Iq & academic tests results - need help!

[blessedmom3]

I need help to interpret these results For my 7 yo ds . He just finished 1st grade. There is a discrepancy between iq & academic tests. It looks like his iq is low ( full scale 90) which I suspected Because he is a slow learner, but academics are high. The psychologist could not explain about this difference and was even very surprised by the academics.

 

Any suggestions /books rec or apps on how to improve his perceptual reasoning skills & working memory appreciated. He does have moderate speech delay which might have affected his total iq.

 

WISC IV iq

Verbal comprehension 89

Perceptual reasoning 86

Working memory 91

Processing speed 112

Full scale 90 average

 

 

Academic WIAT III (average is 100)

 

Math fluency addition 113 grade eq 3.7

Math fluency subtraction 123 grade eq 4.0 above average

Math problem solving 96 grade eq 2.0 average

Numerical operations 108 grade eq 2.7 average

Sentence composition 88 grade eq 1.9 low average

Oral expression 71 grade eq 3 yo below average

Listening comprehension 92 grade eq 1.4 low average

Reading comprehension 94 grade eq 1.8 low average

Oral reading fluency 112 grade eq 3.2 above average

Oral reading accuracy 117 grade eq 4.9 above average

Spelling 132 grade eq 5.4 above average

Pseudo word decoding 119 grade eq 5.7 above average

Total 106 average

Edited May 24, 2012 by blessedmom3

[Pen]

I cannot help you to interpret the results.

 

But I wanted to say that the new belief of some researchers whose ideas I respect is that IQ is not fixed, and especially that early measures may not be reliable. But even that later ones should not be taken as fixed in stone. Some kids even do more puzzles that are similar to IQ testing and so have had more practice with that sort of thing than others. Mindware (I think it is called) company has some such games (and puzzle books) and Rainbow Resource stocks some. Things like Concentration where you have to remember what was on the reverse side of a card to get matches, and blocks which have colors to be arranged into patterns, Mastermind, Sudoko in a color ball form for kids, etc. The Nurtureshock website also had a link to something about games that can boost such areas, including also for processing speed, games like Speed--though apparently processing speed was not so much an issue.

 

Also it looks like maybe working on reading comprehension would help. It looks like he has a strength in the math area, which is helpful.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Pen

[Carrie12345]

I'm shocked the psychologist would tell you an IQ of 90 was low, or that she would be surprised that academic achievement and IQ aren't perfectly matched.

 

Other than the oral expression (which surely comes with speech delay), I don't see anything alarming about any of those numbers.

[Tokyomarie]

Overall, assuming that your son's performance on the IQ portion of the testing is consistent with what you and the tester observed, your son is functioning in the lower part of the average range for thinking and problem solving. 85-115 is considered to be the average range. At the lower end of average, we begin to see the student struggling to keep up with the typical expectations of a classically focused homeschool curriculum, but general performance is still usually within typical public school grade level expectations.

 

On the achievement side, your son's best performance is in math calculation skills and word-level decoding/encoding skills. These are important basic clerical functions which allow a student to succeed in a standard curriculum, especially in the early years. The fact that he is performing well here probably reflects on the amount of time you have spent helping him to learn basic reading, writing, and math skills.

 

Achievement in areas of math problem solving and reading & listening comprehension are consistent with the IQ score that was generated. However, I see a significant discrepancy between listening comprehension and oral expression. I would be questioning the possibility of a language disorder. His sentence composition is a little lower than his reading comprehension, not too much lower, but as the written expression demands rise through the grades, he might fall further behind w/o intervention.

 

Did your tester do any tests of memory, attention, visual/motor integration, and/or visual processing etc. that might shed more light on why he scored as he did on the above tests? Did he make any recommendations for intervention?

 

Based on what I see, I would look for more clues as to why your son has scored as he did. My next step would be to have a speech/language pathologist who specializes in language disorders (not articulation disorders) evaluate all of your son's language functions- especially listening and speaking, since you do have some information on reading & writing already. If your son has not had any visual processing testing, you might consider taking him to a COVD optometrist who can do a developmental vision evaluation. That kind of evaluation looks at both what is happening with the eye muscles (focus, tracking, etc) and what is happing with visual processing that happens in the brain.

 

As for curriculum to work on language development, Linguisystems and Super Duper, Inc are both good sources once you have more information from an SLP on exactly what language functions your son needs the most help with. Critical Thinking Co. has lots of good materials for working on both verbal and non-verbal processing.

 

Since your son is still young, once I had further information on both verbal and non-verbal function, I would spend a good part of your homeschool day on language development and cognitive processing skills- replacing some of the time you would spend on content (history, geography, science) with activities for developing basic comprehension and problem solving.

