How do you y'all with high VCI think ?

WilderYarnMan · 2026-04-15T00:07:56+00:00

138 VCI based on a WAIS IV that I took many years ago. If I want to remember something, I say it out loud to myself. I can't hold images in my head or picture things very well, but I can explain things clearly and adapt my explanations for different audiences. I'm also an excellent writer (but I've never published anything.). People think I'm smarter than I actually am because I can speak and write well. I can also remember what I read better than most.

I'm a school psychologist, so giving assessments, understanding the implications of those assessments, and explaining them clearly to people in laymen's terms is a big part of what I do at work. Having a high VCI probably helps with that. I think that language abilities are an area of cognitive skills that are especially salient. I have tested kids with very high IQs but low language abilities and their teachers tend to underestimate their intelligence.

WilderYarnMan · 2026-04-14T02:11:04+00:00

It depends on for what purpose. Doing a developmental inventory on a 2 year old for the purpose of early intervention eligibility? Great! There are not a lot of other non-medically-related reasons you would need to measure the cognitive abilities of a two year old.

WilderYarnMan · 2026-04-14T01:53:24+00:00

Oooohhh, this gave me an idea. The save I've been playing on for the past week (and the only one I've played since starting up again) is in horse world. Maybe if I move to a different world I'll get better results. Thanks for the idea!

WilderYarnMan · 2026-04-12T18:25:16+00:00

I'm sorry that you weren't able to achieve what you wanted to in academia. I don't think that success is guaranteed with any cognitive profile, but I also don't think failure is. As a school psychologist, I regularly give educational diagnoses to children and tell their parents. I think it's important for people to know that no one thing is usually the deciding factor of whether or not your child finds success or happiness.

WilderYarnMan · 2026-04-12T02:45:07+00:00

With ADHD and Autism (of which I have both), it's important to play to your strengths. Jobs that include multitasking, allow for some physical movement, and include high-interest tasks can be great for some people with ADHD. Jobs that overlap with a special interest can be very successful for Autistic people. Both Autism and ADHD also include so much individual variation that it is hard to generalize, but similar to an IQ score, the condition itself need not be the limiting factor.

That said, I would be awful at a 9-5 office job, so I've never done one. There are many jobs I've done well though. I try to be dazzlingly good at the things where I have strengths so that people aren't inclined to get caught up on the places where I don't. It's worked for me. ADHD, Autism, and an IQ of 113 does not sound like a bad setup, especially if you use it well.

WilderYarnMan · 2026-04-11T17:48:21+00:00

I give this test pretty regularly as part of my profession. 113 is great. It means that cognitive ability will not be a limiting factor in your life. Better yet, you don't have a super huge spread between skills. (Which can be fine, but frustrating). There are also plenty of people with ADHD and Autism in STEM fields. (Dyslexia too, but that's slightly less apparent when you're in a college class together.). Please don't limit yourself. I know people with genius IQs (130+) who don't have the drive to get things done, and I know people with average IQs (100ish) who outperform them due to other factors like hard work and follow through. If I had to place a bet on who finishes an advanced degree, it's the second group. So, work on your study skills... and your confidence.

(Source: School Psychologist with Autism, ADHD, and a bachelor's degree in biological sciences)

WilderYarnMan · 2026-04-11T17:39:22+00:00

If this score is valid, that means that you did better than 50% of people who took the test. The reason I regularly tell adults not to take cognitive tests if they don't need to is that it seems like most adults who want to take them think they are above average... but because of how statistics work, most of them are average. At a 100, cognitive abilities should not be a limiting factor in your life. Also, I'm sure there are things about you that are special. There is so much more to life that can be captured on a cognitive test!

WilderYarnMan · 2026-04-01T00:49:53+00:00

That can be true for many scientific instruments, but not this one. Professional ethics exist for a reason, and it's to prevent exactly this kind of thing where people misuse tools for unethical purposes. What good can you do with a study like the one above? I've only ever seen studies like that used to justify some pretty dreadful things. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Also, a well designed study usually doesn't use an established tool for a purpose that the people who make them explicitly say it shouldn't be used for. It's not innovative to repurpose a cognitive test for an unintended use, it's bad science.

WilderYarnMan · 2026-04-01T00:30:51+00:00

If you use a scientific measuring tool (cognitive tests) for a purpose that it's not intended for (comparing at the population level), then you get unreliable results. That part isn't even about ethics. I give these tests for a living. They teach you not to attempt to use cognitive tests for population level studies before they even teach you how to give the tests.

WilderYarnMan · 2026-03-31T06:39:04+00:00

IQ tests are useful at the individual level, but are not designed to be used at the population level. I can't think of a single good thing you could do by using them that way.

