OP here. Thank you all so much. I’ve been struggling with this. But all your own stories of your kids in similar situations, and your reassurances, make this much easier to handle. I need to accept that in the grand scheme of things, a test on an 8-year-old won’t determine her entire future.
Thank you again.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you for all the replies. DC scored in the average range for IQ (104), but low average for working memory (91) and high-average for GAI (116). All the other scores were average. I feel silly complaining about average scores, but DC has always excelled in school, which makes me wonder about the discrepency. We are also applying to some very competitive schools, and I don’t want DC’s chances to be jeopardized...

GAI is good. I wouldn't worry at all but those scores won't be good enough for a top school. I had someone tell me this re: my 2nd kid who scored similarly. Broaden your search if set on this year''s cycle.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you for all the replies. DC scored in the average range for IQ (104), but low average for working memory (91) and high-average for GAI (116). All the other scores were average. I feel silly complaining about average scores, but DC has always excelled in school, which makes me wonder about the discrepency. We are also applying to some very competitive schools, and I don’t want DC’s chances to be jeopardized...

If it's any consolation, my DC was tested with an IQ of about 110 at age 6. At the time I was a little stung and surprised, because I'd thought it would have been higher. He had a test a few years ago, as a tween, and his IQ tested in the 140s.

My takeaway is that IQ isn't stable through childhood, and that if you think your child is bright, you're probably right.
My son has somewhat slow processing but for some reason that's less of an issue now than it was then or anyway didn't impact the scores the same way. We haven't done anything special for the slow processing or gotten him accommodations.

Very similar story with my DC. IQ tested at 4 was 100 something. IQ tested at 7 was above 140 (on the new at the time WISC V). Also lower processing speed. DC is also shy.

Same takeaway. I don’t really trust IQ scores. Trust what you see in achievement.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you for all the replies. DC scored in the average range for IQ (104), but low average for working memory (91) and high-average for GAI (116). All the other scores were average. I feel silly complaining about average scores, but DC has always excelled in school, which makes me wonder about the discrepency. We are also applying to some very competitive schools, and I don’t want DC’s chances to be jeopardized...

How old is your DC?

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you for all the replies. DC scored in the average range for IQ (104), but low average for working memory (91) and high-average for GAI (116). All the other scores were average. I feel silly complaining about average scores, but DC has always excelled in school, which makes me wonder about the discrepency. We are also applying to some very competitive schools, and I don’t want DC’s chances to be jeopardized...

If it's any consolation, my DC was tested with an IQ of about 110 at age 6. At the time I was a little stung and surprised, because I'd thought it would have been higher. He had a test a few years ago, as a tween, and his IQ tested in the 140s.

My takeaway is that IQ isn't stable through childhood, and that if you think your child is bright, you're probably right.
My son has somewhat slow processing but for some reason that's less of an issue now than it was then or anyway didn't impact the scores the same way. We haven't done anything special for the slow processing or gotten him accommodations.

Op, you may have him tested in a few years and see his score go up. Some kids are late bloomers when it comes to testing.

OP, please don’t get hung up on this number. Obviously your child is smart, and probably more importantly, “gets” how to drill in on relevant information and the meat of questions if s/he is a strong performer in school. There are many people with “high” IQs that won’t get strong grades because of deficiencies in those areas.

I do understand your surprise at the number, but it is pretty meaningless in the big picture of whether your child will be successful in life. I am sure you know this

Signed, parent of much older kids

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you for all the replies. DC scored in the average range for IQ (104), but low average for working memory (91) and high-average for GAI (116). All the other scores were average. I feel silly complaining about average scores, but DC has always excelled in school, which makes me wonder about the discrepency. We are also applying to some very competitive schools, and I don’t want DC’s chances to be jeopardized...

These are almost identical to my sons scores. He is very bright, curious, and has an incredible memory. However, his processing speed is slow. He is in a private that understands this and he is thriving. It takes him a bit longer to understand the information, but once he does, he doesn’t forget it. On the report, the test administrator said his overall IQ is probably a bit higher than what his score shows because of the processing issues. We have long suspected he has executive functioning ADD, but he has never been formally diagnosed. We have found strategies to help him stay on task and for the moment, it’s working.

OP here. Thank you for all the replies. DC scored in the average range for IQ (104), but low average for working memory (91) and high-average for GAI (116). All the other scores were average. I feel silly complaining about average scores, but DC has always excelled in school, which makes me wonder about the discrepency. We are also applying to some very competitive schools, and I don’t want DC’s chances to be jeopardized...