 

As for working memory, CogMed is a computer-based intervention that is showing promise in developing working memory. It is expensive and is only available through professionals, such as neuropsychologists, but studies are showing its effectiveness.

 

Hope this is helpful. I know it is overwhelming when you first get scores. Trying to figure out where to go once you have them takes time, so don't feel like you have to have it all figured out immediately. Tackle one piece at a time. When you have that in place, then move to the next item on the list.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Tokyomarie

[Tiramisu]

Overall, assuming that your son's performance on the IQ portion of the testing is consistent with what you and the tester observed, your son is functioning in the lower part of the average range for thinking and problem solving. 85-115 is considered to be the average range. At the lower end of average, we begin to see the student struggling to keep up with the typical expectations of a classically focused homeschool curriculum, but general performance is still usually within typical public school grade level expectations.

 

On the achievement side, your son's best performance is in math calculation skills and word-level decoding/encoding skills. These are important basic clerical functions which allow a student to succeed in a standard curriculum, especially in the early years. The fact that he is performing well here probably reflects on the amount of time you have spent helping him to learn basic reading, writing, and math skills.

 

Achievement in areas of math problem solving and reading & listening comprehension are consistent with the IQ score that was generated. However, I see a significant discrepancy between listening comprehension and oral expression. I would be questioning the possibility of a language disorder. His sentence composition is a little lower than his reading comprehension, not too much lower, but as the written expression demands rise through the grades, he might fall further behind w/o intervention.

 

Did your tester do any tests of memory, attention, visual/motor integration, and/or visual processing etc. that might shed more light on why he scored as he did on the above tests? Did he make any recommendations for intervention?

 

Based on what I see, I would look for more clues as to why your son has scored as he did. My next step would be to have a speech/language pathologist who specializes in language disorders (not articulation disorders) evaluate all of your son's language functions- especially listening and speaking, since you do have some information on reading & writing already. If your son has not had any visual processing testing, you might consider taking him to a COVD optometrist who can do a developmental vision evaluation. That kind of evaluation looks at both what is happening with the eye muscles (focus, tracking, etc) and what is happing with visual processing that happens in the brain.

 

As for curriculum to work on language development, Linguisystems and Super Duper, Inc are both good sources once you have more information from an SLP on exactly what language functions your son needs the most help with. Critical Thinking Co. has lots of good materials for working on both verbal and non-verbal processing.

 

Since your son is still young, once I had further information on both verbal and non-verbal function, I would spend a good part of your homeschool day on language development and cognitive processing skills- replacing some of the time you would spend on content (history, geography, science) with activities for developing basic comprehension and problem solving.

 

As for working memory, CogMed is a computer-based intervention that is showing promise in developing working memory. It is expensive and is only available through professionals, such as neuropsychologists, but studies are showing its effectiveness.

 

Hope this is helpful. I know it is overwhelming when you first get scores. Trying to figure out where to go once you have them takes time, so don't feel like you have to have it all figured out immediately. Tackle one piece at a time. When you have that in place, then move to the next item on the list.

 

Marie, you are amazing!

 

To the OP, I have only had the WISC IV administered to one dd. Achievement tests like our state test and the CAT have been done at school and at home, so we haven't had an achievement test privately administered by a professional. However, if you want to count the achievement tests she has done, dd does in fact achieve to a higher degree than her IQ test would indicate.

[Tokyomarie]

Marie, you are amazing!

 

Not so much amazing as the fruit of literally thousands of hours spent reading about tests and their meaning & talking with others- both online and in person- over the last 15 years.

 

I must add, however, to the OP and all of you, that any suggestions I make by way of interpretation are those of a layperson. As well educated a layperson as I am, I am not a professional and am not qualified to offer any absolutes. Therefore, please take my suggestions as just that- possibilities for further exploration.

[blessedmom3]

Thank you Marie for your elaborate answer and resources. I am looking into them,especially cogmed.

 

I will also look into those resources that Pen suggested.

 

He does have language delay and goes to speech 2 hours/week but it does not seem to help...He scored low in word usage , grammar and syntax and pragmatics . In his grammar book he is able to easily identify a verb,noun ,pronoun,verb and adverb in a story, yet he is not talking in correct sentences. His answers& narrations are like a 4 yo. believe me it's not because of me.Even if English is my 3rd language and I am not totally fluent, my husband is American and my other three children are fluent with above average vocabulary and expression.

 

 

His critical thinking& problem solving are low and it scares me to think about 3rd grade & up when these skills are required more ,especially in math. I need A LOT of patience! I do have some critical thinking books , just did not have the time to apply them much.

 

After two years of homeschooling him,I feel like Putting him to school where hopefully he will receive an appropriate help and work after school on other skills .

