Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Iowa Test - Literal vs. Inference Listening

Received DS' scores. Very high, with the exception of literal listening, which was in the 80s percentile-wise, vs. the inference listening score, which was 99. Is there something we should be concerned about or working on with him? His overall reading was a 99.

I can't find much that's helpful online in my searching.

I'm assuming that you have access to the component scores for the literal and inferential comprehension scales, but if not, this scope and sequence lists them:

http://www.laredoisd.org/ERO/ppt/Iowa%20Scope%20and%20Sequence%20brochure%202009%20high.pdf

Did you see any kind of profile in terms of component scores that were higher or lower? Sometimes one of the specific components throws off the whole cluster. In my #1's case, it would be the sustained attention portion of literal comprehension that has historically been an outlier.

In individual assessments, I sometimes see students with good higher-level thinking and comprehending skills, but who are either poor word-callers or careless/hasty readers, score better on inferential comprehension than literal comprehension. I tend to think that they show to advantage when performance relies on reasoning, which captures their focus better, versus rote attention to detail, which is, let's face it, just not very interesting. And you can often cover for imprecision using problem solving, whereas there isn't much of a reasoning substitute for brute force remembering the name of the main character or the dollar amount of the purchase.

I wouldn't be worried about his literal comprehension test score, unless you also see corresponding real-life concerns.

aeh,

Many thanks for replying! I am only seeing literal and inference scores under the listening category (he's in 3rd grade, so perhaps that's all they test this year). The literal score was something like 56. I suppose we are a little more concerned, or at least wondering about it, since there are definitely times when he doesn't seem to be listening at home or school. From your reply, it sounds as though this tests something closer to recall or repeating details?

This kid has an amazing detailed memory (one of those who can tell us where we watched a given show, what we were wearing, etc, three years ago). Maybe he was just zoning out.

Yes, if he wasn't paying attention at the moment the listening passage was presented, he may have just missed some details. It's not nearly as motivating as remembering what you were wearing on a specific occasion three years ago.