Dashawn sighs as he reads the next question. "Hmmm, which one of the following words best match the word ‘cup'," he reads to himself, "‘wall,' ‘table,' ‘saucer,' or ‘window?'" Dashawn isn't sure what a saucer is. He concludes, "It must be ‘table-you put a cup on a table." Dashawn finds that there are a lot of words he doesn't know on this test, like regatta, and situations that didn't make a lot of sense to him, like examples that refer to gardening and playing tennis. "Boy, this is a long test," he mutters to himself.The next day, Dashawn takes a deep breath and begins his tumbling routine, hurtling his way down the mat, completing a series of forward flips and finishing with a back flip. "Fantastic!" shouts Coach Dawkins, "We should work on your timing, but you are on your

Question

way to winning the championship."Later that week, Coach Dawkins arrives at the high school's conference room to meet with the school's student troubleshooting team. The principal, school psychologist, and several of Dashawn's teachers are in attendance. The school psychologist, Dr. Martinez, begins, "I've brought us together to talk about Dashawn. I'm concerned that he may have special learning needs. His intelligence test scores show a large discrepancy in his performance on verbal and nonverbal test items. I'd like to learn more about your experiences with Dashawn." As the teachers talk, Dr. Martinez takes notes and creates a profile of Dashawn. Coach Dawkins explains that Dashawn is the most talented gymnast he's coached in his entire career. Dashawn's teachers agree that he's a hard worker, sociable, and well-liked by his classmates. His math teacher explains that Dashawn's performance is in line with his classmates and his English teacher agrees: Dashawn is not the most talented student in class, but his work is on par with his peers and he seems to be a quick learner. Dr. Martinez concludes that Dashawn's IQ test scores may not indicate serious cognitive and academic problems, but he decides to monitor Dashawn's progress and discuss his concerns with his mother.Why might have Dashawn scored higher on the performance scale than the verbal scale? Discuss developmental reasons that might underlie his performance. Are there other possible reasons?

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Suggested Answer: His higher performance score is probably due to the fact that performance scale skills are less sensitive to cultural differences than are verbal scale scores, which depend heavily on language comprehension.