Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment When to test

My DD is almost 4 1/2. I believe she would be considered gifted. She has a lot of the characteristics that I have been reading about. She will be going to Kindergarten this Fall. Should we pursue private testing before she starts Kindergarten, or wait until the public school may do something? (Though I think that they won't do testing until 2nd or 3rd grade.)

This is a tough one. I think it depends a lot on what you are looking to get out of it. If you want it for advocacy purposes, or to get your child into a gifted program, school placement, acceleration etc, then obviously you would want to do the testing before those things happen. if its just to know, and you are happy with the school situation as of right now, then it's not as dire. No matter what, I don't think any IQ test will to tell you more about your child that than you already know, though it might certainly make you feel more justified about her apparent giftedness.

I know there is a lot of back and forth on this forum (and in general) about the 'right' time to test, as far as age and accuracy of testing. a lot of people say that four is too young, wait until six or seven because IQ tends to stabilize at that point...but if you have a reason to do it earlier, then waiting several years isn't necessarily an option. My opinion is that a 7 year old could theoretically be just as disagreeable as a four year old in any given testing circumstance. And if the number you get back from a four year old doesn't reflect their 'true IQ', then why are there tests like the WPPSI in the first place?? Seems kooky too me.

random tidbit: I just learned that the new WPPSI-IV has extended norms, which the WPPSI-III did not have - which is very good for a gifted pre-schooler, in my opinion. Especially because hitting ceilings is/was one of my bigger concerns with that test vs. the WISC. Food for thought if you do decide to go ahead with the testing.

The last consideration I would mention is cost - private testing can be expensive - hundreds of dollars...if that is prohibitive to you, then clearly waiting until the district will test for free would be a big advantage there.

Honestly, I think it's just a matter of weighing your options and going with whatever you feel most comfortable with...there is no wrong answer. Best of luck!

Bmoore4, my dd is only a couple if months younger than your dd. I have pondered over the same question. IMO if the test results aren't going to buy me anything, why bother? There is no local gifted program for her age so an iq test would be just to satisfy my curiosity and validate my judgement of my dd's intelligence. I am planning to get her tested when she is 7 or 8 because I believe she may need more than what the typical school would offer at that time, ie a skip or subject acceleration. For now, I am keeping her in a multi age classroom and letting the teacher know what dd is capable of so that teacher can provide some differentiation. Plus I partially homeschool. Once the school environment becomes more structured and standardized test driven (so 3rd grade) is when I think dd will really start to feel it. At that point, i am hoping an iq test will help with advocacy. Hth.

Ds6 got tested at 5.8 a week before the end of his first year at school. Ds4 will be tested at 4.11 a month before he starts school. This is due to the way our system works. As his birthday is after the school's cut off date he will end up doing an extra 3 terms in year one if I don't insist they use tge ministry of education's cut of date instead. For this I need all the ammunition I can get.

My daughter was tested midway through kindergarten because she was desperately unhappy. We used the information to negotiate a grade skip (she did have to change schools as well because her first school wouldn't skip her). It made a big difference.

I had my son tested a few months before kindergarten to be prepared. It seems to have been unnecessary and I haven't shown the scores to his school (they accelerated him anyway after getting to know him). However, I still think that the information on his strengths and weaknesses was useful.

I didn't expect my daughter to have difficulty in school. I think it might have been helpful to have the scores when she started school. However, I think it depends on the individual school. I found that, apart from the gifted specialist who tested her for the school gifted program, people just didn't seem to put much weight in her scores. Despite the chapter books she was reading in kindergarten, I don't think they really believed me. I think they thought she was just pushed. The school only really became responsive when she became a DYS, which seemed to mean more to them.

Anyway, my point is that the scores may be very useful if problems develop with the school, but it's also possible that the school won't pay much attention (meeting with them in advance to ask about gifted accommodations may help in gauging this). Additionally, the scores may be less reliable at a younger age (although my daughter's scores have been consistent since kindergarten).

I'd suggest considering your child's maturity and the responsiveness of your school, then whether you would still find it useful to have some information on strengths and weaknesses regardless of whether it helps with the school. If you don't have good testing options, or if testing is a hardship not covered by insurance, that also makes a difference. As a side note, testing may be covered by insurance under some circumstances. Ours covered my daughter's first educational evaluation, but not the second several years later.

I don't think there is any harm in it...I mean, besides the financial burden of getting tested twice. (though I don't know if it's cheaper for you in Australia than America...because it's hundreds to thousands of dollars here for private testing). Then again, if you test now, and the schools are willing to test again for free, when your DS is older, then that makes the cost a little more palatable, at least. Though I would ask yourself why you would want another test at that point. Would it only be if you think the first one didn't properly display what you believe your DS's actual giftedness to be? Or just to have a more 'accurate' depiction because of all the talk about 'IQ stabilizing' around that older age?

I have heard of several families that got their child tested at both 4 and 8 (ish), and it seemed to work out for them. I think generally the IQs don't change much, though I have heard stories of IQ scores both going up, and down, at the second testing. I'm not sure how helpful that is, suffice to say, if you want to get your little DS tested before K, for the reasons you described, then do it. Once you receive the scores, and see how the schools react to his needs, you can always assess later whether or not you want to get him tested at 7/8 years old.

I am interested in the extended norm for wppsi. Could you please provide a pointed? I tried googling but I could not find it. Thanks

"Updated and Improved Psychometric Properties

-Updated normative sample standardized on 1,700 children ages 2:6–7:7
-The normative sample was stratified to match current U.S. census data based on sex, race/ethnicity, parent education level, and geographical region for each group
-Improved subtest floors and ceilings
-Comparable or improved reliability for subtest and composite scores"

This was taken directly from: http://www.pearsonclinical.com/psyc...ition-wppsi-iv.html?Pid=WPPSI-IV#details

I haven't seen more detail than that, but hopefully that helps?

Thank you, Marnie.

For some reason the test my kids have is cheaper in NZ. I would probably not have ds4 tested if I had to pay tge prices you guys pay. It is lucky because it isn't publically funded unless your child is throwing chairs at tge teacher (or equivalent).