OP, there are many reasons why your daughter could have scored low.

Given that it takes a while for the score to be processed with most testers and you do not mention that she was sick, it sounds like the score is "accurate," for what it's worth.

If there was a major issue with the tester, i.e. she frightened your child or your child had an anxious reaction, it's possible that she could have scored lower than her potential, but that's usually unlikely. Most testers who manage to stay in business as testers in this area know how to set children at ease, even shy children.

Without more information, such as age, subscores, etc, it's impossible to advise you well.

Much of what earlier posters have said is true, i.e. that young kids appear bright because of superior nurture, then have a harder time as core smarts become more important. Two of my DCs had their scores go higher on the WISC than on the WPPSI. Our tester warned us before the WISC that many scores go down. When I asked her why they'd gone up, she said the older the kids are, the more accurate a profile in intelligence.

So what are the scores and age OP?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could be a processing issue or something else that affected the overall score. People would have more useful input with more info - age of DC and score.

Yes, this. There is a way to calculate the score called the GAI if there is a significant processing speed issue. Could also have been an off day, a bad tester, who knows. If your child is thriving in school I would not worry about this now and would retest in a couple of years. If you are concerned because of private school admissions, then you could ask his current teacher to write a letter of support to counterbalance a wisc that misrepresents dc’s abilities. You also could pay for a one hour session to meet with the tester and get more information like did he/she think your child was having trouble connecting with him, was dc distracted, etc.

I agree. If processing speed is slow or working memory is not great, the total scores may not look great. But there may be few individual sections where she scores very high. You see this in 2e kids sometimes. Both of my kids had very discrepancy scores. For example, 99percentile in verbal reasoning and 50th percentile in another section. The schools will hopefully look closely and if the child is high achieving, with such scores, they may still be able to very well at a challenging school with appropriate support.

But if she is not yet school age, take the scores for what they are worth and retest around 2nd or 3rd grade.

And know that not bing in the upper 90th percentile really says nothing about your kid's value or worth, or your quality as a parent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could be a processing issue or something else that affected the overall score. People would have more useful input with more info - age of DC and score.

Yes, this. There is a way to calculate the score called the GAI if there is a significant processing speed issue. Could also have been an off day, a bad tester, who knows. If your child is thriving in school I would not worry about this now and would retest in a couple of years. If you are concerned because of private school admissions, then you could ask his current teacher to write a letter of support to counterbalance a wisc that misrepresents dc’s abilities. You also could pay for a one hour session to meet with the tester and get more information like did he/she think your child was having trouble connecting with him, was dc distracted, etc.

I agree. If processing speed is slow or working memory is not great, the total scores may not look great. But there may be few individual sections where she scores very high. You see this in 2e kids sometimes. Both of my kids had very discrepancy scores. For example, 99percentile in verbal reasoning and 50th percentile in another section. The schools will hopefully look closely and if the child is high achieving, with such scores, they may still be able to very well at a challenging school with appropriate support.

Anonymous wrote:The tester should be able to provide some insight on the testing. Listen to the feedback and don’t become defensive.
Look at the testers credentials - how long has the tester provided the tests and been interpreting the results? What is the testers personality like? Do you think he/she would connected with your child? There is no law against a retest and their is no database so if you feel it’s realky off get a second test done. In terms of admissions, you can’t submit more than one test per calendar year.

There are lots of kids in the early years that appear off the charts brilliant. That’s bc btw preK and most of 2nd the kids are doing work that have already mastered. It’s easy to excel at what you already know how to do. Then end of 2nd and 3rd is where they have to start doing something besides spit out facts and known answers and this is where lots of the issues come out.

Every word of this. There is science on this, but the short version is that THIS is why most systems don't even test for GT programs until 3rd grade or higher. Before that time, a lot of kids who look "really bright" are just well prepared.

Anonymous wrote:You know your DD best. She is very bright. Everyone can have an off test day, and many parents cheat by prepping their children well in advance. The good news: your DD can take comparables tests. If your DD does well, these results can be shared with private schools as a better reflection of her abilities. This eliminates the pressure of waiting a year to readminister the WISIC.

I would recommend Dr. Daisey Pascualvaca, 3301 New Mexico Ave, NW.

One could also drill down into the scores to discover if the child has an area where he/she needs help such as a processing issue. Some issues don’t just go away with time; some can become more of a problem as a child encounters more challenging work at school. This could be an opportunity to identify these areas.