Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment any fans of the SB5?

Hi all,
I think that the nearest tester who specializes in gifted uses the SB5. My oldest got into DYS using the WISC, so I hate to change tests for my youngest. However, I'd like to try this school psychologist. Dottie or anyone: is anyone a fan of the SB5? My daughter seems balanced in verbal and non verbal, by the way.
Thanks so much!

There's much to read on the differences between the two tests. My son did very well on the WISC-IV and WJ-III, along with another verbal IQ test. EG/PG across the board according to these.

With the SB-5 much lower, he would not have made the 130 cut-off for our gifted program. Wild differences. Thankfully the collection of other tests along with his real-life performance showed the higher scores to more accurately reflect his abilities.

I'm heading out the door so won't do much editing with what I've collected.. but it seems that for some, the SB-5 is a totally different "Yardstick."

Hope this helps!

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Here you go... in no particular order. The quotes are all from the linked articles.

http://www.giftedchildren.org.nz/forum/read.php?f=3&i=3125&t=2378
"Comparing the same versions of individual IQ tests, such as the WISC-IV to the SB-5, should be straightforward. But each test has its own strengths. Psychologists suggest that matching the test to the subject's strengths results in the most accurate IQ score. The current version of the Wechsler, the WISC-IV, is a strong test for verbally gifted children, with emphasis on knowledge gained from reading. This version of the WISC, however, is also heavily timed. Short term memory and processing speed scales often lower the full scale IQ score for gifted children. Psychologists should be familiar with the alternate scoring, called the Global Intelligence Index (GAI), in cases where the difference between the verbal scale and short term memory or processing speed scales exceed limits. The current version of the Stanford Binet, the SB-5, is stronger for non-verbal intelligence, and less heavily timed. Note that for the previous versions of these tests, the WISC-III and SB-4, the common wisdom was exactly the opposite: use the WISC-III for non-verbal kids, and the SB-4 for verbal / intelligence gifted kids."

Full text of one study:
Gifted and highly gifted students: how do they score on the SB5?
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/_/print/PrintArticle.aspx?id=150850213

"In contrast to the means on the SBS, which seem to be lower than expected, many of the age-equivalent scores appear to be higher than one might expect. The proportion of children that received age-equivalent scores beyond the highest average score for mature adults (19% of gifted students and 40% of highly gifted students) seems implausible even after taking into account documented cautions in interpreting such scores (Sattler, 2001). If these age-equivalent scores are indicative of actual functioning, it seems curious that they are not accompanied by correspondingly high IQ scores. In sum, these scores appeared to be of minimal use in accurately describing levels of giftedness in our sample."

and

"Another interesting finding is that some individual's scores varied dramatically between the two intelligence tests (as much as 35 points). Two students in the highly gifted program scored so low on the SB5 that they would not meet intelligence test criteria for giftedness even if the cut-off were lowered to 115. Alternatively, several students who scored at the low end of the IQ cut-off for our gifted program did very well on the SB5 and scored within the range of the study completed by Riverside on child prodigies."


This one shows discrepancies specifically for highly verbal kids:
http://www.malonefamilyfoundation.org/whatisgifted_assessing2.html
"Conclusion:
Any test can only measure a small portion of a person's competence. Therefore, all tests underestimate children's abilities rather than overestimate them. It is nearly impossible to fake abstract reasoning at an advanced level. When a disabled child achieves two different IQ scores, the higher score is believed to be the best estimate of the child's potential. Gifted children deserve the same attitude."

Discussions of SB-V at Davidson GT group:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/55959/1.html

Also WISC-IV v. SB-LM
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/B...res_vs_sta.html

And another:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/33188/2.html

Wow! Dandy, thank you for the post. Very helpful!

I think it really depends on the child.
DS (almost 6) loved SB5. He considered the whole test as a fun challenging game (compared to WPPSI-III, which was ok to him).
SB5 goes back and forth, using lots of switching between subject, which helped to keep DS's attention. He is very mathy, visual, geometry type kid. Although he loves vocabulary, and scored high on that as well.
He is not good with timed tests. If you take stop watch out, or even just tell him to try to do it as fast as he can, his brain shuts down and he can not focus.
SB5 was a great match for him, allowing him to score even over the DYS cut off.

Gratified- I hope you are right because we are retesting with the WISC after very close but not quite DYS scores on the SB5. My highly verbal, kid with a rich vocabulary who sees timed stuff as a fantastic competition will hopefully shine better on the WISC. We soon shall see.

We only used the SB5 for DS5. We used it when he was 4y7m. He seemed to enjoy taking it. He is a very mathy kid, but also a very verbal kid as well. He doesn't like timed stuff much at all, it makes him anxious. He has gotten better about it in the last several months, but I am not sure if a timed test would have worked as well for him. I can't compare his scores to other tests since this was the only one he took, but he scored as a PG kid which reflected exactly what we had suspected.

This thread is stressing me out a bit. I've been saving my pennies for IQ testing, and I'm just now ready to have it done. Out tester said she will administer whatever test I chose. I had planned on the WISC-IV but now I'm wondering if SB5 would be better. Where's that crystal ball when you need one?!?

It stresses me out a bit because it's such an expensive venture. If he doesn't score high enough for DYS on this first test, I know I'll just end up testing him again with the other test (money down the drain).

My son is 8 and enjoys the challenges of timed tests. He is obviously gifted in math (his math ability is what is prompting me to have him tested), but I don't know enough about giftedness to know if he is also verbally gifted. He talks constantly (every idea in his head rapidly pours out of his mouth), but I haven't noticed an unusually advanced vocabulary or anything. He is a good reader, but he prefers fiction to non-fiction so he isn't a walking encyclopedia of facts or anything like that.

I just wish I knew what test to use for him! :0

Slhogan. I would use WISC. My dd6 had this one done. One good thing about it, is that it has more widely accepted extended scores. Extended scores made my dd's scores YSP acceptable. (she would have been one point shy without). That is just my experience.

The general consensus is that Weschler is slightly better for verbal kids and SB for the non-verbal ones (meaning stronger in those areas).

She also had WJ-III. That one has one timed subtest for each area.

I have very mixed feelings about SBV.

A little bit of background. Despite knowing better we had DS5 take WPPSI in summer. Both his PIQ and FSIQ were in the 99.9% but lower than the DYS cut off (150 for WPPSI). His VIQ wasn't too far behind.

DS5 took SBV a few months ago. On one hand he got qualifying DYS score in the nonverbal section. He also scored more 19s on SBV than on WPPSI. On the other hand he had low scores on three consecutive subtests. He ended up with VIQ significantly lower than his WPPSI VIQ which brought down his FSIQ.

I don't think those 3 subtests clearly represent his abilities as they differ greatly from his WPPSI results and his other two SBV verbal subtests, which were both 19. Was it the test? The tester? DS5? The age? Most likely the latter two. My guess is that he had had enough by then since all the subtests were towards the end (#7-9 out of 10).

If you are looking for DYS scores I think WISC is a better bet with the extended scoring as well as the GIA option available.

I agree.