Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment bilingualism and intelligence testing

My son is bilingual (but not considered limited in English proficiency). He speaks two languages, one at home and one at school. He was tested for gifted education with the RIAS and scored just below the cutoff for gifted education. He told me he knew some of the answers in his home language and not in English and didn't respond to those. The school doesn't want to discuss anything but the test score to determine eligibility. They gave him the DAS-II, and he then scored in the average range. I cannot seem to make sense of this discrepance between the RIAS score and the DAS score. I also cannot seem to make sense of the school's closing the door on discussing the issue of the effect of bilingualism on a test's validity. Anyone out there who can help me make sense of these two issues?

Do you know if they'll accept outside testing? If so, I'd contact a tester who has experience with gifted children and explain the situation.

There are IQ tests in the person's native tongue and you have every right to request one.

Did he score lower on the verbal portion of the RIAS? You can be bilingual and have a range of skills in either language. It's possible that your son might be stronger in his native language than English (so he was at disadvantage in taking the test in English). You could have him take the test again next year when his English skills will be stronger. And maybe his brain just needs more time to develop with both languages.

We are native English speakers but my son spoke another language at school from the age of 2 until the end of K. His K scores were lower than we thought they should be and he missed the cutoff for the HG program we wanted him in by a few points. A year later his scores were almost a full standard deviation higher in both verbal and NV. The director of his school said that in her experience, children will mostly catch up in language around 2nd grade and eventually surpass monolingual speakers. A speech & language therapist told me that testing might also be affected by cultural differences between their academic culture and the culture of the language the test is written in.

I'm not familiar with RIAS but DS did not do nearly as well on the gifted testing administered by the school district as on the SB and WISC.

Thank you so much to all of you with more experience in gifted education issues than I have. I need to clarify a bit, I think. My son is not limited in his English proficiency, but neither is he on par with monolingual English *or monolingual Spanish) speakers his age. We have noticed that he does not know how to express some relatively simple things in English that children his age can, although his English skills are strong in other ways.

My husband and I are both fluent in English and Spanish. Spanish is his native language, and English is mine. We only speak Spanish at home, but my son has been educated in English since he was very young (day care, etc.) and speaks English with my family and some friends. So, testing in Spanish would not necessarily solve the problem, as his education has been in English. He is fluent in both, but not where his monolingual (in English or in Spanish) peers are in either language.

He did score lower on the verbal portion of the RIAS than on the nonverbal portion, although, apparently it was not statistically significantly lower (but the gap seems large). However, his score on the DAS was apparently in the normal range and significantly lower than that on the RIAS. I can't seem to make sense of that yet.

We have considered contacting a private psychologist to administer a test, but we are concerned about the cost. Any advice there?

Does MAE's experience ring true for others of you, that a child does better on the SB or the WISC rather than the gifted testing administered by the school district? Why might that be?

Thank you, again, for your interest and replies. We are struggling with this.

So isn't this what the score on the RIAS shows? I'm not familiar with the DAS and what it measures, but the RIAS is an IQ test and correlates with the WISC and SB5.

I would wait until his English improves before testing again. And it's possible that your son is gifted in math and not verbal.

My dd only spoke English as a full time language for six months before her test, before that she predominately spoke another language. Her ability to read in English was always ahead of the curve, but her spoken English really not so.

In the SB 5 she scored 8 points higher on the verbal portion. So, go figure!

I dont know, I really think somedays test results depend, on whether it is a good day for the child, whether they like the tester and so on.

Thank you for your help and support. It helps a lot.