Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment In your opinion......

Do you think it is more unusual to have DYS qualifying scores on achievement testing or in iq testing? I ask because our tester mentioned that higher scores on achievement are almost more rare then qualifying iq tests.... I thought that was intriguing... Thoughts??

DYS achievement test result will require some formal schooling to achieve. A child may have DYS level IQ, but if he/she doesn't have a support system that helps 'utilize' his / her potential, the achievement test may not be as high as what it could have been. So, I would guess that DYS level achievement test result is more rare than DYS level IQ test.

I would add that on the WISC, for example, you can get qualifying DYS level IQ scores using VCI, PRI, or GAI, and not have those scores on FSIQ due to low working memory or processing speed, (attention deficits, LDs, etc.), and both PSI and WMI greatly influence how well you are able to perform on achievement testing. Since there are 2-E kids with DYS level IQ scores, it seems fairly straightforward that only a subset of those kids are also going to have DYS level achievement, particularly since diagnosing and getting appropriate accommodations for LDs in profoundly gifted kids is such a challenge.

This is interesting. My DS had higher achievement scores than IQ. He was just about 4 though, so those are probably skewed high I guess?

Lukemac, did your DS have achievement testing when you did the WPPSI?

When DD8 was first tested for IQ and achievement she was 6.3 years old, and had just completed kindergarten and first grade in 1 year. Her achievement score was higher than her IQ score. She was retested for IQ this past spring and her IQ is now equal to her old achievement score.
So, while I can see where having a good support system for education would help improve achievement scores, DD did not really have good support at school, we pushed for her to be moved to grade 1 and she was still unchallenged with that placement. But, maybe her age and the inexperience of the tester were more influential on her IQ score than her educational support.

This was the case with ds. He has been tested with WISC twice, and both times he easily hit the DYS qualifying scores. The first time he was almost 6 had about two months of kindergarten under his belt. The second time he had one year of school behind him.

He's home educated, and I was in denial about his giftedness (and his gifted needs) all along. I never pushed him at all, and even held him back a bit before grade 1. When he had the second WISC, he also took the WJ-III. His broad score was one point below the DYS cutoff. His math really hurt him, as he has not been exposed to much at that point. He was above grade level, but not enough for DYS. In his case, the lack of exposure suppressed his achievement scores.

Interesting... I don't know about Davidson applicants, but when our ds was going through the process of being considered for our school district gifted program we were told that he was an anomaly because he had easily qualifying IQ scores, and usually (for our school district program) kids had the qualifying achievement scores but more rarely had the qualifying IQ scores.

(fwiw, our school district uses the WJ-III achievement tests)