Shout it From the Rooftops!

By Linda Kreger Silverman, Ph.D.

Does your gut tell you that your child’s Full Scale IQ score on the WISC-V is not right? 

* Did the examiner only give 7 subtests of the WISC-V? Or 10? 

* Did your child have low scores on Working Memory or Processing Speed? 

A new index is now available that can give you a better estimate of your child’s actual intelligence.

November 19th, 2016, at 5:00 am, I woke up with a vision of a gifted index for the WISC-V. The index consists of four subtests measuring abstract verbal reasoning, two measuring visual-spatial ability and two measuring mathematical reasoning. I rushed to the computer to send the idea to Dr. Susan Raiford, test constructor of the Wechsler scales. 

Bobbie Gilman and I had been having regular phone conversations with Susie. Bobbie had asked Susie if she could create a global score of reasoning ability without Working Memory or Processing Speed. These composites are lower for the gifted, especially for twice exceptional children. As a result, Susie developed the Verbal (Expanded Crystallized) Index (VECI) and the Expanded Fluid Index (EFI). The VECI and EFI are accepted for admission to the Davidson Young Scholar Program. 

My vision of a gifted index combined the VECI with visual-spatial and fluid reasoning items. Susie liked it! Actually, she said, it was an “expanded” General Ability Index, and that is what she called it. Susie sent a norm table for the EGAI to me in March of 2017 for research purposes. GDC and Dee Lovecky began collecting data on the Gifted Index (EGAI). It was a success! The average Expanded General Ability Index (EGAI) of 74 gifted children was 133.1. The average VECI scores of 390 gifted children from 7 sites in the U.S. was 133.7. The average Full Scale IQ score for the 390 in the sample was 127.4 (too low for acceptance in some gifted programs). 

November, 2017, Susie and I shared the new indexes and the results of our studies at NAGC. Now, at last, the technical report on the EGAI (“Gifted Index”) is available to all psychological examiners. Technical Report #5: Expanded General Ability Index, by Susan Raiford, Linda Silverman, Barbara Gilman and Troy Courville, was just posted on the Pearson website September 3rd. To access the technical report, click here.

The Gifted Index (EGAI) requires that three supplementary subtests be administered: Information, Comprehension and Arithmetic. Information and Comprehension enable the VECI to be calculated as well. The VECI and EGAI are the two most important scores for gifted and twice exceptional children.

Does your child’s report show the EGAI? If Information, Comprehension and Arithmetic were administered, share this article with the examiner and ask that the EGAI be calculated from the new norm table. If they were not administered, consider retesting a year after the WISC-V was given.