WISC-III

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/1580/sped/wisc.html

Robin

Planning, logical thinking and social knowledge, to be brief.

Thanks Robin and Anitya! It’s going to take me awhile to figure this all out.

Blessings, momo

Here’s something I found.

The Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. describes each WISC-III subtest as follows:

Information: factual knowledge, long-term memory, recall.

Similarities: abstract reasoning, verbal categories and concepts.

Arithmetic: attention and concentration, numerical reasoning.

Vocabulary: language development, word knowledge, verbal fluency.

Comprehension: social and practical judgment, common sense.

Digit Span: short-term auditory memory, concentration.

Picture Completion: alertness to detail, visual discrimination.

Coding: visual-motor coordination, speed, concentration.

Picture Arrangement: planning, logical thinking, social knowledge.

Block Design: spatial analysis, abstract visual problem-solving.

Object Assembly: visual analysis and construction of objects.

Symbol Search: visual-motor quickness, concentration, persistence.

Mazes: fine motor coordination, planning, following directions.

intelligence testing usually includes a measure of a visual motor speed (as in the Coding subtest) and a
measure of intellectual reasoning ability (as in the Similarities subtest). To develop an accurate picture of your
child’s strengths and weaknesses, you need to understand what the various subtests actually measure.

Picture arrangement is sequencing a story in pictures. The other two are working with one picture/idea at a time. Does she have trouble wiht sequencing?

Sometimes that kind of score drop will happen with a kid who’s not particularly auditory, has other language issues — because she doesn’t get the directions. If she was trying to make that task like the other two, that could have happened. Of course, I’m stretching wildly here — I sure wasn’t there at the test, I don’t know this kid, and there are probably ten other reasons that could happen. But I could imagine a very bright kid thinking that the questions were too easy and trying to make it harder than it was… I had a kiddo score ‘way low on “comprehension” who had ‘way high social savvy and that’s our best working theory for her.

Hi Sue & Anitya,

Yes, my 14yo dd has difficulty with sequencing in her written expression. Also, she does have problems with social skills, planning and logical thinking but she did score a 12 on comprehension. Here are the past & present scores:

May, 2001 November, 1996
Information 10 13
Similarities 14 15
Arithmetic 9 5
Vocabulary 13 13
Comprehension 12 12
Digit Span N/A 7
Picture Completion 15 15
Coding 10 10
Picture Arrangement 8 12
Block Design 15 11
Object Assembly 13 12
Symbol Search N/A 14
Mazes N/A N/A

Any ideas as to why there would be such big drop in Picture Arrangement? Also, why would long term memory be worse now than at age 9? And if Comprehension measures knowledge of appropriate social behavior/judgment, how is that different than the social knowledge measured by the Picture Arrangement?

Thanks again for all your help! Blessings, momo

I find this whole thread rathing interesting. My 9 year old PDD-NOS son just took this test and according to what I see here scored well for his particular disability. His low scores were in digit span-5; information-6; arthmitic-6; and comprhension 6; all his other scores were within the average range of 7-13. His highest scores were in picture completion; object assembly, and symbol search. Thanks for the insight to what some of these scores mean.

Her long-term memory may be just fine. Drops in information are common in kids with learning disabilities for any of a number of reasons. As you get older, you learn more of that “information” through school — reading or lecture or other verbal input. So if you’re not as good with that stuff, you’re not going to have the input going in to be processed. YOu’re not going to learn the answers to those “information” questions. This is really exacerbated if you’re put in lower-expectations LD classes where there’s simply a lot less information there to comprehend. Or, if a kid has gotten into a failure loop and has pretty much stopped engaging in learning at school, they’re just not learnign the stuff that those questions are about. Since they’re not engaged in thinking and remembering, yes, the long-term memory is also going to get worse. (I’ve seen it recover, too, with good placement.)

No real guesses on that Picture Arrangement without knowing the kiddo :) My personal theory is that some kids try to make that test harder than it is. It’s getting things in sequence — and they are pictures. The ‘comprehension” test is more verbal questions, and while *usually* a good score there means a kiddo is good at reading social situations, sometimes a kid knows the right words to say (this is what you are supposed to do when…) but doens’t actually apply it to life. HOwever, I’d take that 12 as a good sign that there may be hope for thos social skills. And somebody or something’s taught her not to be so afraid of doing simple arithmetic in her head ;)