Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment DAS, WISC or Stanford-Binet for 5 year old?

I've been calling around, and everyone I have spoke with says a different thing and has a different price. My DD is five years two months and very strong in verbal skills, with an amazing memory, is very good at drawing, would do well with an information type subtest, and has a good spatial sense.

I've heard that the Stanford-Binet favors spatial skills and the WISC favors highly verbal skills. Is this true? The latest tester I spoke with suggested the DAS. Would this be a good fit and does that test carry as much weight as the other two? That tester is much less expensive, but doesn't specialize in the gifted and usually works with learning disabled kids. Do I really need to see someone who works primarily with gifted kids to be able to understand and test her accurately? TIA

DASII is well enough known and trusted for DYS to have it as one of their 4 accepted IQ tests:
Differential Abilities Scale-II (DAS-II) Standard Score 145+ (99.9th percentile) on at least one of the following sections: General Conceptual Ability, Verbal Ability, or Nonverbal Reasoning

So that's good.
You can't do WISC IV until age 6, and I definitly wouldn't recommend WIPPSI for your DD at this age - she's too close to the ceiling.

I don't know about SB/spatial skills vs. WISC/verbal - wish I did.
I think it might be more that WISC really relys on a child being 'not shy' and 'talkative' for those verbal subscores and I think it does underestimate verbal intelligence for the shy ones.

Any test will underestimate scores for a child who doesn't cooperate - which brings me to 'chemistry' - it's crutial, particular for your DD, that the tester be someone she matches with - if she gets silly or distracted during the test then there isn't much you'll learn.

Sometimes testers who 'specialize' in kids with learning disabilities or on the lower end of the IQ spectrum can have an 'in-awe' vibe that is a big turn-off for some G kids. We ran into that with the school psychologist, she was totally unprepared for how long the test was taking, and I think she was getting tired before he was! My son does best with someone who is respectful and charasmatic, someone who doesn't 'talk down' to him, and just naturally inspires my son to work hard. And the tester would need not to be thrown by the 'intensity factor' - I've seen some get totally distracted by how 'much' my son can be, particularly when he is trying hard.

Hope that helps!
Grinity

Thanks, Grinity for your BTDT perspective. I think not talking down to a child is THE most important thing. We were at a library the other day and the librarian talked slowly to my DD and said "DO......you......know....what a veterinarian.....does....(not allowing her to say anything ,but then quickly saying) HE (ugh) takes......care....of.... animals!"
She said it in this slow strange voice that I may have used (not sure) when she was about two months old if at all. I'm a rapid fire speaker and she is set on HIGH so if a tester approached her in that way she would get bored so quickly!

Also, expecting too little could cause someone to see something as wrong right away, when it was actually right, just unexpected in its angle (I am guilty of this with her myself).

Truth is, there is no real pressing need to have the tests, so I have been looking around for the least expensive,closest option, even though I know some people think the tester matters as much as the test!