Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Help with DAS scores...

Hi all I don't post on here but know there are many knowledgable people on here so I was hoping someone could help.

My five year old had the DAS at just past five and the scores were confusing to me. They were at the 99th percentile for verbal with a score of 138 (with scores at 99.9 for vocabulary)the performance score was more like 125 (scoring highest in matrices), and here is the confusing part: the spatial score came back at 110 when puzzles, drawing, directions etc. have always been very, very strong. The spatial test consisted of cubes that one has to make into shapes, apparently she got them all right, but took a long time, thus getting a lower score. The other test was copying geometric shapes, and her copying wasn't that accurate. She draws very well when looking at something so that surprised me.

The overal score was considered invalid by the tester based on the discrepancy.

My child did not appear to click with the tester and cried at one point during testing. I'm wondering how accurate the scores are and what the huge gap between verbal and spatial means.

We have wondered about attention issues (that can look like ADHD) even before this and also wonder if that played a part. The tester wasn't helpful at all.

I'm not sure how to interpret these scores (that were lower than we expected based on family). I've even wonder if it suggests any 2E issues. I've read that DAS scored tend to be lower than WISC and SB...


as a reference here are some skills: read fluently before preschool, began telling time at 3, is doing beginning multiplication at 5, reads fourth or so grade with comprehension, is good with fractions, patterns, has a scary memory, amazing drawing, is very creative and highly verbal.

Anyone who can be of any help is highly appreciated.


thanks in advance, V

my son was administered the DAS-II at age 4 and a half. His profile was similar to your daughter's--different scores, but similar splits and similar strengths and weaknesses.

Honestly? We haven't been too concerned. I think there may have been some compliance or fatigue issues at play with him, and the tester was inexperienced since it was a grad student for a course (though, the session was videotaped and the tapes were reviewed for accuracy and validity by a clinical psychologist).

Now that our son is in kindergarten, the specialists at his schools are also pretty sure that the testing is not totally accurate since his spatial skills are much stronger than they tested at.

thanks, mom of 1. Do they consider him gifted? I would assume so...my daugther presents as very gifted one moment, but there are times I am left scratching my head.

The school hasn't identified him as "gifted" but they are providing him with a level of individualization for his academic strengths that are equivalent to what he would get as a gifted identified student.

As a kindergartner, they have moved him to the highest reading group in the first grade for two hours a day, and the gifted specialist is providing one day a week of math instruction (with him and a flexible group of other kindergartners) and consulting with the teacher and the math specialist about what to do on the other 4 days.

They are about to start pulling him and one other kindergartner (who happens to be his best friend and closest intellectual peer) into the first grade gifted group that is focusing on interpreting maps, charts, and graphs.

We had some significant concerns about him from age 3.5-5, but things have really started to settle down into a good groove--he'll be 6 in a couple of months. We looked at sensory issues, we looked at Asperger's, we looked at anxiety. none of them quite fit, but we aren't worried anymore.

Hi, thanks. We were also worried from 3-5 and considered Aspergers, anxiety, ADHD and she had OT for sensory issues. Things do seem better now, but there are times I see things that are still a little perplexing.

That's great that your son is getting that much differentiation. Were his scores close to hers? I ask because although my daughter is in the top reading group in her K class, they are doing things far below her level. Their idea of math is counting to ten and she also has achievement testing in the 99.9th percentile for reading and 99th in math concepts. They say they are trying to differentiate, but I don't see much and she never leaves K.

Why don't they have him identifed as gifted? Does that happen later in his schooling or was it related to the testing. Thanks for sharing all this with me.

His scores were a bit higher than your daughter's:

General Conceptual Ability: 134
Verbal Reasoning: 145
Nonverbal Reasoning: 113
Spatial: 121

We haven't done achievement testing, but at the beginning of the year he tested at a 3rd/4th grade level on the school's reading placement test, and at the level of an 8-10 year old on the school's math screening test. In both situations, he refused to test to his limit, so it might be higher than we think.

Our school is a small elementary school in a college town. The population of our school is high-poverty, high-needs, and racial minority, but our town is quite wealthy, and has tons of services available for the schools. They are doing a really good job of differentiating for the kids who need it at both ends of the curve.

The school system prefers to wait until first grade to make the first wave of referrals to the gifted program because of the huge disparities in pre-school exposure and skills upon entrance to kindergarten. they want to give the kids from poverty a chance to get a foundation in schooling before they begin to identify kids. As a former teacher myself, I am totally fine with that policy. Identification won't change anything for him right now. The school system wouldn't provide him with anything more than they are already doing.