Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment WiscIV Extended Norms vs SBLM

The entire New Yorker article can be read here: http://positivedisintegration.com/newyorker.pdf

It is very sad and also an interesting read.

My personal take: I don't think there will be much actual value in testing with the SB-LM. What you'll get perhaps is one tester, who after the whole world has gone on to other more modern tests continues to use the SB-LM, giving her personal opinion on how your child stacks up to other children to whom she's given questionable numbers as well, in the context of a sample of children from forty years ago. (I didn't realize it was that old-- good grief!)

I would never, after reading the linked article, pay money for the SB-LM. I might take it if the testing were free, and take the results with a huge grain of salt. I might also consider using other tests, like the SB-5 or retesting with the WISC-IV but a better tester-- and I might want to do this even if I got the SB-LM testing for free.

If after retesting with a modern test your son's PRI or equivalent subtests are still relatively lower, I'd probably shrug and chalk it up to a quirk of his makeup that he's either making more use of verbal reasoning skills than you think, or his visual-spatial skills aren't exposed well by IQ tests.

Aside from identifying learning disabilities or for use in advocacy, I don't think that a few numbers from IQ tests, and the personal feelings of a tester who sees a child for such a brief time, are really all that helpful in making parenting decisions. They are interesting, but not necessary or really all that helpful.

Have you given a try with AOPS' Alcumus for supplemental math (http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Alcumus/Introduction.php)? I don't know if it is too easy for him, but it looks like it might be around the right level based on what you're saying and it is free.

My kids are not as mathy are yours or Dottie's, but I do have to say that puberty made no difference in my dd13's interests or speed of acquisition of knowledge in her strong areas and passion areas. Sorry !

I agree with Dottie's arguement for not retesting. But if you do feel compelled to do it I would consider the sb5. Both my girls I would have said were stronger or equal in PRI, but tested lower in this area, particularly the cartoon based subtests. I dont know why. Both girls were retested on the SB5, one because she is 2e and was "due" for reassessment and one because we knew the first test was "wrong" and school was being difficult. Both had nearly identical Verbal scores on both tests. Miss 2e's NV moved from somewhere in the 80s to 99th percentile, in her case this partly reflected the impact of remediation but I am also certain the test simply suited her better. Miss HG+ had her NV improve by 9 points, including a 19 and an 18 in the NV, taking it one point higher than the verbal, that score made a lot more sense for her.

In both girls the better tester and faster pace helped, but I also feel the test simply suites both of them better. There is an Australian study comparing the wppsi and sb5 that shows that most children scored in the same ball park for both tests, with some children scoring significantly higher on one test, but there was no pattern as to which test scored higher, which test was administered first etc, it was either an issue of the kid having a bad day or finding one test being a better match. I seem to recall pretty much all the children enjoyed the SB more, even the ones who did better on the WPPSI.