[wapiti]

In that situation, I would assume that the IQ score represents an underestimate of his actual intellectual ability. A PR score of 86 and a math computation score of 123 is a difference of more than two standard deviations. The old saying goes, you can't achieve higher than your ability. While they can't be compared exactly, that's a pretty huge gap.

 

I would assume a processing problem of some kind, such as language processing (which often accompanies prior speech delays), interferes with the IQ testing. Of course, there can be more than one problem at work.

 

FWIW, I had a similar situation with one of my kids' scores when he was 6. Late bloomer, still in speech therapy at 9 y.o., achievement scores in some subtests one or two standard deviations higher than the IQ scores. Fastforward three years, and fresh round of testing (with different tests) shows IQ scores much, much higher than the earlier testing. In the earlier testing, he had more difficulty following directions, etc. Later, testing with SLPs showed relative weaknesses in the areas of auditory comprehension and auditory reasoning. These things are remediable.

 

Marie has given you lots of great advice. The clue hunt continues. I'd see an SLP who deals with language processing issues (I can't remember the name of the testing they did off the top of my head, but it's not uncommon or anything). I also agree with ruling out vision issues.

[Heathermomster]

Marie is a rock star, so I can't add any new juicy tidbits of info other than support. My son's academic work in no way reflects his NP scores other than DS requiring more time to complete the work. These kids benefit immensely from one on one instruction, and I don't see these tests as predictive in outcome. I quit looking at my son's numbers as the testing and reality are so completely out of proportion.

[Tiramisu]

In that situation, I would assume that the IQ score represents an underestimate of his actual intellectual ability. A PR score of 86 and a math computation score of 123 is a difference of more than two standard deviations. The old saying goes, you can't achieve higher than your ability. While they can't be compared exactly, that's a pretty huge gap.

 

I would assume a processing problem of some kind, such as language processing (which often accompanies prior speech delays), interferes with the IQ testing. Of course, there can be more than one problem at work.

 

FWIW, I had a similar situation with one of my kids' scores when he was 6. Late bloomer, still in speech therapy at 9 y.o., achievement scores in some subtests one or two standard deviations higher than the IQ scores. Fastforward three years, and fresh round of testing (with different tests) shows IQ scores much, much higher than the earlier testing. In the earlier testing, he had more difficulty following directions, etc. Later, testing with SLPs showed relative weaknesses in the areas of auditory comprehension and auditory reasoning. These things are remediable.

 

Marie has given you lots of great advice. The clue hunt continues. I'd see an SLP who deals with language processing issues (I can't remember the name of the testing they did off the top of my head, but it's not uncommon or anything). I also agree with ruling out vision issues.

 

To the OP, based on what wapiti is saying here, I want to add that my dd has CAPD and there's a chance that that could have influenced her IQ testing. There was some scatter in the subtests so there may be more going on than that. At the same time, maybe that's something for you to think about. Typical achievement testing is reading in a quiet environment and that's the ideal situation for someone with CAPD.

 

FWIW, we just got dd's SAT scores back. They were more in line with her IQ than her achievement test history. (I wish it were the other way around! ;))

[Tokyomarie]

Marie is a rock star, so I can't add any new juicy tidbits of info other than support. My son's academic work in no way reflects his NP scores other than DS requiring more time to complete the work. These kids benefit immensely from one on one instruction, and I don't see these tests as predictive in outcome. I quit looking at my son's numbers as the testing and reality are so completely out of proportion.

 

I like Heather's characterization of scores as not being predictive in outcome. I have learned to see scores- IQ, achievement, and neuropsychological tests as being a snapshot of how the child was performing on a given day. A good tester will include his/her observations of the child's level of effort, engagement with the tasks presented, any signs of illness, discomfort, or tiredness which might indicate that the scores are not reflective of true potential as part of his narrative description of the test results.

 

My son's IQ scores generated two years ago are, IMNSHO, not truly reflective of his potential. I think there were aspects of his function at that time that led to his scores being somewhat depressed, but I do believe that the relationship of scores between the various subtests was pretty accurate. The overall picture of the scores from all the tests, together with the interpretation given by the evaluator, is what was most helpful.

 

Scores from some testing done later add to the picture, and also begin to show positive changes in developmental trajectory.

 

My middle child had psychoeducational testing done at 9.5yo. She had language testing done then and again a few years later. We did intensive work in language development for about 7-8 years. She never had another IQ test, but her SAT/ACT tests for college admission showed her verbal functioning to be very high and consistent with the original scores from her non-verbal IQ subtests from the original testing. Had she been reassessed with an IQ test at age 17-18yo, I believe her verbal scores would have shown a dramatic increase over the scores generated at 9.5yo.

 

Again, testing on any given day reflects function on that day. A longitudinal pattern over a few years time may be better at predicting ultimate outcome as an adult.