WISC-IV With WIAT-II Writer Interpretive Sample Report

BACKTOMENUWISC-IV and WIAT-II Interpretive ReportInterpretation of WISC-IV ResultsHaley's unique set of thinking and reasoning abilities make her overall intellectual functioningdifficult to summarize by a single score on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – FourthEdition (WISC-IV). Her verbal reasoning abilities are much better developed than her nonverbalreasoning abilities. Making sense of complex verbal information and using verbal abilities tosolve novel problems are a strength for Haley. Processing complex visual information byforming spatial images of part-whole relationships and/or by manipulating the parts to solvenovel problems without using words is a less well-developed ability.Haley’s verbal reasoning abilities as measured by the Verbal Comprehension Index are in theHigh Average range and above those of approximately 79% of her peers (VCI 112; 95%confidence interval 105-118). The Verbal Comprehension Index is designed to measure verbalreasoning and concept formation. Haley performed comparably on the verbal subtestscontributing to the VCI, suggesting that these verbal cognitive abilities are similarly developed.Haley’s nonverbal reasoning abilities as measured by the Perceptual Reasoning Index are in theAverage range and above those of approximately 30% of her peers (PRI 92; 95% confidenceinterval 85-100). The Perceptual Reasoning Index is designed to measure fluid reasoning inthe perceptual domain with tasks that assess nonverbal concept formation, visual perception andorganization, simultaneous processing, visual-motor coordination, learning, and the ability toseparate figure and ground in visual stimuli. Haley performed comparably on the perceptualreasoning subtests contributing to the PRI, suggesting that her visual-spatial reasoning andperceptual-organizational skills are similarly developed. Haley performed much better onabstract concept formation and categorical reasoning tasks that did not require verbal expression(Similarities 12) than on abstract concept formation and categorical reasoning tasks thatrequired verbal expression (Picture Concepts 8).Haley's ability to sustain attention, concentrate, and exert mental control is in the Average range.She performed better than approximately 55% of her age-mates in this area (Working MemoryIndex 102; 95% confidence interval 94-109).Haley's ability in processing simple or routine visual material without making errors is in theAverage range when compared to her peers. She performed better than approximately 27% ofher peers on the processing speed tasks (Processing Speed Index 91; 95% confidence interval83-101). Processing visual material quickly is an ability that Haley performs less well than herverbal reasoning ability. Processing speed is an indication of the rapidity with which Haley canmentally process simple or routine information without making errors. Because learning ofteninvolves a combination of routine information processing (such as reading) and complexinformation processing (such as reasoning), a relative weakness in the speed of processingroutine information may make the task of comprehending novel information more timeconsuming and difficult for Haley. Thus, this relative weakness in simple visual scanning andtracking may leave her less time and mental energy for the complex task of understanding newmaterial. The noticed by Haley's referral source may be related to this weakness in processingspeed. Although much less developed than her verbal and nonverbal reasoning abilities Haley'sspeed of information processing abilities are still within the Average range and better than thoseCopyright 2003 by Harcourt Assessment, Inc.All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.Page 2

