Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment 5yo tested with WPSSI = not gifted!

Hi all
My 5yo was tested at the school this week with the WPPSI (I'm assuming). The psychologist rang me today and told me that he is in the average range, with verbal abilities somewhat higher. So he's not testing as gifted.
Now he's no prodigy, but he knew his colours at age 2, he was speaking quite complex sentences at age 3, and he learns things very quickly. I was grade-skipped at school, and I thought he'd inherited my giftedess.
OK, so it's possible he's not gifted, but average? Average seems so unlikely to me that I'm questioning the validity of the test.
If anyone can give me any feedback on this issue, please do. I know my perception of my son can be coloured by my own 'want' to see him identified as gifted. I'm aware of that. But even so, I find it hard to believe that my bright son is 'average'. Is there a chance that the test just didn't work for him?
Or am I just deluding myself?

Do you have the breakdown of his scores? That might give you (us here) more information to answer.

Thank you Mam. I don't have yet. I will get them in the post at some point I expect.

Hi
I would get the test results and try to get her observation notes as well. My DS12 had a WPPSI at 4 or 5 that was invalid based on his behavior during the test. He wouldn't let the tester finish her question before answering, he explained in painstaking detail the answer to each question on the timed sections, etc. If you had calculated the results from that test he would have looked high average but not EG/PG. His achievement testing at the time showed a more accurate picture of him with 150+ on WIAT. He was just to intense to sit through it. He was tested again this year (should have done it sooner) at 12 with EG/ PG scores. I wouldn't judge a kid purely based on a test at age 5. If you feel it's really off retest on a couple of years.


Why were you testing? Is your DS bored at school? Does his current placement seem to work for him or not? Is there something wrong that you want to look at the test for or looking for a placement with the test?

I do think as parents we can get wrapped up all of the testing and information. I do know a lot of parents around me that have high average kids, but believe they have HG kids. Their kids are bright and work hard. They may spend all evening working on the homework to get the A, mine are usually done before the bus gets them home and are playing all night for the same result. My guess is their kids are probably bright or maybe MG.

I have 3 kids and not a one is on a normal development path, and I sometimes envy the parents that have the ND kids. It seems to much easier at times. I think as parents we can get wrapped up in test results and forget the kid is the same kid from the day before we tested. I also know I can't really judge "normal" well because I have no experience with it.

As a parent, I would look over the test and notes. I would then put it down and focus on what DS needs. The label of GT is not the end game for you, meeting the needs of your DS is the endgame. This is why I dislike the labels and testing at times. His results may or may not reflect his cognitive abilities accurately, but it doesn't change his day to day needs regardless of the accuracy.

My dd now 11 took WPPSI at 6. She just barely made the cut-off for the gifted program. I am sure that perfectionism and a tester inexperienced with gifted kids played a role. When we re-tested with WISC IV in Feb., her VCI went up almost 2 SDs and she is now a candidate for DYS. My dd5 took WPPSI at 4--(she was making me crazy and I was trying to figure her out). I think her FSIQ was 124 according to that test--and I am certain that is a huge underestimate. So, I think given what you have said here it is unlikely the score is a good picture of his true abilities. It could be perfectionism (if you search for gifted perfectionism you will get ideas on how to help him with it), immaturity, or some kind of LD.

My four year old son was very hard to test. He took the WPPSI a few months ago. He was trying to be funny, he talked too much and was really just more interested in all the toys in the room. Had he not been tested my someone who understood some of this, I am certain his scores would have been lower. I think with young test takers, it is hard to get their best work.

In my school district, the Talented and Gifted Program uses the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, in addition to the Differential Aptitude Test, which tries to assess specific abilities. In part, this allows mass administration for screening inexpensively. But the use of the Torrance recognizes the distinction between conjuctive intelligence and dysjunctive creativity. It's also an inner-city district attempting to ID TAG students from a population that doesn't always do well on traditional IQ tests. Creative people are usually above average intellectually, but not necessarily at genius level. Intelligence and creatively are associated but far from perfectly. James Watson, co-discoverer of the double-helix, had an IQ of 115, and talked about how he would got to biochemistry seminars and not have a clue. He did have the peculiar ability--just what was needed--to look at data and imagine what kind of three-dimensional object would account for that data.

To a great extent, SAT exams measure the same factors as IQ tests, and an increasing number of top schools are becoming SAT optional, recognizing that grades and teacher recommendations can predict college success as well if not better than SATs. Bates College did a twenty year study, and found little difference between SAT submitters and non-submitters.

'Like'

I pushed for him to be tested because I thought he was gifted, and the policy in our state is to get them identified as early as possible. I suppose I wanted confirmation of my own suspicions. He is a very quick learner, he's a bit young to be judging on homework, but if I go by how quickly he learns a computer game, plays other games, I see he can learn very quickly.
But now I'm worried that he's got some kind of learning difficulty. I've noticed before that the teachers are telling me things about his ability and knowledge that are incongruent with what I know of him from home.
As I said, I could maybe understand that he might just be bright, although he doesn't apply himself to anything unless it also captures his imagination, but reconciling what I know of my child to having average ability just doesn't compute.
A teacher told me when he was in his first term that he didn't know the phonetic alphabet, just the names of the letters, yet I know that he could say the sounds of the letters at home and had been able for a long time.
There have been other instances similar to this, and I am getting the feeling that he is either bored so he doesn't try to answer the teacher correctly, or maybe he is overwhelmed by being the focus of their attention so that he feels like he just wants to get away and can't concentrate on what they want. Maybe he also picks up on their expectations.
The woman who tested him is not experienced in giftedness testing, and to be honest here where I live there is a culture of cutting down tall poppies.
When he was at kindy, the kindy director told me that she thinks he does stand out from the others. This was a woman who my son had a particular bond with.
I think what I'll do is keep an eye on how things are going for him at school, and if there is real evidence to doubt his supposed averageness, then I'll consider retesting at a later date.
I myself know that low scores on IQ tests, especially when incongruent with other sources, can be unreliable. I'm not yet ready to believe that my perception of his ability is a product of my imagination.
I'm feeling very defensive at the moment that people who know about what's happened are just labelling me as someone who thinks her ordinary son is exceptional based on looking through rose-coloured spectacles.
This is making me seriously doubt myself, which is not a bad thing, but I also need to remember that if there's a chance that my child is underachieving, then I need to be taking steps to remedy that.