5 minutes. Just the anxiety reduction of knowing that she has that time has helped a lot, though.

Overall, like Dottie, I'd say that it doesn't look like a concerning pattern nor an uncommon pattern for a gifted child. The psych maybe should have figured a GAI (general ability index) for him as well which drops the WMI and PSI indexes b/c of the discrepency. B/c his scores were very similar to my dds', I'd expect that his GAI would fall around the same point, which isn't that different from the FSIQ. You can access the charts for GAI online if you have the subtest scores. Google "WISC-IV technical report 4." His GAI will likely fall around the mid 130s, though with those percentiles.

Hi Nancy - my son also has the 'high WMI/low PSI' with the visual immaturity and motor planning problems. He's 13 now and it seems fairly smoothed over, but he's not going to a star athlete anytime soon. He went through an 'intense Wall Ball' 6 months and that cleared up the binocular vision issue. I would make sure that he stays physically active if you can. DS13 loved Karate, because that's a memorization sport.

I'm the opposite with super fast processing and a bottleneck on working memory. My 'to do' lists have their own 'to do' lists! It is sort of fun to see how my profile and my son's overlap.

I'll bet your son is great at games that require WM - that's an amazing score.
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....64897/New_Fun_Family_Game.html#Post64897

My guess is that your son is already using hiw WM to compensate for his low PS, but that if you verbalize what those are and how to do it, he can compensate more consiously and more effectively.

Smiles,
Grinity

Yeah, the high WM thing has definitely been a boon for my dd. Unfortunately she uses it to avoid writing anything down which I fear will catch up with her eventually. Her planner is totally blank which drives me nuts, so I just don't look at it anymore.

Cricket2 - if it's any consolation, DS13 in 9th grade has a beautiful planner, and he did used to play that game. The trick is to manipulate the environment so your dd gets a chance to 'fail' before the net is removed.

Also you have to demonstrate how important it is in other settings, whenever you can. When DS was tiny, I remember him sitting in the back seat writing down our 'shopping list' for his birthday party and his invitation list on the way to the party story. Even though making lists isn't his favorite activity, the context was a powerful motivator. And yeah, he knew the budget and was practicing making the numbers add up, and figuring out how much to budget for paper plates, party favors.

Family trips are another possible 'alternate planning practice' activity.

Enjoy!
Grinity

Thanks all for your feedback. My son is enrolled in a "gifted" (accelerated by 2 grade-levels) program at school. His classmates are all "gifted" (> 98th percentile on school-district administered acheivement tests). He is very aware that he has the most difficulty with writing of all the kids in his class. He is also the slowest writer and has difficulty with storytelling (verbal and written). He has (thankfully) been receiving resource room help for writing even though it is not specified in his IEP. At our parent-teacher conference in the Fall, the resource room teacher and his classroom teacher both said he "clearly needs it" - meaning assistance with writing. He probably won't excel at team sports (too bad, since he'll probably be close to 7 feet tall!), but he does enjoy individual sports like cycling and swimming. My biggest concerns are his anxiety and maintaining his self-esteem.

I am hoping that my son's processing speed will improve with age. However, my husband still has slow processing and a motor-planning deficit -- although he didn't have the benefit of early intervention. It does help that my husband is able to provide an adult perspective on having these particular challenges.

Nancy

Nancy,
Some day you son will be able to type, and everything will shift!
(Did it for your husband?)

My son learned at age 9. Until then keep working on his ability to tell a story, through dictation, with a video camera, or storyboarding comics, as long as you can keep it fun.

In the meantime, keep those fingers growing with crafts and music.

The anxiety and self esteem are the toughest. It might we worth it to try and explain the differences in how people process information.

I think of VCI and PRI as 'how much electricity' powers a circuit board. The kind that they use to show kids about electricity. Every one has different interests, which is like the doorbell, the light bulb, all the various things that 'do something' attached to the board. The PSI is like some wires being faster than others. (I think that that is wire diameter, not really sure) I'm not really sure what WM would be in this analogy - maybe the solder that holds everything together.

When my son made these at summer camp, the solder was always coming unstuck, so maybe, maybe not...any ideas?

Play that game I mentioned earlier in this thread, not sure how many letters a 6 year old could do, but WOW, DS13 feels so great when he realizes that I can't even hold 4 letters in my head long enough to try out words! Maybe do memory games in the check out line so he can feel good about his strengths...that seems to be a key to self esteem.

It also used to drive my DS crazy when he sees how slow he is in comparison to the other kids but is well aware that he has much more developed abstract thinking. It didn't see fair to him. Now that he's older he realizes that everyone has different strengths. Teaching my son that -actually - life isn't fair, and that he can handle that.

Smiles,
Grinity

Hello,

My son is 5 year old and would like to get his IQ test done.
I am not able to find any facility which administer this test for younger kids in the Bay area, California.
Any on has any recommendations?

Thanks,
sreddy

Hi Cathy,

Thanks for the link. I will contact them to see if they can help.
My son is a gifted child and he doesn't have any issues with his performance.
He seems be to at 2-3rd grade level in Math(He is only 5).
Are there any places you know cater to gifted kids?

Thanks,
sreddy