WISC IQ Test, what are they looking for?

[moosemama]

Hi, got feedback from our lovely Ed Pysch lady today regarding ds1's observation and introductory meeting with her.

Its all good, we are singing from the same song sheet, am very pleased with how they want to proceed etc.

She mentioned that they would like to do the WISC (Weschler Intelligence Scale) IQ test with him in a couple of weeks time, as it will help them to be sure they are heading the right direction with him and at the time I said that was fine.

Since coming off the telephone, I have realised I have no clue what they are looking for and how they might use the results to help them in their work with him.

I have googled a little and read Wiki etc, but am still none the wiser. (Obviously my IQ is too low to understand it .)

Can anyone possibly help me get my head around it?

Almost forgot, the EPs are doing some of the pre-work for ds's multi-dip assessment and this test is apparently part of that process.

We did it recently to highlight DDs strengths and weaknesses. Its a series of tests with pictures, questions, matching block patterns, copying symbols and following instructions. You generally get a full IQ score as a result, although for us DD had a big difference between her verbal IQ and her performance IQ so it would not show her difficulties to give us a combined one. As a result we learned that DD is a visual learner and stuggles to process verbal communication, has difficulties with all aspects of verbal communication like forming sentences etc. She is brilliant at coding! :)

This was our last test before we got the report.

Does that help at all or am I just waffling on! :)

Yes, thank you that does help.

She said that she will give us a full copy of the results and arrange an appointment to walk us through them as they are notoriously complicated.

Am I right in thinking it will help them to work out whether he is performing at the right level at school?

He is doing very well academically, but really struggling to respond when his teacher asks him to do something etc. If he does respond its always with a delay, by which time he is in trouble for not responding iyswim. He is able to repeat back what his teacher asked, but despite that, hasn't processed the meaning of what she said iyswim. The EP said she witnessed this several times during her observation, but that the teacher is not handling it very well and she thinks this is the reason behind him starting to be difficult for that particular teacher.

Woolytree was similar to ours. Has been done on both NT and ASD children. Showed that both have poor working memory but excelllent non verbal skill. With NT child they said she would just have to work much hard to remember the work. With ASD child it showed that she can learn and proved that there is inteligence there but she struggles due to lack of verbal skills.

Not sure if that helps but they are confusing and I refused to let my ASD DD have one when she was younger as I was worried it would be used against her by school. (we were having problems with the school at the time).

My DD needs instructions repeating and simplifying. She is doing well at drawing and reading but doesnt understand what the words mean. We didnt get a walk through follow up! :(

It should help with school issues as the report will highlight specific difficulties/strengths that they have to repond to. As many other MN mums advised dont concentrate on the figures to much, a lot can depend on a DCs state of mind and willingness to perform.

Thanks for your replies.

I am still confused as to how it will help them, I suppose it may all become clearer when we get the results.

We have been very lucky with our EP, she is so lovely and totally on side. I do really appreciate her.

Ds has high reading and comprehension skills and doesn't struggle verbally, although can be fairly pragmatic, although we have spent a lot of time teaching him common metaphors etc in an attempt to assuage this.

One of his main difficulties is that he has a lot of knowledge (he is constantly reading and loves learning facts) but fails to use it within his schoolwork. Eg he can bore for England talk for hours on any subject he has read about - particularly anything scientific, but when they cover the topic in class, he won't use any of the knowlege he has to inform his work. So, he passes every single test they throw at him with top marks, but never completes his classwork, or if he does its done minimally and you would never believe it was done by the same child that scores so highly on the end of subject tests.

I tried last year to get the school to look at this, but they said they had never come across the problem before and didn't know what to do about it. Basically they were just happy that he was passing all his tests.

I, on the otherhand, can see the day coming in the not too distant future, where he is no longer assessed by discreet testing, but has continuous assessment making up a large part of his results. When that happens his achievement will plummet and so will his self-confidence/esteem.