My dd did not pass into the gifted programs using the tests they adminster at school either. Every teacher thought she belonged in the Gifted program. The gifted program gave her their paperwork and stuff but would not allow her to attend... I am still fuming about it all. She has all the "signs and symptoms" One thing I do know about the testing was that some of it is multiple choice and she has a hard time with multiple choice. She reads too much into the question. We had her privately tested with better results but the test results were over three standard deviations in the different sub categories. We did not use a tester that knew anything about gifted. I changed her schools by lucky chance she got into this cohort in a charter school. Over half the class tested into the gifted program. Her closest friends were in the 99+ range. It changed her school experience. I think that although I would love to have test results that really confirmed her abilities and what I see.. all the other stuff does so in my mind I consider her gifted and work with her as such and it seems to work. It is hard though because she is not eligible for things that I think she should be eligible for... I don't think that she is the equavelent of 150 IQ but I would say around 133-134. I have wondered though if I had known more, and treated her more with the awareness of gifted would she have shown more ability? She had a horrible time in school until 4th grade. She can not handle a challenge very well now at all. I feel bad, but I really did blame her for her not fitting in at school etc. I did not trust my mommy gut. When we made the school move and I saw how it changed her into this happy bubbly excited to go to school child I had a lot of self forgiving to do. I struggled and still do with that her best friends all get into the programs that she does not. I also struggle with not wanting her to "fail" the test again.
As for the Ruf book I also find that it is really unclear how she is categorizing the children and she really uses the SBLM test rather than the more current IQ tests.... The one thing I can say about the book is that it helped me feel like my kids were normal or not alone and I love reading some of what the kids did and finding my kids in them. Her end of chapter synopsis of what the kids can do in the different levels seems very different than when you read the actually stories about the kids. Reading the posts on this board has really helped.
I also have a brother with an IQ 149 and often wonder if this is a different rating scale than what they use now. More because that means that I may actually have a higher IQ than I have ever thought myself to have due to how it runs in families... However I also know that he was incredibly intelligent and sharp and fast so I do suspect that his IQ was high.
