Hi, I was told by DS7's tester that although he got 19's in several sections, he did not ceiling since there were still questions that he did not get to... So, even though a child receives 19's, it is my understanding that it doesn't necessarily equate to "hitting the ceiling" for that section. We took the WPPSI at 4y9m. Apparently, SB5 is a better test for the younger set and as others have mentioned, between 7y-8y is an ideal age for testing.

The term "ceiling" can be used many different ways, and I think realistically....given the limitations of IQ testing in the tails, all are valid!

1. The kid answered every question correctly. Period. HARD ceiling.

2. The kid runs out of questions, regardless of whether he got all right. Maybe out of 35 questions, he missed questions 5, 10 and 15, but was chugging away with questions 16-35. Despite a score of perhaps only 17, he hit the "ceiling".

3. The kid runs out of stopping criteria. Most subtests have a required stopping criteria that is typically "X wrong in a row". If the kid only got the last 2 questions wrong, and the stopping criteria was 5 wrong in a row, he hit a ceiling too.

4. The kid hits a 19...or even a 17+, if you ask me. A 6 year old might only need 25/35 questions on a 6-16 WISC category to hit a ceiling, but if he gets those 25 questions...he's basically beyond the test norms, and he too has hit a ceiling.

There are probably other ways to hit a ceiling, but if you question many psychs, they like to assure you that all is well, and that since your child didn't...

a. Answer every question
b. Get a 19
c. Get a 160 full scale

...he surely didn't hit the "ceiling". For them to admit he did hit the ceiling basically says their assessment is limited. And for the price you paid (or the cost to the school), they are often hesitant to say that.

Thanks, Dottie!

Op, my ds had a range of scores like yours, but if I understand correctly, anything labeled with age equivalent >7.2 is a ceiling for the WPPSI. My ds even had a 16 that was a ceiling--not sure exactly how that happened.

The test supposedly had norms up through 7:3, so most likely the actual scoring should extend a bit beyond that for those above average kids.

Hmm... I don't think it does, Dottie. If it did, wouldn't I have gotten more accurate age norms than the ">7.2"s?

Maybe, maybe not. I'm not sure on that one, but if they are saying the test is good up through 7:3, I'm having a hard time accepting that the maximum score that 7:3 year old child could get is 10! But maybe because the norming group only went through age 7:3, they call all scores above that ">7:2"? Interesting question!!!! I'll see what I can dig up.

I hope you find something good--on my phone so I can't help. :-)

It looks like at 7:3, you can still get scores up to 14 on the subtests, so that would suggest the scoring goes at least one standard deviation beyond your "average" 7:3 year old.

The elephant in the room though of course is that the WPPSI is very limited for highly gifted children, and becomes increasingly so the closer they get to that upper age limit. (Please note too that GT experts suggest switching to the WISC-IV if testing is to be done past age 6.)

Hmm... Well, what's one to make of those >7.2 scores, then? Sorry, I'm confused...

Thanks Dottie. It sounds like a YMMV depending on the psychologist! It seemed odd to me too but the psych specifically wrote that although DS received 19's on several sections, he didn't ceiling since there were questions that he didn't get to on those sections. It was odd to include that but the psych went on to state that since DS didn't ceiling, the FSIQ is probably accurate...