Gifted Bulletin Board

Welcome to the Gifted Issues Discussion Forum.

We invite you to share your experiences and to post information about advocacy, research and other gifted education issues on this free public discussion forum.
CLICK HERE to Log In. Click here for the Board Rules.

Links


Learn about Davidson Academy Online - for profoundly gifted students living anywhere in the U.S. & Canada.

The Davidson Institute is a national nonprofit dedicated to supporting profoundly gifted students through the following programs:

  • Fellows Scholarship
  • Young Scholars
  • Davidson Academy
  • THINK Summer Institute

  • Subscribe to the Davidson Institute's eNews-Update Newsletter >

    Free Gifted Resources & Guides >

    Who's Online Now
    0 members (), 167 guests, and 10 robots.
    Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
    Newest Members
    parentologyco, Smartlady60, petercgeelan, eterpstra, Valib90
    11,410 Registered Users
    March
    S M T W T F S
    1 2
    3 4 5 6 7 8 9
    10 11 12 13 14 15 16
    17 18 19 20 21 22 23
    24 25 26 27 28 29 30
    31
    Previous Thread
    Next Thread
    Print Thread
    #127471 04/14/12 08:04 PM
    Joined: Feb 2012
    Posts: 1,390
    E
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    E
    Joined: Feb 2012
    Posts: 1,390
    I am sorely tempted to see an adult neuropsych for myself. I could justify it by saying I want a "baseline," because I have MS and it might allow me to notice if I have significant deterioration later on. But honestly, I'd just like to know. I don't think I should really spend the money, though. Maybe I can talk to my neurologist about whether insurance would be likely to cover it.

    Anyone else test as an adult? Why? What did it do for you, if anything, to know your "number"?

    Joined: Jul 2011
    Posts: 2,007
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    Joined: Jul 2011
    Posts: 2,007
    If you're not on disability now, you might want to get the neuropsych test now so that you can *prove* deterioration later on if you have to do that for SSDI.

    Joined: Mar 2012
    Posts: 60
    L
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    L
    Joined: Mar 2012
    Posts: 60
    ElizabethN: I am being tested this week, at least the preliminary stuff. I was identified as "very" gifted back in the 70s although there were no numbers given as gifted was not well accepted in my area.

    As for the exam, I too have MS and wish I had done the testing a long time ago. I also have diabetes and between the two there have been issues. I hope to get a baseline. My MS has been in remission (mostly) for a long while, but I cannot plan on not needing some help at a later date. See if you can get the testing done. I have friends with MS who learned a lot about themselves over time and that the MS was doing its thing even when there were few physical symptoms.

    With a referral from your neuro as "necessary" your insurance should pick up some of the cost.

    Joined: Dec 2005
    Posts: 7,207
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    Joined: Dec 2005
    Posts: 7,207
    I think testing is a great idea....there are so many ambiguoities when trying to know oneself that a few numbers can really help but some of the self doubt and overanalysis to rest. Good luck
    Grinity


    Coaching available, at SchoolSuccessSolutions.com
    Joined: Sep 2011
    Posts: 80
    S
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    S
    Joined: Sep 2011
    Posts: 80
    I wasn't an adult, but a teenager, when I voluntarily had some testing done. I learned I had an IQ of 152 (which was 99.9th percentile on this particular test).

    I grew up with my parents both minimizing my gifts and also trying to accommodate them. I was in the gifted program at a public school. My parents kept downplaying the gifted program and saying that almost any kid that wanted to do it could. (I later learned this was untrue and entrance was based on standardized test scores.) This was easy for me to accept, because honestly the curriculum was a big nothing. No challenge whatsoever. Also my peers in this program didn't seem especially smart to me. (I cringe when I type that, it sounds horrible... trust me, though, I never felt elitist or better than them.) I always got a 99th percentile on our annual standardized tests, across all categories, but my parents insisted that was what most kids got. It wasn't anything special. I remember one year I got 98th percentile in some sub-set of the test, and I was mortified. I couldn't believe it! I knew I must have been the stupidest kid in the class (because, at the time, I believed my parents and thought everyone in the class got 99th percentile across the board.)

