Out of the blue, last week my DS8 asked, "What's my mental age?"
Apparently, he recently stumbled upon a trivia book that included a lengthy section about the history of IQ testing.
I tried to blow it off by saying it depended on how he was treating his sister, etc., but that didn't fly.
When he pressed, we looked at the book together and decided that without going through a bunch of testing, a doctor might consider his abilities as they compare to older kids, and that the "mental age" could be different for various strengths & weaknesses. He must have understood that he needed to know his mental age in order to estimate his IQ based on the discussion in the book, but I didn't go down that road. But apparently, he did.
When I was cleaning up his desk a couple days ago (because his "mental age" for housekeeping is only age three), I noticed that he was running through calculations that considered the ages of his classmates. Going this route, he actually nailed his FSIQ. Funny.
We talked a bit more that evening, but only to stress the importance of saving IQ-related discussions for his parents. I told him I would discuss any aspect with him personally, but that nothing was to be repeated elsewhere -- especially with his peers.
He seems to have a good grasp of the necessary discretion, and has rarely -- if ever -- worn his brain on his sleeve. There's this positively unbearable little girl at school who's constantly chirping about how smart she is and how her IQ is the highest in the class. She catches holy-heck from many of the other kids about this, so our son definitely sees an example of how not to behave.
When he asks for his scores, I'll give him the range (and there's honestly a huge range), and I think it'll satisfy his curiosity.
