Diagnosing Dyslexia using WISC
By Inderbir Kaur Sandhu, Ph.D
Q:
My daughter is 10 years old and is in the 4th grade. She has
recently completed the WISC 4th edition. Her test scores
range her in the "average" marks.
-
Visual Comprehension - 93/32
-
Preceptual Reasoning - 102/55
-
Working Memory - 116/86
-
Processing Speed - 109/73
-
Full Scale - 105/63
I am concerned that my daughter is dyslexic. Would these
test results give me any information in regard to dyslexic?
Please help me.
A: To diagnose dyslexia,
specific psychological tests may be necessary and this
includes the WISC (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for
Children). It provides a comprehensive diagnostic assessment
of a child's educational and cognitive strengths and
weaknesses; hence any distorted scores may be detected. The
ACID/AVID profiles (Arithmetic, Coding or Vocabulary,
Information, and Digit Span) may be used for this purpose.
Dyslexia is a poor visual memory for words. It may be
possible that some learning disabilities can cause IQ test
to be lower than one would expect. If you suspect that your
daughter may be dyslexic, this can affect her performance on
these tests. Some reasons are such as the low processing
speed that pulls down the scores.
If your daughter was given a WISC test, dyslexia and
processing would definitely play a part. Although not always
but nonverbal intelligence tests may give a clearer picture
for these children. It is best that you get in touch with
the psychologist who conducted the test for your daughter as
the scores need to be seen in great detail and this may not
be justified assuming based on a few scores only. The
psychologist may then recommend a specific diagnostic test
based on the interpretation.
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