Emily Adams

Administration of the WIAT-III:

Results and Intervention Recommendations
Spring 2014
California State University, Chico
I administered the WIAT-III (Wechsler Individual Achievement Test - Third Edition)
to Corrin Richman on April 10th, 2014. I have known Corrin throughout her life, so we
have established a good rapport. She was cooperative and attentive during testing, but
a little tired as it was nearing her bedtime. Upon analyzing, I entered her incorrect age.
Therefore, the following are subtest scores based on age equivalent norms for 7 years,
11 months, when in reality Corrin was 8 years, 2 months. I also mistakenly tested
Corrin for third grade instead of her actual second grade level. Consequently, her
Standard Scores may be influenced. In light of these mistakes, I erred in her favor
particularly if she correctly answered subsequent items.
While Corrin was tested with the WIAT-III in English because it is her primary
language, she has been enrolled in a Spanish immersion program for the last 3 years.
This program presents most academic subjects in Spanish rather than English. This
might have an influence on her present reading and writing abilities. Her academic
English language proficiency is expected to develop by the end of fifth grade. We took
two water breaks; Forty minutes and one hour after test administration had begun.
Standard Scores have an average score of 100, with the average range being 85-115.
Percentiles have an average score of 50. Corrins results are as follows:
Total Reading
Composite Reading Standard Score is 88 (21st %ile), which is in the Average range.
Early Reading Skills: On this subtest, Corrin was asked to name letters, rhyme
words, identify letter sounds, and match pictures to words. She performed very well on
this subtest. Her Standard Score was 118, placing her in the 88 th percentile which is
Above Average. She answered with complete sentences, although it is not required.
How many balls are there? There are five balls. Which letter makes the g sound, as
in gate? G makes the g sound, as in gate. This implies a good working memory. I
repeated one of the questions in Early Reading Skills to give her a second try because I
knew she had simply made a mistake. Which two words begin with the same sound,
man, van, mud? She answered incorrectly; I immediately repeated it exactly the same
way the second time and she answered correctly. This was a judgment on my part since
I knew her answer was accidental. She continued answering the following 15 items
correct with only one other repeated question before giving her answer.

Reading Comprehension: Corrin was asked to read short passages and answer
questions about the main idea, specific details, or the order of events. She performed
well on this subtest with a Standard Score of 99, placing her in the 47 th percentile which
is in the Average range. Since she performed well in the third grade level of this subtest
I added correct scores to the second grade level items to obtain the raw score.
Word Reading: This subtest asks the student to read from a list of words as
quick and accurately as they can. Corrin performed well tracking the words with her
finger, but read slowly, possibly not understanding the urgency of the activity. This was
one of the last items I administered, and fatigue had most likely set in. Her Standard
Score was 87, placing her in the 19th percentile, which is at the low end of the Average
range.
Pseudoword Decoding: This subtest asks the student to read from a list of
nonsense words to demonstrate her phonetic abilities. She read each word a little slow
but most of them accurate. This was another one of the last items I administered where
fatigue had most likely set in; therefore, I chose not to prompt her to pronounce the
words quicker. Her Standard Score was 90, placing her in the 25 th percentile, which is
in the Average range.
Oral Reading Fluency: Corrin was timed as she read passages aloud and
answered questions regarding the content. Corrin would relate each story to a personal
story which shows her application skills. Since I mistakenly tested her ability at a third
grade level instead of her actual second grade level, I estimated her performance at the
second grade level. This may have negatively influenced her results. Her Standard
Score was 90, placing her in the 25th percentile, which is in the Average range.
Written Expression
Composite Written Language Standard Score is 85 (16 th %ile), which is at the low end of
the Average range.
Alphabet Writing Fluency: This subtest asked Corrin to write as many letters of
the alphabet as quickly as she could. This was the very first subtest administered. Its
my suspicion she may have been more concerned about her penmanship than the
speed of the activity. Her Standard Score is 81, placing her in the 10 th percentile, which
is Below Average.
Sentence Composition: Corrin was asked to combine 2 and 3 sentences into
one complete sentence. Three of five of her sentences met prerequisites. The
remaining two were the last, more advanced items. Of the three that met prerequisites,
each included proper semantics and grammar but also included punctuation and
spelling errors. Corrin was then asked to construct a sentence using a given word such
as the and than. Five of seven of her sentences met prerequisites, given further
prompting from myself, all 7 would have. I chose not to prompt since this item was

