How many years/months ahead would a child have to score on a vocab assessment for the score to be within the gifted range? Assume said child is three years, six months (I'm assuming that makes a difference).

The word "gifted" has different meanings depending on the situation; for example different GT programs have different cutoffs. Some have cutoffs at the 99.9th percentile, some at the 90th.

Assuming a cutoff of a scaled test score of 130 for the "gifted" label, where that corresponds to two standard deviations from the mean, scores don't generally seem to be given in grade equivalents; instead grade equivalents are extrapolated loosely from scores, and the scores are the things that are most closely normalized to each other between different kinds of tests. That means that once you know what "gifted" means in a certain context (e.g. a scaled score of 130 or above on a particular test) the method that the test constructors use for grade equivalents, if there is one, would give your answer.

For this reason I think you would have to give the type of test and the gifted cutoff you're looking at for a full answer.

I'd caution using a vocabulary test as the only or primary means for assessing overall giftedness. Most vocabulary tests measure very discrete skills and or knowledge. A high score in the presence of high scores on other tests of cognition might indicate giftedness. But, a high score in isolation is not enough to determine overall intelligence or even speech and language/ verbal ability. There are so many factors that lead to giftedness.

It's pretty hard to tell if a 3 year old is gifted or not, but if you are asking the questions there has to be a reason.

Of course your neighbors may think the reason is a character problem on your part, but in my experience, the reason usually is that the child is unusual enough in their behavior that you would like some kind of reason to explain the unusuallness.

You might be interested in this:
TalentIgniter | Ruf Gifted Assessment
www.talentigniter.com/ -

Isn't it nice to finally have words to match the vauge feelings?

Read the other posts here and see if your child looks familiar...

Welcome,
Grinity

The test was the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. It is not in any way meant to test for giftedness. It was given as a part of a research study, and the tester gave the results in a year/month format. I was simply curious to know if there was an understood typical versus possibly gifted range for such a test. This correlation may not have been done though, because again, it wasn't meant to test for giftedness, for obvious reasons.

Thank you for your kind, encouraging words. Will there be much to learn from here if my child isn't pg?

1. At 3.5, and even with the well-established tests, it can be difficult to determine if your child is PG.

2. You may be in denial without knowing it.

3. This is a great place to learn, regardless of LOG/numbers.

Neither of my girls are PG - DD10 is a near-DYS kid and DD8 is bright but quirky. I've still found this site very useful.

Great, thanks!

I hope so!
((wink))

I think that most PG kids stand out like a sore thumb although there are a few quiet exceptions. At 18 months it was obvious to everyone that our son wasn't within normal ranges.

Kids in the MG and HG ranges are not quite so easy to identify. It has to be taken on a case by case, or kid by kid basis. At 3, I would just relax and enjoy, there is lots of time to stress later!

My little guy 2yr 10mo just had a similar test as part of his follow-up with the speech language pathologist. He was a late talker and said very little until February of this year (maybe 10-15 words?). Towards the end of the receptive language part of the test, the SLP was flipping through pages two and three at a time trying to find where it got 'too hard'. She gave up somewhere after 4 years. I would have liked to know where he did cap, just for curiosity's sake. His older sister is HG+/PG and 2e. I can't comment on how this vocab test correlates with IQ. I do remember DD having a similar test at 3.5 (also a late talker... very late!), but I do not recall what the results were. It could not have been too outstanding, though, or I would have remembered.

Interesting question. I would think that the number of years ahead would vary depending on age. Obviously, vocabulary is one and only one measue of verbal intelligence. However, as vocabulary is one of the subtest on the WISC IV, it should be simple to use a raw score/scaled score conversion chart/software to figure out 50 percentile for which age corresponds to 98 percentile for a given age.

They could just as easily have given you a percentile score, or a "same scale as a full-blown IQ test" score. I don't have a conversion chart, but I've administered the PPVT for psych research studies, and the scoring conversion was part of the post-administration process.

I have heard that there is a strong correlation between a teacher's verbal ability and their strength as a teacher -
(sorry I don't have a link to the actual research itself)

So no, we 'can't say' that high vocabulary means gifted in children, but we do know it makes a big difference in teachers. We can't say because who would fund a study of looking at 3 year old's vocabulary to predict future IQ score?

((shrugs))
Grinity