Determinants of WISC-R subtest stability in children with learning difficulties

Abstract

The effects of age and IQ level upon the stability of WISC‐R subtests were investigated. The subjects were 130 children with learning difficulties who were referred for a second psychological assessment because of a continuing academic lag. The mean test‐retest interval was 2 years, 8 months. Although the mean change scores for the subtests were relatively small, the standard deviation of the change scores was close to three for most of the subtests. This indicates considerable subtest score fluctuation, with losses cancelled by gains to some extent. Children under age 8 and children with above‐average IQs were most affected by declining scores. Caution is recommended in interpreting subtest profiles for young and/or high‐IQ children with learning difficulties.

Adolescents with Low Intelligence Are at Risk of Functional Somatic Symptoms: The TRAILS Study

“…Therefore, we used a shortened version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, the WISC-R [12]. The WISC-R is suitable for participants of age between 6 years and 16 years 11 months [14] and is agestandardized to compare different age groups with each other [15]. The shortened version of the WISC-R consists of a vocabulary subtest and a block design subtest.…”

The Stability of WISC-III Scores: For Whom are Triennial Re-Evaluations Necessary?

“…Results of this study indicated that mean VIQ , PIQ and FSIQ scores significantly decreased over administrations by means of3.12, 6.36 and 5.32 points, respectively, over the three-year period. Such results are consistent with previous research investigating the stability of the WISC-R (Bauman , 1991) .…”

“…Based on previous research investigating the stability of scores with the WISC and WISC-R, it was predicted that students receiving an initial FSIQ below 90 would have more stable correlation coefficients than subjects scoring above 109. Results confirmed these previous studies whereby children with initial FSIQ below 90 demonstrated significantly higher test-retest correlation coefficients for VIQ, PIQ and FSIQ scores than children scoring above 109 (Naglieri & pfeiffer, 1983;Bauman, 1991;Klonoff: 1972).…”

“…Higher correlation coefficients were reported in a study conducted by Lally, Lloyd and Kulberg (1987) In order to investigate the effects of initial IQ score on IQ stability, Bauman ( 1991) divided his 130 elementary school subjects into three groups on the basis of initial FSIQ score. The three groups consisted of children who received an initial FSIQ below 90, which was identified as the "below average " group; 90-110 was identified as the "average " group; and above 110 was classified as the "above average" group.…”

“…Results indicated that while the mean IQ scores for the entire sample of 130 children significantly declined between testings for VIQ and FSIQ scores , the "above average group" suffered a significantly greater loss on all three subscales than the "below average" IQ group . Bauman ( 1991) explained that regression toward the mean is not responsible for the loss in scores because this explanation would have predicted that below average groups would make significant gains in IQ scores which did not occur . Gender Elliott et al (1985) results suggest that the variable , gender , has a minimal influen ce on test score stability .…”