Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment PPVT (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test) ?

Anyone familiar with the PPVT? My DS7 took this test and I'm going to get the results next week. As we were leaving, the administrator did casually say that DS7 did a fantastic job and was in the high school level for both expressive and receptive. I find this hard to believe. I don't have the scores or percentiles yet so I don't know what to make of her comment.

How accurate is this test? Are teachers familiar with this test? Does it compare at all to the WISC?

Please share your experience with this test or any info you have.

This is a solid instrument for what it does--which is exactly one thing. It's a measure of oral vocabulary, which some like to use as a proxy for verbal cognition. It uses visual supports, which is quite unlike the WISC, and consists solely of pointing responses, also quite unlike the WISC. If an expressive measure was given, it was probably the co-normed EVT, which has similar minimal language demands.

Thanks aeh! The minimal language demands makes some sense as DS has a speech fluency disorder (stuttering and other disfluencies).

Do you know how its scored. Does it have a floor/ceiling? Does it give an age or grade equivalent or was that an equivalent that the administrator just pulled out of nowhere? Seriously, is it even possible that DS's vocabulary could be 7+ grades advanced? He's a bright kid but that sounds crazy to me. When they give me the actual test results next week, I want to be able to ask the right questions.

Yes, it can be scored on age or grade norms, and it can generate age or grade equivalents (although KIM my constant harping on the problems with grade/age equivalents).

It does have typical basal and ceiling rules (number correct/incorrect in a row), so the examiner did not have to stop based on his age/grade placement.