Change in IQ score?

[Anonymous]

This is NOT intended to be a "my child is so gifted" post.

I wanted to ask your experience with fairly significant changes in IQ. My child was tested in second grade on the WISC and received a score in the 130's.

Two years later, she was tested again as part of neuropsych testing through which she received an ADHD dx.

Her IQ on this second WISC is 15 pts lower.

Both test administrators are highly qualified with good reputations.

Does anyone have experience with this?

[Anonymous]

My DS (ADHD primarily inattentive) hasn't had the WISC but he has taken the WASC (it's the abbreviated version of WISC) a couple of times as part of a research study. He typically scores very low - like village idiot low. The first time he took it, the researchers (who are very qualified to administer and interpret it) were quick to point out that they didn't think it was an accurate reflection of his actual intelligence. Because of the ADHD (and accompanying executive functioning deficits), he misses part of the question, he gets things in the wrong order, he forgets the question, etc. especially when he's unmedicated. When he's medicated and can attend better, he scores go up although the researchers don't believe the test provides an accurate reflection of his intelligence even then. Even on medication, he's got slower processing speed and poor working memory. HTH.

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP. I think my child has the processing speed and working memory issues as well.

[Anonymous]

My DS' scores started very low as well and climbed quite a bit. My guess is that the WISC was more demanding on the type of attention skills OP's DC was dealing with, the second time. I wouldn't take it as accurate.

[Anonymous]

What this means totally depends on how each subtest changed, and what the pattern was. Without that information, you can't really even make a guess about what is going on.

[Anonymous]

15 points is just 1 standar deviation. I wouldn't be too concerned. Factors such as rapport with examiner, tiredness, attention spa, etc can definitely affect things.

[Anonymous]

Ditto what 13:49 said. My DS has the same DX. All those tests show him as low to low-average when we know he's smart as whip...not a genius, just smart.
he misses parts of questions, answers them too quickly, gets tired so he rushes because his brain is tired.

Can't wait till high school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:15 points is just 1 standar deviation. I wouldn't be too concerned. Factors such as rapport with examiner, tiredness, attention spa, etc can definitely affect things.

At the risk of sounding like a math geek (more specifically a stats geek), what you are talking about is more than "JUST one standard deviation." 100 to 115 is one sigma. 115 to 130 is two sigma. 130+ is 3 sigma. It's all in relation to the mean. As an alternative, I offer you the far more appropriate "God damn! Our reliability number changed by ONE (sigma)? Seriously? What THE FUCK went wrong?!"

[Anonymous]

22:23 OP here. You made me laugh! But that was exactly my reaction.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if this helps, but my child took an IQ test (not sure which one) for ADHD testing. Her final score was 128. That said, three components of the five tested were well into the 130's (like 137) and one was 100. The one that was 100 was the "knowledge" catagory - the tester said that one was often low when the child has impulsivity issues. The child claims to be "done" having answered well enough and wants to move on. The child could give a more complete answer, but can't because she is too impulsive to stick with a question. So basically, her impulsivity drove her total score down (though not 15 points).

I know some ADHD doesn't show up until later - is it possible that your daughter has developed greater impulsivity or attention span issues compared to her peers since the last IQ test was given?

[Anonymous]

I don't understand. In school, under IDEA and special ed law, schools are required to accommodate for known disabilities. Are "accommodations" made for known disabilities when IQ testing is done? It would seem to me if a child is known to be impulsive, then un-modified IQ testing would not be reflective of child's actual IQ. IQ tests are not really meant to reveal underlying disabilities -- they are supposed to test some kind of natural "ability." What happens in these type of situations?

[Anonymous]

I'm 1:10. In our case, the IQ testing was just part of a battery of tests given by a private psychologist. The test just happens to reveal certain issues - impulsivity being one of them. If those same issues come up consistantly in other tests as well (plus parent interviews, etc), then the child receives the appropriate diagnosis.

The point was not to measure her IQ - that was just a side effect, if you will. (And I agree, I believe her "true IQ" is higher, but it's not something we are focused on right now).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:22:23 OP here. You made me laugh! But that was exactly my reaction.

Happy to help.

[Anonymous]

My child was evaluated in 2nd grade and took a bunch of subtests under those categories. For admissions testing she recently took the WISC-IV. Some of her scores changed-- some went up and some went down. The overall IQ was about the same. The tester told me that the admissions testing did not have all the subtests so maybe that's what happened to your child -- the number of subtests went up in the 2nd round and "caught" something that brought down her overall IQ score. I know my child's score is lowered by poor processing speed.

[Anonymous]

My child's tested IQ (by Child Find Montgomery County) at age 4, 75.

IQ at 7 (MCPS) 127