Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Super high Non-verbal score on CogAT, possible LD?

My daughter is currently in Kindergarten and recently took the CogAT test. Her scores were the following:
Verbal 52%
Quantitive 50%
Non-verbal 97%

Her non-verbal is unusually high and her other two scores are average. Does this indicate a possible learning disability? She is a sweet and bright girl but definitely quirky. She has sensory issues with clothes, heights and textures of food. She is very anxious and very quizative. She reads and writes above her peers. She is socially behind. She did have a speech delay but no longer qualifies for speech services. She's an amazing little artist. She is constantly sketching. She finally picked a dominate hand last year but still has ambidextrous tendencies. She can draw equally with both hands and sometimes when she writes she will write a word completely reversed perfectly from right to left..like a mirror. I am not sure what to make of these scores since there is such a huge gap. What do you guys think? Her teacher loves her and says she wishes she had 20 more of her. Should I just ignore it or should I be concerned?

It could...or not. At this age, I would not place too much weight on standardized testing of any kind, either individual, or--like the CogAT--group. I would begin, instead, from the observations you and her teachers have of her. Incomplete hand dominance is not all that unusual at five or six years old. Academically she is ahead, and apparently happy in school. The social lags could have many different causes, but my first thought would be her history of speech delays, and possible lingering effects in language.

If you are concerned for concrete reasons other than her CogAT scores, I would request an evaluation, listing the specific concerns you have (e.g., social development, sensory defensiveness, history of speech delays). When was she discontinued from speech? Do you have a good relationship with her speech therapist? That would be another resource, who knows your DD well, who could give you some input on whether any of these concerns are developmentally significant.

If your only substantive cause for concern is the CogAT scores, watchful waiting may be sufficient. Children test poorly for many different reasons, especially at this very young age. And their development also takes place unevenly. Finally, the CogAT can show quite a bit of variability from year to year. Not a reason to panic, in other words, but a good opportunity for some objective reflection on her development.

Thanks for your response! I just saw this response today, lol. She was in speech for two years through the public school system. She had it in ECE when she was three and four years old. I wanted her to have at least one more year in Kindergarten but the team including the speech pathologist felt she did not qualify. The speech pathologist checks in on her once in awhile but they say she doesn't qualify. I think she still has some pronounciation issues and problems with word order and word tenses. We take her to a private OT to help her with her sensory issues and I've thought about getting her a private speech pathologist when we finish with the OT. She's a great reader and I think that helps her a lot with her speech but she doesn't always hear sounds correctly (I think she gets that from me, unfortunately). The district has decided to test her further so we shall see what those new tests will say. I am interested and I'm hoping to get some answers.