WISC-III Verbal/Performance Discrepancies Among a Sample of Gifted Children

The cognitive profiles of 161 gifted children—those with a Full Scale, Verbal, and/or Performance IQ of 130 or higher on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Third Edition (WISC-III; Wechsler, 1991)—were examined. It was hypothesized that this population of very intelligent children would demonstrate much larger Verbal-Performance discrepancies than are reported in the WISC-III manual. The hypothesis was confirmed, and a table reporting Verbal-Performance discrepancies established that very large discrepancies are typical for this population. The implications of these results are discussed, as well as the limitations of the study, particularly as it pertains to the limitations of the sample.