Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment DAS gifted range and ADHD impact on scores

Hi. What is the gifted cut off for the DAS II test? My 6 yr old DS scored a 129 on the verbal section of the DAS which is the 96/97 percentile. He scored a 134 on the WISC verbal which is 99 percentile. I had read somewhere that DAS scores are lower?

He also scored in the average range on the other domains. He also has ADHD and was not on medication during the testing. Reluctantly we started him on meds and his teachers says he's focusng much better at school. My questions (sorry for the rambling):

1. Could the high verbal vs. average in other domains be related to the adhd or just his strengths and weaknesses?
2. Is it worth testing again on the medication?
3. Would his current scores enable him to get into gifted programs?

Thanks so much.

I don't know anything about DAS, but DD with ADHD did the WISC IV and her perceptual reasoning score was about 13 points higher than verbal. Not sure what is "typical" for ADHD. Working memory was a bit lower at 96th percentile. It was her processing speed score that tanked. I can tell she has issues with working memory (for instance poor fluency with things like math), but not the kind that shows up on the WISC, apparently.

Current scores could get him into gifted programming depending on what the school policies are. Here (for the highly gifted program), the are looking for a composite score of 98th percentile but achievement scores also need to be that high. The critieria is a little lower for the "cluster groups" in the regular classroom, for instance having at least verbal OR non-verbal 98th percentile, rather needing a composite that high.

The DAS-II is not necessarily lower than other cognitive measures, though it does have a slightly different design than the WISC-IV. There is no obvious reason for the gifted cutoff for the DAS-II to be different from other instruments, but of course, that depends on your district. 129 to 134 would not generally be considered a statistically-significant difference.

In answer to your questions:

1. Most likely this reflects his strengths and weaknesses. ADHD most often affects working memory and processing speed on testing, though, of course, anything can be affected.
2. Depends on your purposes for testing. He's already been tested twice in a short period of time. You won't be able to re-test with either instrument that has already been given for two years from the original test dates (which, I assume, were relatively recent, based on his age). If there is some urgent function for testing, you will have to move on to the SBV, KABC-II, or WJIII/IV COG, or find someone with a WISC-V. Personally, I would lean against it, mainly because he's already had two good measures, which were relatively consistent with each other, from what you've related. Working Memory and Processing Speed don't even figure into the DAS-II global measure (GCA), so they are unlikely to have been factors.
3. This is highly dependent on your area. Some schools use scores as low as 120, while others require scores as high as 145.

Thank you both for the input. Definitely no more testing. Hoping he gets into the gifted program. He needs something. He has pretty much checked out of class.

Thanks so much for your help. We agree - no more testing.