    I remember fighting with them one time about what a percentile means, and how could it be possible for all the kids to get 99th percentile. (They gave a BS answer about how some kids are sick the day of the test and so they score a zero, some kids just fill in random dots, and they get a zero... so those that actually read and answer the questions end up with these inflated scores of 99th percentile. I still get mad when I think about that fight - and that was over 25 years ago!)

    It was a strange dynamic. I think they wanted to keep me from getting a big ego or something. It worked. I definitely had low self esteem.

    So while they downplayed how gifted I was, they did indeed allow me to take college courses at the local university when I was 12, they did indeed enroll me in a couple of language classes when I was 5, and they did indeed take advantage of many of the gifted resources offered by our local university.

    As a teenager (like many teenagers) I felt confused about who, exactly, I was. Was I just like everyone else? Or was there someone a bit different about me? Relationships with my peers were frustrating, to say the least, because I expected them to be more similar to me. Confusing times.

    So I saved my money and I paid for a full evaluation and IQ test at the university when I was about 17.

    What did it do for me? Well.... not a helluva lot. LOL! My parents knew I did this and were curious to know my score. When I told them, they just nodded and didn't say much. I was told the score was 99.9 percentile... but my entire life that was how I scored on standardized tests and it had been drilled into me that it meant basically nothing. Everyone got those scores. So I essentially had yet another number that meant basically nothing.

    I thought I would have some insights and a big revelation, but instead it was just more of the same.

    Fast forward 19 more years and I'm an adult and a mother. Does knowing my IQ matter to me? No, not really. I rarely give it any thought at all, other than to try to forecast my kids' IQs! Data is fun to have, but it doesn't change how I view myself or deepen my own self-understanding.

    Your results may vary. wink

    PHEW! Talk about spilling your guts. I'd better get off the couch here and stop blabbing.


    Let me ask you this - is your main concern your MS and tracking any mental changes? If so, I'm sure there are a variety of tests you can do to set a baseline - and IQ testing may not be best suited for that. But if you really just want to know your number because you simply want to know your number - that's OK too. I'm a data nerd, so I totally get that. But if you are envisioning it as part of a big voyage to self-discovery, you may be disappointed.

    Good luck, I'm interested to hear what you decide!

    sweetpeas #127715 04/18/12 01:17 PM
    Joined: Dec 2005
    Posts: 7,207
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    Joined: Dec 2005
    Posts: 7,207
    Originally Posted by sweetpeas
    I was in the gifted program at a public school. ... This was easy for me to accept, because honestly the curriculum was a big nothing. No challenge whatsoever. Also my peers in this program didn't seem especially smart to me.
    I'm not worried that you are being 'elitist' here - this is exactly the marker I use to define 'Highly Gifted.' Almost word for word. LOG exists. The Valentines Day Unicorn may be imaginary, but LOG is real, and influences people's daily experience.
    PG kids also feel like the identified gifted kids aren't especially smart, but this doesn't seem to be the defining issue for them in the same way. So one can't use this to differentiate HG from PG.

    Smiles,
    Grinity


    Coaching available, at SchoolSuccessSolutions.com

    Moderated by  M-Moderator 

    Link Copied to Clipboard
    Recent Posts
    Testing with accommodations
    by aeh - 03/27/24 01:58 PM
    Quotations that resonate with gifted people
    by indigo - 03/27/24 12:38 PM
    For those interested in astronomy, eclipses...
    by indigo - 03/23/24 06:11 PM
    California Tries to Close the Gap in Math
    by thx1138 - 03/22/24 03:43 AM
    Gifted kids in Illinois. Recommendations?
    by indigo - 03/20/24 05:41 AM
    Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5