BACKTOMENUWISC-IV and WIAT-II Interpretive Reportof approximately 27% of her age-mates (Processing Speed Index 91; 95% confidence interval85-100).Personal Strengths and WeaknessHaley achieved her best performance among the verbal reasoning tasks on the Vocabularysubtest. Her strong performance on the Vocabulary subtest was better than that of most studentsher age. The Vocabulary subtest required Haley to explain the meaning of words presented inisolation. As a direct assessment of word knowledge, the subtest is one indication of her overallverbal comprehension. Performance on this subtest also requires abilities to verbalizemeaningful concepts as well as to retrieve information from long-term memory; (Vocabularyscaled score 13).Interpretation of WIAT-II ResultsReadingHaley presents a diverse set of skills on different aspects of reading. She performed much betteron tasks that assessed her capability to read sentences and paragraphs and answer questionsabout what was read (Reading Comprehension standard score 83) than on tasks that requiredher to correctly read a series of printed words (Word Reading standard score 72). A relativestrength in comprehension skills as compared to reading words in isolation may indicate thatHaley is able to derive meaning from text using context clues but may not have learnedvocabulary words to automaticity. For this reason, the Reading Composite score may not be themost accurate manner in which to summarize her reading skills. Her Reading Comprehensionsubtest score is higher than only approximately 13% of her peers, placing these skills in the LowAverage range. Haley’s performance on Word Reading is within the Borderline range andexceeds that of approximately 3% of students her age.MathematicsIn overall mathematics skills Haley performed in the Average range, as indicated by herMathematics Composite standard score (96). However, her skills in this area exceed that of onlyapproximately 39% of students her age. Haley's performance on tasks that required her to add,subtract, multiple, and divide one- to three-digit numbers (Numerical Operations standard score 103) is comparable to her performance on tasks that requires her to understand number,consumer math concepts, geometric measurement, basic graphs, and solve one-step wordproblems (Math Reasoning standard score 91).Oral LanguageHaley performed in the Low Average range in overall language skills, as indicated by herstandard score on the Oral Language Composite (81). Her skills in this area exceed those ofonly approximately 10% of students her age. Haley performed comparably on tasks thatrequired her to identify the picture that best represents an orally presented descriptor or generatea word that matches the picture (Listening Comprehension standard score 84) and generatewords within a category, describe scenes, and give directions (Oral Expression standard score 83).Copyright 2003 by Harcourt Assessment, Inc.All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.Page 3

BACKTOMENUWISC-IV and WIAT-II Interpretive ReportWritten LanguageIn overall written language skills, Haley performed in the Low Average range, as indicated byher Written Language Composite standard score (82). Her achievement in this area is betterthan of only approximately 12% of students her age. Haley's performance on tasks that requiredher to generate words within a category, generate sentences to describe visual cues, combinesentences, and compose an organized paragraph (Written Expression standard score 78) iscomparable to her performance on tasks that required her to correctly spell verbally presentedwords (Spelling standard score 88).Strengths And WeaknessesCompared to Haley's mean score for all WIAT-II subtests, her performance is significantly betterin Numerical Operations, indicating that this is an area of relative strength for her. Compared tothose of other children her age, however, her skills in this area are in the Average range.Word Reading and Pseudoword Decoding are notable weaknesses for Haley. Her scores onthese subtests are significantly less than her mean score for all WIAT-II subtests, indicating thatthese are areas of lower performance relative to her other skills. She performed better than onlyapproximately 3% and 5% of her peers on Word Reading and Pseudoword Decoding,respectively. Thus, Haley may experience great difficulty keeping up with other students whenthese skills are needed.Ability-Achievement Discrepancy Analysis Predicted MethodHaley's scores on the WIAT-II were compared to the levels of achievement predicted for astudent with her general cognitive ability, as indicated by her Verbal Comprehension score of112 on the WISC-IV administered 6/12/2003. Significant differences between actual andpredicted achievement scores are reported in this section.Haley displays difficulty with achievement in reading. She scored much lower on the ReadingComposite (actual score 75) than expected for a child with her general cognitive ability(predicted score 109). The difference between her actual and predicted scores is significant andhighly unusual. Thus, this is an area in which Haley may benefit from assistance in helping herfurther develop her skills. Word Reading (actual standard score 72), Pseudoword Decoding(actual standard score 75) and Reading Comprehension (actual standard score 83) are areasof difficulty for Haley. The difference between Haley's actual and predicted scores on the WordReading subtest (37 points) is both significant and highly unusual, and indicates a specificweakness in tasks that required her to correctly read a series of printed words. For thePseudoword Decoding and Reading Comprehension subtests, the discrepancy between her actualand predicted scores(32 points) and(26 points) is also significant, suggesting a specific weaknessin tasks that required Haley to correctly apply phonetic decoding rules when reading a series ofnonsense words and read sentences and paragraphs and answer questions about what was read.Specifically, there is a noteworthy difference between her Math Reasoning subtest score (91) andthe level of achievement anticipated for a student with her cognitive ability (predicted score 108). This significant and highly unusual difference indicates performance lower than expectedCopyright 2003 by Harcourt Assessment, Inc.All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.Page 4

