Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment How to get an assessment, and who to get it from

Hello there, new to the board. My DD, 8 (hope I'm using the nomenclature correctly) has for years displayed many gifted characteristics. To this point we've been able to work things out with her classroom teachers in local public school that has zero, nada, zilch for gifted kids to keep from being too bored. Visiting the Stanford/Redbird site on the iPad, for instance, during core math times. However, now that she's in 3rd grade, she's really running into troubles with boredom (I know you're not supposed to use that word, but well, that's what it is) and I feel that we need to get her IQ-tested.

We live in a very rural area and the local school district flatly refused to have one of the school psychologists test her, citing the funding formula and that the psychologists only administer tests in the case of a suspected disability, not giftedness.

Fine, fine, we'll get the test done ourselves. My question is, does it matter who does it? Is the test the test? For example, I've found a psychologist who'd administer the WISC-IV but he doesn't have any particular experience working with gifted kids. I may also be able to convince a neighboring school district (that does have G&T programs) to have one of their school psychs administer an assessment.

On the other end of the spectrum, we're in the Mountain West region and could venture to Denver to have DD tested at Linda Silverman's Gifted Development Center - starting at $180/hr (!).

I've known intuitively and from observation that DD is gifted all her life, but at this point I'd like a firm number (and if it's high enough, consider Davidson). What's your experience been with, well, getting that number?

Hoagies has a list of psychologists (not exhaustive by any means) who work with gifted kids here:

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/psychologists.htm

We picked one in our area and had a good experience.

The testing was not cheap but the information got was really helpful.

Thanks! What, roughly, does this sort of thing cost? I'm getting the impression so far that, depending on how in-depth you go, it's something like $500-1000. That about right?

Welcome!

I don't have any experience obtaining an IQ for my children, as we've never bothered to have them tested. I do, however, have experience getting that number for other people's children.

Ideally, one would like a school, neuro, or clinical psych experienced with GT kiddos to administer a current test. (The WISC-V is now a year old, which means most psychs should have switched over to the -V by now, though small rural districts with limited funding may be trying to eke another budget cycle out of the -IV. Low-volume private psychs may hold off on the newer edition for similar reasons. Specialty GT psychs may wait because they are more familiar with the clinical characteristics of the old test. But everyone really should be moving on to the -V, as norm obsolescence/Flynn effect predicts that scores on the -IV will be unnaturally inflated.) A good evaluation should also include more than a few scores; a skilled clinician ought to provide you with a comprehensive interpretive report describing her learning profile across a number of domains (the specific ones will depend on the assessment instrument(s) used).

$180/hr is not a crazy amount of money for this kind of evaluation. It is not unheard of for a cognitive-only assessment (aka IQ test) to cost in the $500 range, plus or minus, including a testing session that usually lasts about 1-2 hours (depending on how quickly the child works, and how high they go), pre- and possibly post-testing interview/review of testing, and time to write up the eval.

I would say, all other things being equal, that you are probably going to get the most nuanced results from an assessment professional with GT experience.

I went to my local major university. It was a grad student (supervised by her professors) but they were very familiar with gifted. It was on a sliding scale based on income and then another discount because we agreed to participate in a gifted study for someone's research. The research just meant that included in our packet of forms that we filled out for the evaluation were two or three additional forms (it was easy to see which forms might possibly be the research but they were not labeled). And without identifying information they were able to use the other information from the evaluation (like correlate the WISC score with the thing they were measuring).

I wouldn't have been able to afford it if I hadn't gone there. But I had to balance that with the fact that she was a student. I think she did a fine job.

Lots of great advice above. An experienced tester was invaluable in our situation. She was able to handle DS's intensity and actually get to the bottom of his occasionally odd answers rather than dismissing them as incorrect. DD might not have mattered as much but I'd rather spend the money and get it right the first time and avoid retesting in a couple years if the scores were way off what our guts are telling us.

Our psych charges $180/hr. For my 2e DS that we've now tested twice it was pretty pricey. For my more straightforward DD that we just tested we expect it to come out to around $800 for the WISC and a report (we haven't got the bill or report yet). I will say that our psych writes very thorough, long reports which obviously takes time. Again, very crucial for our 2e DS but possibly overkill for a more straightforward case. It will be interesting to see how big DD's report is when we get it.

If your DD is covered under someone's extended benefits, check for coverage there. Some benefits require a referral, others don't but it is best to know before you book stuff.

The rates seem to vary by location. We went with a Hoagie's list tester - with vast GT experience - for our two DYS. We had two excellent testing experiences and the scores have helped our DC access some G&T resources, including DYS. We are very glad that we went ahead and did the testing (we thought about doing it for years).

I guess that the caution that I would provide is that even WITH proof of DYS-level scores, there is no guarantee that your school will do ANYTHING additional with your DC. Your state laws may help you...or they may not. Your best bet is to be aware of your state laws, local school policies, etc. and test with these in mind. I would definitely use testing that is most likely to be recognized by your school (some schools summarily reject outside testing).

I hate to paint a bleak picture, but we've slowly realized that meeting our children's needs is pretty much up to us (we are getting little or no additional help from the school - we do NOT live in a state with great G&T laws).

Thanks, everyone, for your insight. I think it's important to have an assessor with experience in these tests; DD is pretty shy around strangers and while I don't want anyone to "coach" her, I do want to get an accurate score, so we can figure out what the heck to do with her next, and someone with experience would know how to evaluate her answers properly.

That institute in Denver I mentioned does a very thorough intake and then consultation following the actual assessment. The Cadillac option, to be sure, and I suppose that's the best thing to do, just so then we know for sure where DD is at.