Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Wrong IQ Test Given...Any correlations

Dottie (or anyone with experience) can you help me with this one.

ould a child have a high average IQ have high achievement scores. (He is self taught too, he isn't hot housed!!)

I had the testing done because he is intensely frustrated at school. I thought the testing would help.

Even the tester wasn't sure where to go with this. She was consulting with other people.

The tester is going to retest, but it could be a while. I'm just wondering if I should expect the younger IQ test to be much different.

Test him again. My kids have each been tested three times and one time one of them scored WAY below the other scores.

It happens. That said, is it *that* unusual for a child who is almost 6 to read at a 4th - 5th grade level? I'm sure others know more and will contribute, but 120 is a solid score.

Also - I think there are two red flags with this tester:

1 - she gave the wrong test
2 - She wasn't confident in the result and felt the need to consult with other people. I would think that an experienced tester would be VERY proficient at explaining to anxious parents that their child is only very bright!

And even if it wasn't the tester, your son could have had a bad day. There are so many wildcards at that age.

So I'd take 120 as a minimum, given your reservations about the score, and that's pretty good!

I didn't leave with the results. I didn't get copies of anything.

I was just told that he was given the test for older kids by accident. I saw the results, but I don't remember them all. I know Block Design was in the 95%. But his ranges varied from 25% to 95% with the majority of categories being in the 75-90%. Other than that, I really just don't remember the information.

I do know that the category in the 25% was probably a very difficult category for his age range. It had to do with "common sense" questions as she reported to me. She said the questions were a bit "experience related." So she thought that could have "hit" his total hard.

His achievement testing was good, most everything between the 2-5 grade level w/ the exception of writing. It was in mid-first grade. He is in Kindy.

Ugh, I feel frustrated. I've been anxiously waiting for results. Now I don't know if I know them or don't know them.

You are right. I do remember the 8 and 15.

I only remember block design because she pointed it out as a likely reason for his "reading ability." She also pointed out the 8, which was probably "inaccurate" due to his age.

Well, I guess this means that I'm back in wait mode. I wish I knew about the correlations for the two tests.

The one he was supposed to take is for kids 2-6.3 and the one he took is for ages 6-17. He is 5.7. With him being "close" to the cutoff, I wonder what difference it will make.

Should I take his achievement scores to the school (at least I know that they are accurate) to see if the school will do anything for him? In Kindy, they won't teach past the end of 1st grade level. So, he has been stuck in a reading group that he deems "easy" all year. My concern isn't as much for this year as next year.

It could end up taking months to go through all this again. Should I move forward with the school or wait. I feel lost. Does he need accommodation or am I just a biased mom?

The school pushes back saying his writing needs work so they will just keep working on his writing.

How did the tester propose to handle this? Did he/she take your money or bill your insurance? Is there a date set to retest on SBV?

I like that the tester is at least being upfront about
a) he/she made a mistake.
b) he/she might be able to salvage if with the help of a more experienced person (but we know that isn't possible)

Your son still is having a poor fit at school, you have the same problem you started with. What would you do if you were in the tester's shoes? Probably refund the money or offer an immediate free retest.

The problem is going to be that taking the WISC probably means that taking the WIPSSI right now is a bad idea. This isn't a big deal unless the tester isn't certified to administer SBV. It's harder to get certified to take SBV than the WISC family of tests. Then the tester should (in my opinion) give you back your fee and call a friend who does do SBV and get you to the front of the line to have your son tested. This whole thing is hard enough without these kind of mistakes - but we are all human and mistakes happen - the key is what happens next!

Love and More Love,
Grinity

from hoagies

Is this referring to me? I don't see how it could be, but I can't figure out what it does refer to. The wrong test being administered?

I probably sound silly, but I don't go to any great lengths to conceal my identify and I'm uncomfortable with this.

Sorry Dottie. I started thinking, "maybe she thinks I took the kids to 3 different testers in a week?"

Thanks for the response. I appreciate it.

I am waiting to hear from a program that is geared towards kids with around 145 on the SB-V. Since my kids are borderline I am really on edge.

Hi mon2two,
My name's Chris and I'm a school psychologist. I wish I did more testing for giftedness, but unfortunately I don't get that chance often. I do give both the WPPSI and the WISC on a fairly regular basis. The benefit to your child taking the WPPSI is that, because the test has such a small age range and is geared toward younger students, there are more questions that test what they are supposed to know. For the WISC, commonly a student at the beginning of the age range allowed by the test will receive a high score based on his ability to answer 2 or 3 questions on a subtest rather than 6 or 7 focusing on more age appropriate topics on the WPPSI. This causes scores to fluctuate fairly wildly based on one or two incorrect or correct answers and is somewhat unstable in my opinion.

It is also fairly common for a student who is only 5 years old to have an unstable IQ score becuase of a lack of maturity and understanding that he or she must do their best throughout the course of testing. Kids that age don't see it as a problem to take one or two questions off and just give answers of "I don't know" rather than rask their brain and try to come up with something if it doesn't immediately come to them. This may be a reason for the drastic differences in IQ scores that Jane mentioned for her kids.

One of the issues with testing and quickly re-testing is that the student deveops a familiarity with the items. Even if the examiner decides to now administer the WPPSI, it's still a Wechsler test and the subtests are quite familiar in design, even if the questions are different. On tests like the block design, having some familiarity with the blcoks and how they can come together to form a certain design, for instance, may result in higher scores than when taken previously. In regards to the Stanford-Binet, if the psych is uncomfortable with that, maybe she is familiar with the Woodcock-Johnson 3: Test of Cognitive Abilities.

By the way, if his lowest score is at the 25th percentile, this is hardly "really bad".

Chris,

Thank you so much for your input. He helps a lot!

BTW, since you are a school psychologist do you think I should approach the school with the achievement tests that I have now or wait for the "redo" on the IQ test.

In your position would you do something "different" for a child who reads four to five years above grade level? I'm not sure if I should be asking, if the school should provide it, or if I should just not worry.

Thanks for any advice. I REALLY appreciate your insight into the differences between the tests.