BACKTOMENUWISC-IV and WIAT-II Interpretive Reporton tasks that required her to understand number, consumer math concepts, geometricmeasurement, basic graphs, and solve one-step word problems. Although lower than expected,Haley's performance in this area is still in the Average range.Haley displays difficulty with achievement in oral language. She scored much lower on the OralLanguage Composite (actual score 81) than expected for a child with her general cognitiveability (predicted score 109). The difference between her actual and predicted scores issignificant and highly unusual. Thus, this is an area in which Haley may benefit from assistancein helping her further develop her skills. Both Oral Expression (actual standard score 83) andListening Comprehension (actual standard score 84) are areas of difficulty for Haley. Thedifference between Haley's actual and predicted scores on the Oral Expression subtest (23 points)is both significant and highly unusual, and indicates a specific weakness in tasks that requiredher to generate words within a category, describe scenes, and give directions. For the ListeningComprehension subtests, the discrepancy between her actual and predicted scores (25 points) isalso significant, suggesting a specific weakness in tasks that required Haley to identify thepicture that best represents an orally presented descriptor or generate a word that matches thepicture.Haley displays difficulty with achievement in written language skills. She scored much lower onthe Written Language Composite (actual score 82) than expected for a child with her generalcognitive ability (predicted score 108). The difference between her actual and predicted scoresis significant and highly unusual. Thus, this is an area in which Haley may benefit fromassistance in helping her further develop her skills. Both Written Expression (actual standardscore 78) and Spelling (actual standard score 88) are areas of difficulty for Haley. Thedifference between Haley's actual and predicted scores on the Written Expression subtest (29points) is both significant and highly unusual, and indicates a specific weakness in tasks thatrequired her to generate words within a category, generate sentences to describe visual cues,combine sentences, and compose an organized paragraph. For the Spelling subtests, thediscrepancy between her actual and predicted scores (20 points) is also significant, suggesting aspecific weakness in tasks that required Haley to correctly spell verbally presented words.Haley's weakness in Oral Expression combined with her much better performance on the WISCIV verbal subtests (VCI High Average range) indicates that while functional use of languagemay be difficult for her, she can answer challenging verbal reasoning problems very well whennot unduly penalized for ineloquence of expression.SummaryHaley is an 11-year-old child who completed the WISC-IV and the WIAT-II. Her overallcognitive ability, as evaluated by the WISC-IV, cannot easily be summarized because her verbalreasoning abilities are much better developed than her nonverbal reasoning abilities. Haley'sreasoning abilities on verbal tasks are generally in the High Average range (VCI 112), whileher nonverbal reasoning abilities are significantly lower and in the Average range (PRI 92).She demonstrated relatively weak skills in Listening Comprehension, Math Reasoning, OralExpression, Pseudoword Decoding, Reading Comprehension, Spelling, Word Reading, andCopyright 2003 by Harcourt Assessment, Inc.All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.Page 5

BACKTOMENUWISC-IV and WIAT-II Interpretive ReportWritten Expression on the WIAT-II. Her skills in Math Reasoning are still within the rangeexpected for her age.Composite Scores SummaryScaleVerbal Comprehension (VCI)Perceptual Reasoning (PRI)Working Memory (WMI)Processing Speed (PSI)Full Scale (FSIQ)Sum 885-10094-10983-10196-106Copyright 2003 by Harcourt Assessment, Inc.All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.Page 6QualitativeDescriptionHigh AverageAverageAverageAverageAverage

