Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment SB5 or WISC-IV--which one?

As I mentioned in a previous post, I need to have my 7 year old son retested for eligibility for a program. (Previously, be was tested with the screener KBIT-2 and scored 50% on verbal and 99% nonverbal. The screener is accepted by this program.) I want him tested on an individually administered IQ test that is also accepted by our school system for the gifted program.

DS' strengths are logic, puzzles, patterns, etc. His weaknesses are vocabulary and reading comprehension. Would one of these tests be better for him to take than the other? If so, which one? Thank you.

They are both oldish tests now. Maybe the WISC V? AEH will know.

Hi Jai- I'm sure aeh will weigh in, but maybe you should post what tests are accepted by your school system?

I know that the NNAT (while not a comprehensive test) is used by some school districts and can favor non-verbal over verbal. But I would wait for aeh In the meantime, please post any tests you know are accepted by your school district (if you know).

It does depend, first, on what tests are accepted by your school system.

The NNAT-2 is entirely nonverbal, and would likely be advantageous for your child, as it is pretty much all logic and patterns. Aspects of the WISC-V could be good, as there is a Nonverbal Index, which leaves off the VCI subtests, but not every school system will accept that as the global measure of intelligence. Other nonverbal measures include the TONI-4, CTONI-2, UNIT-2, and the WNV (Wechsler Nonverbal, which is basically several of the low-verbal subtests that have been part of the WISC or WAIS in the past, re-packaged).

The NNAT, TONI, and CTONI are basically the same idea, using some variation of matrix reasoning (abstract-figural patterning).

The UNIT and WNV are similar to each other in including measures of reasoning, working memory, and processing speed (so more areas than the first set of tests).

Thank you all for your responses. I didn't realize that I was asking about older versions of tests.

I am looking for an individually administered test of intelligence. I will look into the ones that were mentioned.

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According to our state department of education website, "a student may be determined automomatically eligible for gifted services when the obtained full scale/composite IQ score on an individually administered test of intelligence (NOT as screener) is two standard deviations above the mean or higher, or the Verbal Average Standard Score or Figural Creativity index of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking is at or above the 97th national percentile."

From our school district website:
XXXX County conducts a child find activity in which every second grader is observed to determine if he/she needs to be referred for screening. The ACE teachers go into the classrooms and provide a series of products used to evaluate students. These products consist of draw starts, problem solving, patterns, analogies, and writing samples. This evaluation process begins in the month of August and continues through January. When the evaluation process is complete, the students who fall in the top 2% will be screened and formally tested. Grades are not used when determining who will be formally screened. A notification form will be sent to parents providing “Permission to Screen.” If parents of 2nd graders do not receive this notification, then the process has ended and their child will not receive any additional testing.

Do the NNAT, TONI, CTONI, UNIT and WNV give full scale/composite IQ scores?

I think it is important to keep in mind with any advanced program that school is very heavily verbal. While spatial reasoning is important it is not necessarily a skill that he will use a ton in school and even math has other skills that are as important or more important in terms of a cognitive foundation. Just an FYI so if he does not seem to perform as well in some areas of school that this is most likely what is going on.

Thank you, sallymom. I do realize this. DS earns As and Bs in reading and language arts so he isn't doing poorly according to his school's standards. Based on his KBIT2 scores, he only qualifies for the science and math classes at the university anyway (which are his area of interests).

I want to make it clear that I am not trying to "beat the system" to get him into the school's gifted program (which is actually lax compared to some of the other programs that I read about--it's a pull out for a couple of hours once a week. The fifth graders who are in the program do science projects). I just want the truest possible representation of his score that I can get. My number one goal is to retest for the university program, and I could accomplish that with having him retake the KBIT2. I was simply trying to kill two birds with one stone.

I do plan to go through the school process, however, when I spoke with the administration about it, they made it seem like the process is very lax (this is my interpretation). I prefer to have a definite test with results that I can understand and read. If he qualifies for the school gifted program, that is great, and if he doesn't qualify, that is also fine. We will just continue with the gifted program at the university.

Jai, have you considered asking your school district which individually administered tests of intelligence are recognized for admission to the gifted program? The info you've quoted above doesn't specific that; and I'm suggesting asking only because our school district has a definite preference for which tests they will/won't accept. In general, they prefer to administer the tests themselves, but they will accept outside testing... but it's been our experience that advocating is much easier if that outside test is one of the same tests the school district uses.

Best wishes,

polarbear

Yes. Though technically, the NNAT and TONI each generate only one score.