I am not a parent, just a young adult who hangs out on this board sometimes, but I can answer your questions about an IQ test.
An official IQ test is administered by a psychologist in a one-on-one setting and for that reason, it's expensive to pay out of pocket. While any qualified psychologist can give it, if you decide to go ahead with the testing, it's best that you find a psychologist experienced in testing gifted children. This would ensure that his scores truly showcase his abilities. An IQ test is not a medical test so there is no pain or discomfort of any kind. It involves answering questions, putting together blocks, circling pictures and symbols, etc. It is pretty engaging so your child would probably like it. The advantage of this kind of test is that it tests several different types of abilities: abstract reasoning, word knowledge, open-ended reasoning, working memory, analysis-synthesis, categorical reasoning, executive functioning, short-term memory so you would get information about his strengths and weaknesses. If he does extremely well, the results of the test would enable him to get into gifted programming of various kinds. If the test uncovers some weakness (and I am sure that even if there are weaknesses on some parts of the test, he would shine on other parts), in addition to you knowing what to work with him on, he would be able to get accommodations in school.
The most popular IQ test for both gifted identification and learning disability identification is the Weschsler Intelligence Scale for Children 4th edition (WISC IV). However, there are other official, individually administered IQ tests as well. You should familiarize yourself with the structure of the WISC IV, but I wouldn't go into a lengthy explanation of it. It's best that you google it.
Hope it was helpful and I am sure that parents on this board would chime in with their more insightful comments on the topic.
Last edited by asiral; 05/23/09 07:06 PM.
