Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Want another test for 10 y.o. (not WISC-IV)

What other tests besides WISC-IV & DAS-II can one use to test IQ? My client is not confident in the last WISC assessment and given that he can't retest he wants another option. Also, do assessors register names in a master WISC database? How do they know people aren't taking the test twice?

Stanford-Binet 5 is another option.

The Woodcock-Johnson tests are an option, as are the Kaufman tests (K-ABC & K-TEA). Neither are as 'recognized', I'd say, as WISC, though.

Our children have had the WJ-III Test of Cognitive Abilities, and it's also the test that is used in our school district for SPED placement rather than the WISC when a full IQ vs achievement evaluation is given. My older dd and ds have had the WISC too, and fwiw, I actually like the information and reports that come with the WJ-III better than what we have from the WISC. Just a small difference, and probably more important in our case because our kids are 2e, but when the WJ-III Cognitive and WJ-III Achievement tests are given together, the subtests can be grouped in multiple ways to understand learning style, strengths, weaknesses etc. I haven't seen the WISC given in combination with the WAIS, and I suspect you could get the same type of info there, but fwiw, even with the WJ-III alone rather than combined, I felt like I came away with a clearer understanding of my child's cognitive abilities. *BUT* ... my EG ds is dealing with a ton of scatter in abilities.

I don't know how true this is, but fwiw our school district psych told me our school district uses the WJ-III over the WISC because it doesn't have ceiling issues and because it is valid through adult ages, where the WISC (I think?) has an upper age limit (again, I'm not an expert on this, so only take what I say as hearsay and definitely check it out before assuming it's good info!).

polarbear

The WISC must be given by a psych or under the authority of a psych. A psych wouldn't want invalid results.

I would probably ask for the Stanford-Binet (SB5).

Funny, I prefer the other way around . Our district also gives the WJ-III Cog for SPED students, and for my kiddo there was a lack of clarity with some subtests involving processing skillls that I'd prefer to separate out (it was a long time ago, but I think it had to do with auditory processing). Also, there was the small matter of the WJ Achievement scores being more than a standard deviation higher than the Cognitive scores - it's not supposed to work that way.

Some of my kids have also had the WISC in private testing, including the one who had the WJ-III Cog at school. He also had the DAS-2. Overall, I prefer the WISC by far, though I am now more familiar with its subtests than the others. Out of curiosity, I'd love for one or two of my kids to try the SB5, if we are trying to maximize score for admission to a program - it always seems to sound more suited to their strengths

WISC seems to be the preferred test among the private gifted schools here on the west coast, at least among the schools that base their admissions on IQ measurements (as opposed to achievement-based performance).