Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment LD's affect on IQ scores

Wow! I haven't needed to ask a question here in such a long time. My DD10 is finally in a great place and has been for over a year. However, it is time to ask about DD5.

DD5 is very different from DD10, but also very bright. We had her tested a year ago to see if she would also qualify for the wonderful exceptionally gifted program we found for DD10. Back then, she scored 139 on the WPPSI. You have to score 140 to apply to the program, so our psychologist recommended retesting this year. In the meantime, DD5 would have barely missed the cutoff for Kindergarten entrance this fall, so we shelled out the money for a private school so she could start early (public school in our state don't allow early entrance). We did this in case she does not get into DD10's program.

Bad news - her score this time was only 135. The psychologist now highly supsects a learning disability and wants to test her for them (and we agree). The psychologist's daughter is in the same great program as DD10, so she has first-hand knowledge of it. She insists that DD5 should be in that program. However, we can't even apply this year since her IQ score didn't make the cut.

My concern is: assuming we find out that she has an LD, won't it always affect her IQ score? It seems to me that she will never be able to get into the program that we all agree she needs. Is it true that LDs affect IQ scores? If so, is there a way to address this issue?

If we could afford to keep her in private school, we would be fine with keeping her where she is. However, we are barely making it through one year of that tuition, so we have to move her to public school next year. Based on the terrible experience we had with DD10, I dread next year. So I want to know if there is any hope of getting her into this great program.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Is there a great deal of subtest scatter in her scores? If she does have an LD , a test like the RIAS that does not depend on reading, motor output, or visual-motor integration might be a useful supplement to her other testing. It will often allow a person whose disability is depressing their scores on the WISC or the SB to demonstrate their true level of ability.

Thanks aculady for your insight. Yes, She had 2 subtest scores that were 17, 1 that was 16, but then block design was 11 (and it was only 9 on last year's test). I don't have the results with me at work today; maybe I'll post them later. The scatter in her scores is what concerned the psychologist along with DD5's ability to read since age 3, but inability to quickly read the same word on the same page easily the 2nd time, etc. The psychologist suspects a perception issue.

I haven't heard of the RIAS, so I'll research that test. It won't help her get into the great program since you must submit a Weschler or SB test.

Anyone else have insight?

Both of my dds had significant scatter on the WISC (btwn 8-19 for both of them). Dd12 does not have a learning disability, however. Her 8 score was likely due to anxiety and meticulousness. Dd10 has ADD and significant anxiety.

Dd10 has also taken the RIAS and it wasn't any better at pinpointing her ability. The scores were too disparate to calculate a composite score.

Beyond that, I really don't have any insight. Hopefully someone else will chime in here with more ideas!

If you remediate the LD, IQ and achievement scores are likely to become both more coherent and higher. This depends on the nature of the LD and the extent to which it can be remediated.

DeeDee

I agree with this, in that it agrees with my experience with my 2E son (GAI went up 35 points between age 7 and age 12).