presented near the end (closer to her bedtime) and fatigue was setting in. The
qualifying five answers included proper semantics and grammar but also included minor
spelling errors. Her Standard Score is 97, placing her in the 42 nd percentile, which is in
the Average range.
Spelling: Corrin was asked to write out words based on their meaning as I used
each in a sentence aloud. She attempted each word with determination without ever
answering I dont know. Some of these words she spelled phonetically (stationary
stashinary). This might be a result of the Spanish language rules she has been
taught, considering Spanish words are spelled phonetically. Her Standard Score is 87,
placing her in the 19th percentile, which is at the low end of the Average range.
Mathematics
Composite Mathematics Standard Score is 85 (16th %ile), which is at the low end of the
Average range.
Math Problem Solving: This subtest prompts the student with applied math
problems using time, money, and fractions. When we encountered an item with a
fraction, she claimed she didnt know what fractions were, so she guessed to her best
ability. When an answer was 1/6, she replied one half of one third I counted it as
correct although she didnt respond with the reduced fraction, it was the correct amount.
Even with that point, she still placed very low on this subtest and I am unsure why. It
seems as though she correctly answered the questions appropriate at a second grade
level. This may be due to an error on my part during results analysis. Her Standard
Score is 72, placing her in the 3rd percentile, which is Considerably Below Average.
Numerical Operations: This subtest asks the student to solve addition,
subtraction, multiplication, and division problems using whole numbers. Corrins
addition skills are strong even with 3-digit numbers. She struggled with subtraction
items using more than 1-digit, and each multiplication problem. Her Standard Score is
101, placing her in the 53rd percentile, which is in the Average range.
Math Fluency-Addition and Subtraction: Corrin was asked to complete as many
one-digit and two-digit addition and subtraction problems as quickly as she could within
60 seconds per subject. Her addition skills are strong, and her subtraction skills could
be improved with practice. She sometimes added two numbers instead of subtracting
them. Her Standard Score for addition is 88, placing her in the 21 st percentile, which is
Average. Her Standard Score for subtraction is 83, placing her in the 13 th percentile,
which is Below Average.
Intervention Recommendations

The following recommendations assume Corrins lower achievement scores are

not due to an intentional language delay through her Spanish immersion program or
due to my mistakes during test administration and analysis.
Corrin would benefit from focused development of her reading fluency skills. She
reads at a slow rate. Concentrated word reading and whole passage reading would
yield improvements. Her phonetic abilities are strong, therefore, interventions should
not focus on letter sounds or rhyming. It would also not be beneficial for interventions to
focus on increasing working memory capacity, as she shows ability to retain multiple
chunks of information in mind at once, even when fatigued.
Corrins sentence-forming abilities seem to be fine, including semantics and
grammar. However, she would benefit from interventions that focus on spelling,
punctuation. Since her phonemic abilities are fine, learning English word rules that are
not phonetically spelled is encouraged (e.g. silent letters and stationary not
stashinary).
Math interventions should focus on increasing Corrins familiarity and
automaticity with addition, subtraction and multiplication, with an emphasis on
subtraction and multiplication. I recommend drilling and practicing these with flash
cards, interactive games, and by explaining the rules and steps of each different type of
problem. She is not easily distracted, so either one-on-one or group instruction would
prove beneficial.
Websites such as FunBrain, Intervention Central, and StarFall have very fun,
interactive games for math and English that can meet Corrins needs. These sites
would allow her teacher, aide, or parent to create enjoyable and personalized math and
English tests that are presented as games.
Personal Performance:
There were a few errors I made during test administration. As I began, I felt
confident, given that I had practiced earlier that day. However, for the first twenty
minutes or so, my directions were not as fluid as I would have liked. Since I included
numerous pauses between exercises as I organized the format, it may have accounted
for the length of time I took to administer the test in its entirety. This will be improved
with more practice.
I have also learned about doing my best to eliminate distractions in the
environment. This includes being within earshot of another proctor administering a test,
as you can quite clearly hear in my video, and practicing restraint from laughing as the
student loudly slurps on ice throughout administration.
In the future I will also give more encouraging comments such as, Youre doing a
great job, to keep up her motivation when she became restless. One factor of the

restlessness was fatigue. The test was given right before her bedtime, so I was trying
her patience. However, for the most part she was focused and cooperative. I have also
learned to provide snacks. She was also eating cookies the whole time which may
have helped willingness.