BACKTOMENUWISC-IV and WIAT-II Interpretive ReportVertical bar represents the Standard Error of IPRI923.97FSIQWMI1024.24Copyright 2003 by Harcourt Assessment, Inc.All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.Page 7Score91101SEM4.742.6

BACKTOMENUWISC-IV and WIAT-II Interpretive ReportVerbal Comprehension Subtest Scores omprehension28ScaledScore121312Test ual Reasoning Subtest Scores SummaryRawSubtestsScoreBlock Design32Picture Concepts16Matrix Reasoning20ScaledScore989Test AgeEquiv.10:68:109:10PercentileRank372537Working Memory Subtest Scores SummaryRawSubtestsScoreDigit Span16Letter-Number Sequencing18(Arithmetic)23ScaledScore101110Test ing Speed Subtest Scores SummaryRawSubtestsScoreCoding45Symbol Search21(Cancellation)73ScaledScore989Test AgeEquiv.10:69:1010:2PercentileRank372537Copyright 2003 by Harcourt Assessment, Inc.All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.Page 8

BACKTOMENUWISC-IV and WIAT-II Interpretive ReportVertical bar represents the Standard Error of Measurement.SubtestScore SEMSubtestSimilarities (SI)121.24Picture Completion (PCm)Vocabulary (VC)131.08Digit Span (DS)Comprehension (CO)121.31Letter-Number Sequencing (LN)Information (IN)Arithmetic (AR)Word Reasoning (WR)Coding (CD)Block Design (BD)91.08Symbol Search (SS)Picture Concepts (PCn)81.24Cancellation (CA)Matrix Reasoning (MR)90.99Copyright 2003 by Harcourt Assessment, Inc.All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.Page 9ScoreSEM1011109891.120.91.20.991.341.2

BACKTOMENUWISC-IV and WIAT-II Interpretive ReportComposite Score DifferencesScaledScore 11121121129292102Discrepancy ComparisonsVCI - PRIVCI - WMIVCI - PSIPRI - WMIPRI - PSIWMI - PSIBase Rate by Overall SampleStatistical Significance (Critical Values) at the .05 levelScaledScore Subtest Score DifferencesScaledScaledDiscrepancy ComparisonsScore 1 Score 2Digit Span - Letter-Number Sequencing1011Coding - Symbol Search98Similarities - Picture Concepts128Digit Span - Arithmetic1010Letter-Number Sequencing - Arithmetic1110Coding - Cancellation99Symbol Search - Cancellation89Statistical Significance (Critical Values) at the .05 levelCopyright 2003 by Harcourt Assessment, Inc.All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.Page 10BaseRate47.1%40.2%13.0%44.4%43.0%

BACKTOMENUWISC-IV and WIAT-II Interpretive ReportDifferences between Subtest and Mean of Subtest ScoreMeanBlock Design910.1-1.10Similarities1210.11.90Digit Span1010.1-0.10Picture 2.90Letter-Number Sequencing1110.10.90Matrix Reasoning910.1-1.10Comprehension1210.11.90Symbol Search810.1-2.10Overall: Mean 10.1, Scatter 5, Base Rate 90.3%Statistical Significance (Critical Values) at the .05 3.443.56Copyright 2003 by Harcourt Assessment, Inc.All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.Page 11S/WSBaseRate 25% 25% 25% 25% 25%10-25% 25% 25% 25% 25%

BACKTOMENUWISC-IV and WIAT-II Interpretive ReportProcess Summary and Discrepancy AnalysisProcess ScoreRaw ScoreBlock Design No Time Bonus32Digit Span Forward9Digit Span Backward7Cancellation Random32Cancellation Structured41Process ScoreLongest Digit Span Forward (LDSF)Longest Digit Span Backward (LDSB)Raw Score64Process Discrepancy ComparisonsProcess ScoreRaw Score 1LDSF - LDSB6Base Rate by All AgesScaled Score91110810Base Rate63%72%Raw Score 24Scaled ScaledSubtest/Process ScoreScore 1 Score 2Block Design - B

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