WISC-IV Interpretive report

Examinee information

Examinee Name: Mr. A

Date of Report: 22nd April 2019

Gender: Male

Age: 7 years

Purpose for Evaluation

Ahsan was referred by his school for assessment, as he is, currently in first grade at a public

elementary school, and struggling with daily classroom tasks. Additionally, he has been acting

out in the class, and inappropriately disrupting the class at least two to three times a day, as

reported by his class teacher.

Evaluation procedure

Ahsan was assessed with the help of interview from parents to understand his context, and his

cognitive ability was assessed by the administration of Wechsler Intelligence scale- IV, Bender-

Gestalt Visual Motor test (BGVMT) and (WRAT), in congruence with behavioral observation

during history taking sessions and administration.

History and Presenting problems

Ahsan is a 7-year-old Pakhtoon boy, his both parents reported that he had been a “model child”,

4 months prior when these behavioral problems began. He has met all his developmental
milestones on time; he was a curious child who crawled and walked in an age-appropriate

manner, and toilet training had gone smoothly as well. On the first day of school, he did not wish

to leave his mother but grew “fine with the arrangement, shortly. In K.G class, he was doing

academically sound and no difficulties were reported by his teacher in reading or other academic

areas/behavior. Both parents called his K.G teacher, “excellent and warm”. Ahsan’s mother

further added that “they all loved Ahsan”. Despite problems in their own relationship, they had

never shown it in front of Ahsan (Parents have been having quarrels regarding money and

“other” issues but never in front of Ahsan). While talking about Ahsan’s social life, they

reported that he had many friends. Ahsan, himself reported that he liked his teacher. He further

added that sometimes things were hard. When asked to elaborate, he added that it was hard to

explain. When asked how things were at home, he appeared rather quiet and said that ‘my

parents should see me more” and did not wish to elaborate.

Ahsan’s mother stated that he had always been a “good kid” and he never had difficulties in

school with his behavior prior to the current academic year. In K.G. class, he had been attentive

and cooperative, with no academic difficulties. At home, he had always behaved “well”. Upon

inquiry regarding what has changed, she said that his teacher has certain concerns. She went on

to report that his teacher has discussed with them a noticeable change in his reading ability,

which appeared to be lagging behind others in the class. She also said that during the past several

months, Ahsan has been misbehaving at school and home. When the assessor asked her to

describe, what she meant by “misbehaving, she elaborated that, he “does not listen to his father,

throws tantrums whenever he is asked to do anything --- he either starts crying and

screaming or throwing things. He, however, is warm and loving with me

Behavioral observation

Ahsan appeared interested in all the tasks during the assessment. However, found few of them to

be “boring” (PSI). On tasks that required mental effort, he grew increasingly frustrated. He

would then scowl and start jumping around and had to be seated. He gave information freely in

general. On sensitive topics, he refused to answer (nature of difficulty at school and environment

at home)

Interpretation of WISC-IV

Ahsan was assessed by administering the 10 core subtest of WISC-IV from which it was

deduced that his ability to perform mental activities that are associated with learning and

problem solving are average in comparison to his age group (FSIQ=107, CI= 97-107). His

overall ability is better than 55% of his age group. These show that he generally might not be

facing any serious problems in daily living that require cognitive abilities. His overall

performance reflects the complaints of teachers and matches with his academic achievement.

However, it is considered that WISC is developed and normed in the United States, where the

language and cultural context is different from where Ahsan belongs to. So there is a possibility

that he might have performed well on the tasks if they were developed in accordance with

Pakistani culture and a language to which he is more familiar with. So there is a possibility that

his current score is pulled down due to culturally loaded items and not being well aware of the

English language. Moreover, his scores were compared with the normative group of Western sample

and this comparison might be underestimating his true overall intellectual ability. The ability of Ahsan

can be better understood by interpreting his performance separately on tasks requiring different

abilities (index level interpretation).

Ahsan’s ability of verbal abstract reasoning processing verbal information, verbal expression,

long-term recall, and verbal concept formation is in the average range (VCI=95, CI= 89-102). As

the task on this subtest requires an individual to listen and respond after reasoning and retrieving

information from long-term memory. As the ability to form and understand verbal concepts; to reason

and express verbally and to use knowledge is acquired from the environment, there might be a

possibility that due the culturally loaded items in this subset have influenced the scores and he

might have performed better if the verbal tasks were in his own language. Ahsan’s score on

verbal ability tasks can be understood and validated by his complaints in school. His teachers

have complained about his declining reading abilities in the class. The test score also shows that

Ahsan might be struggling with his ability to complete tasks that require verval comprehension

in comparison to taks requiring other sorts of abilities such as perceptual reasoning or processing

speed.His parents have reported that he is having social and emotional problems in home and

school, Ahsan himself did not talk about them. He is a 7-year-old boy and according to reports

he was doing well 4 months prior, it implies that he might have received a rich learning

environment but his performance on WISC does not reflect that. There is a possibility that his

emotional and mental state while performing tasks on the test might have influenced his score

and he might have performed better if he were relaxed. The history reveals that Ahsan was doing

well his reading ability was sufficiently developed, there might be a possibility that something

happened in the past four months in school or at home that he did not talk about. That problems

faced in school and his desire to gain attention might be influencing his behavior and ability to

learn in school. As at his age, the child has just started learning English in schools in Pakistan,

and there are fewer or no opportunities to learn new English vocabulary and reading skills at

home especially when the child is complaining about parents not giving enough time and
attention. Thus, there might be a possibility that his language learning was going well but these

four months his attention decreased, his learning in class was effected and thus he was not

learning as his other classmates.

