Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Wiat II for 5 yr old

I am new here, but have been lurking and reading for several weeks now. I have learned so much from everyone who has been through all of the testing that we are about to start. I was just wondering...our 5 1/2 yr old will be taking the WIAT II in the next couple of weeks. We don't know where he stands as far as LOG, but we have decided to do the WIAT first, and then the WISC when he turns 6. I guess my question is, how much does the WIAT test things like reading comprehension and spelling, given his age? He is probably reading around a 5th grade level, just going by the books he chooses and his STAR test to take AR at school. But I assume that that since most 5 yr olds are not reading, they would test things like letter recognition, etc at that age. So do they keep going up a level until he gets a certain number wrong, or will he not do reading comprehension at all?

Sorry if this doesn't make any sense to those of you who are more familiar with the tests. I am just not sure what to expect, but am hoping that he will not hit any sort of a ceiling, but it will actually show sort of a "reading grade level". We have no idea if he is really very far ahead in other things, but verbally we know that he is.

Thanks for any help!

My DD took the WIAT-II, and that was one of the things that I was very disappointed about. In several subtests (Reading Comp and Writing were definitely among them) the test has pre-set start and end points. That meant that the reading comprehension passages did not include any that were more than a couple of years ahead of DD's age level. The same situation applied to the writing, which was very limited.

My understanding prior to this was that all individual achievement tests were designed to test up to the top level of the test (i.e. the tester keeps giving increasingly difficult questions until the stop criteria is reached). I believe that the WJ-III does do this for all subtests, but perhaps someone with more testing expertise can chime in on this. I'm curious myself, as we plan to test our DS at some point and I would prefer not to use the WIAT-II next time.

I don't know how the tests work, my DD took the WJ and we did get reading comprehension and spelling scores that went up. She had been in 1st grade for all of 3 days by then. Is he in K? I have heard of testers testing the child as a first grader even if they are not, so that they would get a better feel of their true level. Maybe because of what you say...

Thanks for the responses. He is in K now, but will he be able to take the test as though he is in first grade? Or will that skew the results? I will be glad even to have a guestimate, b/c right now all we know is that he is a really good reader, has a goode memory, and seems to grasp things quickly. I know that he is ahead of grade level in math, but not the way some gifted kids are. We are waiting on the IQ test until he turns 6, b/c from what I have heard the WPPSI was not going to be a great choice at his age. We will be doing the WIAT II, b/c our tester does not have the WIAT III or the Woodcock Johnson.