Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Help interpreting strange RIAS scores

Ultramarina,

She can sit the ACT or the SAT and submit the scores to the Duke TIP program through the TIP "Option" program, which is how my son got in. (We homeschool, and he didn't have any other standardized achievement testing, either.)

Not sure if all the other talent search programs will go this route, but I think most of them will.

I think at just seven, a better bet might be SCAT through CTY as a starting place. That is where we started and expect to move up to Explore next year. Prices are nowhere near like private achievement testing, yet provide a glimpse that supports the RIAS scores or suggests that something more/different might be appropriate.

Back to the discussion of RIAS. We are one of the few that I've seen that have both RIAS and WISC-IV scores in this general range. There is at least one journal article that I found way back when we were living through this that suggested there was a correlation between WISC and RIAS, about 75%.

I've mentioned this on the board before, but wasn't sure if you'd seen it. We did RIAS through the school system in K, testing just after DD turned 6. I don't recall the individual subtest scores, but verbal was 118 (for highly verbal DD) and non-verbal was 141 (for DD who showed no signs of unusual visual-spatial strengths) for a composite of 133. I was floored at how far off I was and decided to private test, thinking if the non-verbal score was anywhere close to representative and the verbal score was off as much as I thought it was, maybe I was in denial and she really was DYS level.

Private testing wtih WISC about 3 months later showed VCI of 136, PRI of 137, with supporting WMI and PSI scores for a FS of 143 and a GAI of 144. So in our case the RIAS was close on the non-verbal and way off on the verbal.

I do have to say that I would not have had any success dealing with some of the educational advocacy we have pursued if I had only the RIAS scores, since they look garden-variety gifted and did not represent my DD or her strengths. I get a much different reaction at the district level when discussing the WISC scores which, although not DYS, are not really garden-variety gifted to those who are in the know. School level - they don't get the difference - or only a very few do.

Just recently DS6 was tested on RIAS through school. His scores were much more even and at least surficially match my opinion of his profile, and were sufficient to gain access to the gifted designation and learning opportunities, such as they may be. His personality and learning needs are not as out-of the box as DDs, so at this time we see no reason to pursue additional testing. If things change as school progresses, we may need to do something different.

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Sounds very familiar. DD now almost 9 didn't fit school from the beginning and it showed. She is grade skipped, still at the top of the class, actually having to exert the tiniest bit of effort, struggling with OEs and perfectionism and overall, still not a good fit. Even with the advocacy and the improvements, she has pretty much turned off to learning - the demands weren't getting met and she is now mostly just going through the motions - no longer actually all that interested in school or learning. Since the grades aren't suffering, school doesn't notice (although the gifted teacher is starting to).

In my opinion, DS 6 is likely higher IQ (more likely DYS in my opinion), but doesn't show it the same way. He is clearly less verbal, more visual-spatial, problem-solving, but he came with a happy-go-lucky, 'life is good' personality. I remember him playing quietly by himself in his room with his cars and toys for 30-45 minutes or more at the age of 2, while my then DD5 still required attention and interaction at five-minute intervals. The personalities are just different. Even though I believe that DS6 is likely a higher IQ than DD8, at this moment in time I believe that a relatively normal school program is likely to work for him, just because of who he is.

DD demands to be led and taught and and needs to be nurtured and encouraged. DS only needs to be let off the leash and he will take care of the rest. We'll see how that continues to play out as we proceed through the early elementary years.

If there's a reason to retest then consider it - we did and I'm very glad we did. I thought my DD's RIAS was flat wrong and although it gained her admission to the gifted program, I was pretty sure that was not going to be enough. I also had that little doubt that I had misjudged and perhaps she really was DYS, so we shelled out the money to have the WISC and achievement testing done. In fact that testing confirmed what I thought I knew all along - not quite DYS, but outside the 'garden-variety gifted' box. Besides now we have a relationship established with a local tester and now that some other things are cropping up, I have that resource.

If you have no immediate need to retest, that's OK too. But if you decide to do some sort of talent search or acheivement testing and it looks out of whack with the data you've already got, maybe then you retest. We did SCAT in 3rd grade (first year accelerated) and those scores continued to back up what we already had - missed the CTY cutoffs by 1 point each in verbal and math which put her right at 95% for her accelerated grade. If she had blown the SCAT away, I might have thought long and hard about whether we needed to revisit earlier scores or do something different.

Good luck!

p

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I would retest on your own and see what happens. Don't the test results change with young children as they continued to develop?

p

My 6 year old got on the RIAS 147 verbal, > 160 non-verbal, and >160 total (the psychologist said he hit the ceiling). I sent these scores to MENSA, and they accepted them. He had gotten a 99.1% on the Raven's, which our local gifted program accepted. They don't accept the RIAS, apparently.
I don't want to spend $ either on testing since there isn't anything more that we want to do with the scores. I don't know why he wasn't given the WISC but it doesn't seem to matter. He reads at a second grade level and does his brother's third grade math; we aren't looking to skip him so...
I guess it really matters what you might need scores for and why.

I should mention that I am more than open to the idea that the RIAS scores are an accurate estimate of where she is and that she is just a very motivated student.