Was the CogAT Accurate? FOR JANUARY 2025
Many school districts, including Douglas County School District, use a group screening test called the CogAT to help determine if a student is gifted and/or talented. This means that if your student scores very high on the CogAT, they will look for other pieces of information that will help determine if your child is best described as gifted or talented.
The CogAT (which stands for Cognitive Abilities Test) is given to whole groups of children at one time. Group tests are great at efficiently testing many children at once, but they can have some disadvantages. Depending on their age and experience, some children may not work well on computers yet. Other children may “zone out” during the test.
At times, group screening tests may underestimate a child’s abilities. If you think your child’s CogAT scores don’t seem quite accurate, you can get a second opinion. It would be especially important to follow up if other people (e.g. teachers and family members) have told you that your child is quite bright. Other signs that it may be worth testing your child again are:
- they use advanced language or phrasing
- they learn things after being exposed to information one time
- they have a better than expected memory
- they see connections in seemingly unrelated things
- they demonstrate abstract thinking
- they want to know more and initiate learning more
Some parents seek private testing as a means of getting a second opinion. Envision Counseling Center offers intelligence tests, such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (fifth edition; WISC-V), which are given individually by a psychologist and can get a much more detailed view of your child’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses. The WISC-V gives information on a child’s processing speed, working memory, verbal comprehension, fluid reasoning, and visual spatial skills. At Envision, we also include subtests that measure quantitative reasoning as this skill is commonly high within gifted learners.
And of course, when we are looking at a child, we do not count the IQ score as everything. Instead, districts tend to look at many different parts of a child – their school work, their teacher’s feedback, and any disabilities they may have that might cloud accurate identification. Gifted kids are not all the same – they look very different and have different abilities.
If you believe your child might have gifted abilities that have gone under the radar thus far, reach out to Envision Counseling Clinic. Our psychologists will spend time with you and your child to gather information, to complete the IQ test, and to give feedback that will help you understand your child better.
Written By: Dr. Veronica Johnson, Licensed Psychologist
