• Jing Ying says: 
May 9, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Dear Melissa, 
Thank you for your very insightful posts – I’ve learnt much from it 
I was wondering, what happens if the converse is true? i.e., if the verbal comprehension abilities is significantly lower than his speed of processing? would this profile also cause some kind of frustration, and why might that be so? 
Looking forward to hearing from you. 
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  • Melissa Mullin, Ph.D. says: 
May 9, 2011 at 6:14 pm( ) 
That is a great question. There are many profiles where signficant differences in learning skills pose learning challenges. The highly verbal child who has trouble writing down his thoughts becomes frustrated because she knows what she wants to write, but the difficulty of writing the ideas down is hard. The reverse profile, quick processing speed with low verbal skills, would be challenging for different reasons. This type of student can quickly write but doesn’t have the vocabulary or expressive language skills to articulate his thoughts. There are many variables to consider with this profile. Is there is difference between receptive ( what he understands) language and expressive (what he can say) language? Is there a global language deficit or a specific deficit? Is the fast processing speed making it hard for the child to slow down to think before talking or writing. Is this child a “rusher” who need to slow down over all?
I hope this answers your question.
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• Elizabeth Washington says: 
September 3, 2011 at 11:04 pm( ) 
Hello! I am a School Psychological Examiner and I have three sons of my own. My oldest son just turned 6 and I administered the WISC-IV on him because of difficulties that he is having in Kindergarten and the need to develop strategies at home to help him. His Processing Speed Index is significantly higher than his other index scores and I’m having a hard time understanding how it is so much higher. His FSIQ and GAI are only 6 points apart and I know that they have to be at least 8 points apart to be considered statistically significant at the .05 level. If you could give me any insight, I would greatly appreciate it. Here are his scores:
Composite Scores Summary 
Verbal Comprehension (VCI) 73 4 68-81 Borderline
Perceptual Reasoning (PRI) 82 12 76-91 Low Average
Working Memory (WMI) 86 18 79-95 Low Average
Processing Speed (PSI) 109 73 99-117 Average
Full Scale (FSIQ) 81 10 77-87 Low Average
GAI 75
Any insight or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!!
REPLY
  • Melissa Mullin, Ph.D. says: 
September 6, 2011 at 7:19 pm( ) 
It is always hard to know what is going on with children and their learning. Looking at the scores you have shared, the most important thing to me is the low Verbal Comprehension score. I don’t have the subtest score so I don’t know if one low score pulled the Index score down, or if all the scores were low. Language is important for so much of learning. If this were my child I would go for a Speech and Language Evaluation and investigate what is going on there. If he has weak auditory processing skills it will affect his reading, listening comprehension and language development. Your son’s Processing Speed is average, so that is good. I would not worry about significant differences as much as building the skills that are low. I hope this helps.
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    • Elizabeth Washington says: 
September 16, 2011 at 12:01 am( ) 
Thank you so much for your reply! He is currently on an IEP for Speech and Language with 30 minutes daily of academics. However, he is on grade level with academics but he has a hard time processing verbal commands. His Verbal Comprehension subtest scaled scores are as follows:
Similarities: 6
Vocabulary: 8
Comprehension: 2
Thanks so much!
• Denise Blake says: 
November 7, 2012 at 9:47 pm 
In trying to find out the best way to help my 14 year old do better at school and revise for exams I came across your responses, I would be grateful for any advise you could offer. My son’s recent assessment shows his profile as 
Verbal Comprehension Composite Score 99
Perceptual Reasoning Composite Score 117
Working Memory Composite Score 94
Processing Speed Composite Score 136 ( coding 17, symbol search 16).
word reading ss 114
Reading comprehension s.s 118
Spelling s.s 110
Math Reasoning 101
Could you suggest any particular techique for use to retain information in preparation for exams? Does his score indicate he would be better in a particular type of occcupation?
REPLY
  • Melissa Mullin, Ph.D. says: 
November 30, 2012 at 12:13 am 
It is always an interesting exercise to try to figure out what type of jobs our children would be best in. In today’s age of constant change I think any choice we make at this point will probably be obsolete by the time for children are out in the working world. It is always fun to look at the skills that a child has and to think about where they could best be used.
  • Looking at your child’s scores I see that he is good at solving visual spatial puzzles, good at whole/part relations and coming up with a novel solution. I also see that he has very quick fine motor skills and a fine eye for detail. His visual scores are higher than his auditory scores, so he may like a job that has visual components to it, like architecture, computer programming, design. Your son’s reading comprehension is good while his math reasoning is a bit lower. But what I know about people is that when there is a will there is a way. Your son’s scores are strong across the board so I think he will do well at what ever he has a passion to succeed in.
  • Now, to address the issue about how to help him on exams. My first advice would be to make sure he slows down when he takes the test. His processing speed is faster than his ability to mentally solve the problems presented. He needs to make sure that he gives himself time to read the question, think about the answer and THEN write the answer down. Additionally, his perceptual reasoning skills are higher than his working memory skills. When studying he would do well to use flashcards. He should write information on the flashcards so that he is putting the parts of information on individual cards and the whole concept on another. He should be able to make mind maps of the concepts and details. He should look at his studies as a puzzle to be solved rather than information to be memorized.
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