WISC-IV and Cognitive Profile Analysis

Decoding- the Intelligence Scale for Children: Why a 'high IQ' can sometimes hide the 'low executive profile' of ADHD/Autism.

Reading the Cognitive Map

The WISC-IV (and newer WISC-V) is the "Gold Standard" for testing a child's cognitive profile. For the neurodivergent child, the Full Scale IQ score is often useless.

What matters are the Gaps. A typical "Twice Exceptional" (2e) profile shows a very high Verbal (VCI) score combined with a very low Working Memory (WMI) or Processing Speed (PSI) score.

The Experience: The child is "Brilliant but slow." They can explain the history of the universe (VCI), but they can't copy a sentence from the board in under a minute (PSI). If parents/teachers only look at the "High IQ," they may accuse the child of "not trying." Reading the Cognitive Profile proves that the child is capable of the task, but the 'Writing/Memory hardware' is struggling.