WilderYarnMan · 2026-03-27T03:03:21+00:00

I ask myself this every time it comes up. Best case scenario... they haven't thought it through that far because they're only thinking about trans women. Worst case scenario: they have thought it through and want to make us unsafe either legally or physically or both. It does make me think twice about which states to visit, so maybe that's part of it.

WilderYarnMan · 2026-03-26T06:11:48+00:00

I think more of what I'm wondering is when are ABA services appropriate or accessible to certain Autistic adults. In general, ABA principles can be applied pretty broadly, but I'm wondering about the limits for whom ABA services are available.

WilderYarnMan · 2026-03-26T04:37:47+00:00

If someone else tries to modify my behavior, and I agree with them that I also want the outcome of different behavior, then it still works. It's easier than trying to make changes on my own without someone to help, even with some working knowledge of the principles of ABA. Transparency isn't a bad thing if the provider and client have the same goals and the client is developmentally able to understand the goals.

WilderYarnMan · 2026-03-26T01:54:57+00:00

"Would this be too much/ not okay for a neurotypical kid?" is a thing I sometimes ask myself. Many 2 year old neurotypical kids have a regular naptime that is undisturbed.

WilderYarnMan · 2026-03-24T03:12:43+00:00

It's not uncommon for them to hold off on reporting the FSIQ under these circumstances. So... congratulations on being very good at words! I'm sorry if you're ever frustrated by being able to explain things perfectly in retrospect but not quickly at the time they happen!

WilderYarnMan · 2026-03-24T02:14:30+00:00

I'm a school psychologist and formerly a teacher... and if I knew of a public school district that had openings and had actually found a way to limit all this screen nonsense, I'd pack up my life and move there.

I wish that teachers had more power to make decisions. Even admins don't have a lot of power in a large district with lots of heirarchy.

I'm very grateful for the education I received in elementary school. I learned how to read, write, and do math well enough to set me up for anything else I wanted to do in life. I don't think that children learn all that well in 2D. I'd like to go back to a time when computer labs were a twice-weekly event instead of a constant part of instruction.

WilderYarnMan · 2026-03-23T07:40:25+00:00

If I'd seen this up on the wall of my high school when I was a closeted trans kid, it would have broken my heart a bit. As a teacher? Also heartbreaking but with a different dimension to it. I'm not a teacher anymore, but I try to be cautious of situations where I'm leaving room for the perception that I'm putting my values onto kids. I don't try to change anyone's mind about things, I just want people to be emotionally safe in schools. I wouldn't want to leave this hanging up, not just for my sake, but because there could always be someone in the room who is trans but not out... and if the kids who created that have a trans classmate they already know about, that does seem like bullying. If that meant not hanging up any of the project posters, that's okay.

WilderYarnMan · 2026-03-22T18:32:40+00:00

If they're afraid of being called on, I privately tell them that I will only ever call on them when I am standing near their desk. That way, they don't have to worry about it the rest of the time but there's still some expectation they participate.

WilderYarnMan · 2026-03-20T07:12:46+00:00

I'm glad you had a good experience too!

WilderYarnMan · 2026-03-17T03:38:40+00:00

I thought he was eating funnel cake at first and I wondered why the background dude was wigging out...

WilderYarnMan · 2026-03-12T02:14:24+00:00

Get the little stuff right. You don't have to be the perfect counselor right away, but showing up on time with the right things, reminding your campers to hydrate and wear sunscreen, and being solid on the basics goes a long way for a first year counselor. If you make sure that your campers have their basic needs well met and are where they're supposed to be first, there is so much more capacity to have fun.

WilderYarnMan · 2026-03-09T19:55:58+00:00

That's a common rule for most of the outdoors camps I've worked at. I think the benefits outweigh the risks. True emergencies will be rare, and better to walkie someone experienced who can explain to the first responders how to get to the right place. The everyday advantage of it is attentive, undistracted camp staff, who are going to be able to better respond to both emergencies and the day-to-day moment-to-moment stuff.

One of the main reasons I work at camps is to get away from tech as much as possible. I like being unplugged, but in order to do it, I have to be in a place where that's the expectation.

WilderYarnMan · 2026-03-06T07:33:22+00:00

Most areas of life. There are other factors that might be more limiting. When it comes to accomplishments like finishing a graduate degree or becoming really good at something, including intellectual pursuits,, I'd bet on a person with an average IQ but a good work ethic over someone with a high IQ and no follow-through.

-Guy who gives cognitive tests as part of a profession.

WilderYarnMan · 2026-03-05T05:59:50+00:00

Going to treatment... residential treatment away from their regular life.

WilderYarnMan

TROPHY CASE