Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Decline in scores help for a friend

Were the concerns re ADHD due to lack of attention/focus or behaviors? My dd who had the vision challenge *looked* like she had hyperactive ADHD when she was young - she couldn't sit still. When I gave her a multi-step direction such as "pick up your socks and take them to the laundry room" she'd pick up the socks and get lost in the hall and never make it to the laundry room. She didn't look like she was having vision issues, instead she looked like she couldn't focus her brain. Those behaviors disappeared after vision therapy. Issues with vision can be tough to recognize, but there's a very clear indicator in the test scores that vision might be an issue. Not necessarily eyesight, but how well the eyes work *together*.

polarbear

ps - fwiw, I wouldn't focus on worry over the drop in overall scores - most of the scores seem relatively consistent from subtest to subtest, which (jmo) indicates that those scores are probably realistic. What I would absolutely dig into is why the coding, block design and comprehension subtests are so low relative to the other subtests - as well as trying to understand whatever behaviors/etc prompted the testing and concern re ADHD.

pps - also wanted to add - there is a component of vision involved in the coding subtest also, and it's a timed subtest. The vision requirement isn't as intense as it is in symbol search, but vision might be the reason it's semi-relatively low compared to other scores.

ppps - sorry about all the ps's! I keep thinking of "just one more thing" - anyway, when my dd was having vision issues, she didn't make eye contact. You'd look at her, and she'd look back out of the corner of her eyes. When she was working on schoolwork/reading etc, she would get her head close to the table and turn her head around in funny positions etc. She didn't like to sit in chairs and she fell out of chairs frequently. She was also a really sloppy eater - we could always tell which chair she'd sat at during dinner because of the mess of crumbs all around it, long after she'd outgrown toddlerhood. Some of that or none of that might apply to your friend's child, but if some of it sounds familiar, those again might be symptoms of a vision challenge.

Which test was each score received on? I understand that older tests experience "Flynn effect" and yield higher scores, while newer tests yield lower scores.

It was Stanford Binet LM

There are issues in norming standardized tests for kids 5 and below. They're not given to a population as large, and they can show significant differences in home environment and tolerance to testing rather than cognitive ability.

In my kid's school district, a 5yo would have to blow the lid off the test (99.5th percentile) to qualify for gifted services, but at 6 the services become far more accessible.

The question I'd be asking myself in these parents' shoes is this: which score seems more representative of my kid? The 145, or the 122?

There are only a few testers who find any value in this extremely out-of-date test, and that value is only after taking another test and hitting ceilings (and so maybe figuring out more details about particular strengths). I don't think I've heard of anyone using the LM as a starter IQ test. I would indeed imagine that many people today could get very high scores on that. In fact, I'm sure you could probably find old copies of it if you looked around.

But beyond that, how is this child doing in achievement? I wouldn't worry about the score drop if he seems to be doing well academically. Does his profile fit more with a highly gifted kid? Then don't worry about numbers.

As st pauli girl mentioned, this is an older test. It also had higher norms. There are interesting articles to be found if you do a web search.

Firstly I absolutely agree with everyone that mentions vision as a potential issue. Secondly 145 on the SB-LM probably does equate with about 120-130 on a more current test like the Sb5 or Wisc4 (both of which are about to be replaced, because they aren't that current either!). So there are two clear issues here 1) is there a vision issue and 2) are they comparing apples and oranges?