Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Understanding huge Reynolds discrepancy

I'm trying to get my son in the local gifted program. We have moved in from out of state, and it is a royal pain.

About 17 months ago he took the WISC in another state, got a 136 verbal, but only about 90 on processing speed. Ended up with a GAI of 126.

At his new school, he failed his first screener, the Cog/At, with a score of about 110 verbal and 116 non verbal. He then was given a second "screener," Ravens, and scored in the 99th percentile, although I wasn't given his exact score.

He just took the Reynolds Intellectual Assessment and had the following scores:
Subtest Raw Score/Standard Score
Guess what 51 70
Odd Item Out 65 51
Verbal Reas. 36 69
What's Missing36 53

Index Scores Raw Score/Standard Score
Verbal 135 99
Nonverbal 105 63
Composite 121 92

Obviously there is a huge gap here. Would a processing speed problem affect these non-verbal scores? Just trying to figure out where to go from here, as the school requires a composite score of 125 for admission to the gifted program. Does testing protocol require any type of additional testing here?

Thanks!

Have his vision and his visual processing been evaluated thoroughly? Any chance he is colorblind to some degree? Does he have problems with tracking or convergence? Ravens is a non-verbal test, but it is very high-contrast and is printed in black and white. I believe WISC and Reynolds both use color and glossy cardstock on at least some of the non-verbal sections, which can make visual processing more difficult for some people with visual differences.

It is something to consider and get checked out.

I think a strong case could be made that he has now demonstrated scores at 99th percentile in non-verbal (Ravens) and Verbal (WISC and Reynolds), so he should be admitted, particularly given a previous successful placement in a G/T program.

His vision is good and he's not color blind, because he makes fun of my color blindness. We are going to do our research and set up our meeting, and that's why I'm trying to get as much information here as I can.