Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Qualitative Assessment?

Anyone have any experience with the Roeper method of Qualitative Assessment? It seems like hocus-pocus to me, but maybe I just like numbers too much...

I know what you mean. To me it does seem to have good thought and experience behind it, as gifted people very often have certain traits that can be sussed out without IQ or achievement testing, and that could be useful in assessing giftedness where testing presents problems.

A lot of numbers recorded on various cognitive ability tests may be based on a somewhat subjective evaluation by the tester (e.g. a 0-1-2 point scale for detail given in an answer to a question). Still, testing numbers are obviously going to represent more objective-seeming proof, and just about any decent IQ or achievement test is going to be actually more objective than a Roeper assessment. For these reasons, results from a Roeper assessment might not be worth much for gaining entry to programs, and they also might not do much for a parent but confirm suspicions that a child is gifted.

I don't have any personal experience with Roeper method, but I do believe that gifted adults who are sensitive can 'see' giftedness in a deeper and more nuanced way than bright or average adults.

If you think of all the gifted adults who marry other gifted adults, then it's pretty obvious to me that part of general human compliment of skills is experiencing other people as 'like' or 'unlike' the self in terms of giftedness. If most of us can do that, then isn't it likely that some of us can do that very well?

I've read many articles written by Roeper, and find them charming and full of wisdom. Doesn't mean it isn't hocus-pocus, but it's something.

I'd love to hear any of your observations of your family's experience.

Best Wishes,
Grinity

Hi,

Our DD was assessed by Anne Beneventi, who is a protege of Anne Marie Roeper and is based in the SF area. We were hesitant to invest in the cost, and to cut to the chase, in our opinion it was well worth the investment and we would highly recommend it.

- our DD was assessed at 3.4 years, when formal IQ testing is unreliable
- we received a significant amount of guidance on the level of giftedness, her learning style, recommendations on local school options which was our primary concern, issues that we needed to address and referrals to experts who could help
- she estimated the level of giftedness, which was later confirmed by Linda Silverman
- in fact Anne utilizes many of the same forms developed by GDC in the pre-assessment

If your child is much older, you might want to put that cost towards formal IQ testing. Especially a resource like GDC. However if the local psychologist has limited experience with the highly gifted, a Roeper qualitative assessment will probably provide much more meaningful guidance than just a number. If we had simply received the number, we would have asked ourselves 'and?....'

Best of luck!