Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Recommend an achievement test for my DS

DS (will be 6 in April) took the SB-V last August with a psych who specializes in gifted kids. His results were a FSIQ of 139 with a hard ceiling in Fluid Reasoning (19- scaled score 144) and according to the psych, a soft ceiling of 17 a few other categories.

We've decided to go ahead and do achievement testing in the next few months and we'd like a test that DYS would accept. We're going to move schools and use achievement testing either for a place to start with the new school for accomodations. Should DS score in the DYS range, we either have him take the WISC or apply with achievement/portfolio scores. We want to get a very solid estimate beyond our interpretation- since his school has done nothing.

Anybody have a specific recommendation for a very verbal, pencil-resistant, kid who likes to build legos but scores lower than expected in visual/spatial?

I realized after I posted it that I didn't put in his age- thanks Dottie! Our psych does want to wait until after he's 6 but books up fast in the spring so I wanted to get on her schedule.

He will do some writing but it is not his strong suit and can be easily frustrated by it! But if it's like "circle the one or cross out the one" then he'll be fine. Write a paragraph? He may end up crying!

My DS6 took the WJ-III at 5 years 1 month. The writing parts were very hard for him especially the sentence writing (he was actually in tears at one point). The tester said that he immediately knew the answers but was painfully slow at the writing due to his perfectionism. He also got his lowest score on the math fluency. Again--knew the answers without having to even think but each number took him so long to write since he was still making most of his numbers backwards last year. Since he started school this year his writing has become a little bit better and easier for him to do. Despite his extra time on the writing sections his scores were still in the GT range.

I have also been told the WJ-III does have higher ceiling than the WIAT.

Good luck.

Crisc - our DS will be taking the WJ-III at 5 yrs, 3 wks, and I am going to predict the same issues with the writing. This is where I feel like a bad parent for having him do this. (School is doing the testing, otherwise we'd probably have sought out the testing with the smallest writing component.)

Interesting... Well, the WJ-III was the school's suggestion, and I think even if he doesn't score DYS levels it will be useful information for the schoolm and for us. But of course i'm still curious. Do you know if a 5yo would be given enough portions to make up the Broad Reading component that might qualify for DYS? (we have a verbal kid).

I have one of those, LOL! Just to make you feel better about the writing, my DS took the WIAT/WISC combo at 6 and refused to write ANYTHING! Finally, he agreed to simply write down the first letter of words. (We had told him we were going to the psych to find out how we could make school better for him. Once he found out that the testing was "school," it was all over...). In any event, his failure to write still gave us a good picture of his academic needs and did not inhibit his scores in other areas. He also pretty much refused to read or do much math, but he had no problem talking, LOL. So just go with what you have and don't worry about it. If you're interested in DYS, the minimums only have to be met in any one academic area. If it's verbal only, you might have to supplement, but that doesn't necessarily preclude acceptance.

Thanks Dottie. So they are not allowed to give the Reading Fluency? I think DS would be good at it if they let him take it. Oh well, I'm sure we'll learn a lot (as long as the boy cooperates! I hope our bribes are good enough....)

I think we are one of those that had a forced broad reading score based on the software. Ours was inaccurate though.
Letter-Word Identification 140, >99%
Reading Fluency 128, 97%
Passage Comprehension 133, 99%
All yielded a Broad Reading Score of 125, 95%

Our tester thought this might be wrong because of his age and norms available.

My DS6 took the WJ achievement at age 5yrs and 9mos and got DYS scores on Broad Reading. It isn't as high as his scores seem like they should be, given what I've learned (mostly from Dottie!) about composites. And now I guess I know why.

But the score is still well into DYS range. So it can be done.

Or is 5yrs and 9mos too close to 6yo to be helpful?

Well, we'll just have to wait and see, i guess!