Ahsan’s ability to ability to reason with nonverbal/ visual information, to come up with creative ideas

and reason in novel situations and the reason is a response to visual stimuli is average (PRI=112,

CI= 103-119). His ability is better than 79% of the normative age group. This shows that his

abilities are sufficiently developed to form non-verbal concepts, and simultaneously process

information, which means that he might have an edge when making split-second decisions and

making judgments in situations not known to him. It can also be inferred that he will do well on

tasks requiring analytical and abstract reasoning as per required from his age. This shows that he

might prefer and enjoy tasks that are novel and demand creativity. Moreover, the score also

suggests that visual-motor coordination, visual perceptual and learning and the ability to

understand the relation between parts and whole might be sufficiently developed. His performance

on BGVMT that requires one’s visual motor integration that required her to copy and later recalls designs

given on cards is in the average range and thus it corroborates with her observed ability to reason with

nonverbal material indicated in performance on tasks of perceptual reasoning in WISC. This shows that

Ahsan can independently work with tasks that require perceptual reasoning in daily life. His score reflects

his academic performance in school, as his performance in school is also not going well above average,

The behavioral observation shows that he got frustrated as the task got difficult, this shows that he might

be feeling angry. Frustration is common among children who face issues with attention and learning, thus

there might be a possibility that Ahsan having the same issues. However, his issues are not to a level to be

diagnosed as a learning or attention-related disorder as his performance is average. However, he still is

struggling with attention, this is also seen in his school as he runs around and shows tantrum as reported

by his father and teacher. His struggle with attention might be due to him being preoccupied with a
thought related to his family problems, and they are influencing his ability to attend and consequently

learn in class and perform on WISC. This also shows that he might be having achievement goals as his

academic history shows, but his inability to achieve those goals might be making him angry and frustrated

during his life when he shows tantrums and during the test. This is also evident form his average results

on WRAT that he is a boy who has performed average even in comparison to wesetern norm group.

Ahsan’s ability to sustain attention, concentration and exercise mental control is average, his

ability is developed enough to carry out tasks in daily life but well enough to help him in a

complicated working memory task. In comparison to his age fellows; on tasks of working

memory, he performed better than 40% of individuals in her age range. The task of working

memory index requires mental manipulation, encoding and processing auditory stimuli, mental

alertness, mental manipulation, sequential processing, cognitive flexibility, and visual-spatial

imagery. This implies that his ability to perform the time-consuming task of organizing complex

data is average. Furthermore, he might face difficulty when faced with tasks that demand multi-

tasking and are complex such as working with large profile clients. His average score on

BGVMT also shows that he has the ability to sustain attention and retain information in his mind

for a short period of time.

Ahsan’s ability to complete tasks process information, hold it in memory temporarily quickly scan,

discriminate and process simple visual material without making errors lies in the average range (PSI=

97, CI= 88-106) performed better than 42% of her peers. Processing speed is an index of fluid

intelligence and the abilities that are required for the tasks in the index of processing speed are

short-term visual memory, visual-motor coordination, and speed of mental operations, planning

and learning ability. The behavioral observation during test taking shows that Ahsan was bored

when the tasks were easy, children at this age usually get easily bored. Children need stimulation
more than adults and its difficult for them to generally retain their attention. As for Ahsan who is

good with perceptual reasoning, he might be facing a little difficulty and getting bored on easy

tasks because he likes and prefers challenging, novel and creative tasks.

Considerations

Ahsan was referred by his school; this creates an ethical dilemma as along with Ahsan and his

parents the reports are going to be shared with the school as well. There can be issues of privacy

and confidentiality as there is the possibility of these two being breached. The demands and

rights of both parties should be considered. Moreover, the tests administered with Ahsan are

normed and developed in a different country and culture, thus the interpretation of these tests

should be considered.

Summary

Ahasan is a 7-year-old boy who has scored average on WISC, WRAT, and BGVMT, this shows

that he has abilities developed enough to carry out tasks in daily life. However, these tests are

developed and normed in western society. His performance and scored might be better if these

tests were developed and normed in his society. His behavioral problems and complaints are

something that was also observed during test taking and interpretation of results. His problems

might be due to the issues faced in home, such as fights of his parents, financial problems and his

parents not giving him a time or something happened in his school that he does not like to talk

about. This two thing might have influenced his attention and learning abilities that have

influenced his overall abilities and scores on tests, he might have scored better as he was a good

student prior to 4 months.

Recommendations
Although his score is average and complaints regarding achievement might not seem serious his

behavioral problems and him being silent when asked about sensitive topics. It is recommended

to

 Have an age appropriate interview with has an to get to know about his problems, this

can be done with the help of storytelling or play therapy techniques.

 Work on attention problems, by using cognitively stimulation material to learn so these

things catch his attention, e.g. using multimedia, etc.

 Further evaluation is needed to see if his attention and learning problems prevail in

different situations to rule out any serious issues.

 The parents should also be informed about the impact of their family problems on their

child and with a coolabrative effort (family therapy) work to resolve the conflicts.