Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment DS' KBIT-2 scores has 37 point difference. ???

DS is 4 years old.

Verbal
Standard Score 100
Percentile Rank. 50

Nonverbal
Standard Score. 137
Percentile Rank. 99

IQ Composite
Standard Score. 122
Percentile Rank. 93

Thoughts? Comments? Thanks.

I'll be stalking your post. I remember you mentioned you were interested in knowing more about the KBIT-2 test when I asked about it the other week. This looks like a huge difference in scores!

My first two quick thoughts would be that four is very young for testing and scores can be less reliable overall at that age and also that, also at his age, his degree of comfort with the tester and willingness to be expansive on the verbal section may have depressed those scores. When I am at a computer and can look a little more at the format of the KBIT, I might have some other ideas or completely change my mind on my prior thoughts!

Do you see any concerns with verbal development vs abstract reasoning IRL?

I agree that four is young for testing. I just wanted to kind of "see what I am working with." I dont have any concerns about his verbal development. I was relatively sure that his verbal would be lower because it can be difficult to get a straight answer from him. When his preschool teacher asked him what the letter Q was, he said "a circle with a tail." He told the same teacher that a J is "an upside down candy cane." He knew all his capital and lowercase letters before he was 2. He likes to give answers that he thinks is funny even though they are wrong.

The fact that his nonverbal score is higher doesnt surprise me, but I didnt think it would be as high as the 99th percentile. The test administrator recommended (in her report) that it "may be prudent" to interpret the levels as "separate constructs rather than as one global score."

I talked to the test administrator from Vanderbilt today, and she told me his Nonverbal score qualifies him to take math or science classes at their gifted program when he becomes age eligible at 5. Interesting. Not sure if we will apply, but will definitely revisit when he is older.

this is the same reason why we are considering this test through Northwestern University. To get an idea of where DS4.9 is at and to see if he would qualify for their gifted classes.

It sounds like we are traveling similar paths. I am glad that DS (he is 4 years, almost 3 months) was assessed because it validated what I thought about him. I know to not take the scores as an end all, but I think they are helpful. IF I need to and/or decide to pursue the program at Vanderbilt, I know it is an option. I still have no idea what I will do for kindergarten. Thankfully, he has one more school year for me to figure it out.