Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Psych eval, how much to state?

My wife and I are preparing to fill out applications for pre-k schools. Our son is 3.5 but he doesn't go to daycare or preschool. That means we won't have teacher recommendations or any of that stuff to include with the applications, we thought we'd get the WPPSI-IV done and get something formal from someone to include.

We selected someone to do the test (it won't be for a few months since we really don't need it until the fall when the applications are due). She sent us a "developmental history" form to fill in.

Here's my question: I'm inclined to downplay my personal impressions of our son so that the tester has no preconceived expectations. Should we or should we gush about how great we think he is? I don't want to set up false expectations but I don't want to sell him short either.

Feedback?

As a professional evaluator, I would far rather see the parents' honest impressions of their child than anything else. Your observations are part of the assessment data, and therefore need to be as accurate as possible. No one's asking you to estimate his intelligence or academic skills (that's what the testing is for)--just what you see and feel about your child. If preconceived expectations could change the results, then there would be no point in formal testing (or you would need a different evaluator, anyway!). The test data won't change because of your impressions, but the tester's selection of assessment instruments may, and you really don't want something with too low of a ceiling for a suspected GT learner. Please don't downplay your observations because you feel like you're bragging!

Thank you for that! I feel much better about it now.

I'll second aeh's advice, and would add that I'd think of this in matter-of-fact terms, not think of it as "gushing". Note - I'm about to use a silly analogy not based on your comments or on any real life situation - so it's nothing personal, just trying to illustrate a point. There's a different mindset between looking at your child and thinking "my child is so amazing compared to any other child his age because he can read Harry Potter at age 2" and "my child has read Harry Potter independently". You're not looking to share excitement over how amazing your child is, but you *are* looking to share factual information about abilities... for all the reasons aeh stated.

Even though they aren't equivalent situations, you might think of it as you would think of having your child try out for competitive sport at a new club where no one is familiar with his abilities (this would be for a child slightly older lol!). For instance, one of my children is an accomplished athlete who's garnered some fairly impressive awards. If we were to move to another state where no one knows her, and I was introducing her to a new club where she was starting fresh, if I go in, as the parent, "gushing" about the awards my child has won, the coaches are going to be hearing *me* the loudest, as opposed to objectively meeting a new athlete. If instead she is introduced as an athlete performing at the "x" level that she's at, then the new coaches evaluating where to place her are going to be looking at *her*. I hope that makes sense. And please know, I didn't meant to imply you'd go in actually over-gushing or anything, just felt that from the way you'd phrased it you're thinking of describing abilities as gushing. As long as you keep it factual, it's just reporting. Again, hope that makes sense!

Best wishes,

polarbear

THanks again for the advice. I can see that I'll probably be mos comfortable stating more instead of less but being careful that I keep the language closer to "He is doing X, Y, and Z."