Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Should homeschoolers do IQ testing......

Iv been here before (a couple times in the past 4 1/2yrs.)
I believe my children may be gifted although iv never been certain.
My oldest child is now 7yrs old and she seems very mature for her age. She has an amazing vocabulary that is constantly growing as well as being inventive and extremely creative.
She also is above average in math and most other areas although she does not excel in school (homeschooling) the way i would expect a gifted kid she is easily without trying above average in many subjects.
Although letters and letter sounds as well as sounding out came easily to her at 3-4yrs old since then exceling at reading has been a struggle (although i never pushed her to read i sorta let her come back to it when she was ready).
She is now reading on a 1st grade level. Anyways i believe she may be dyslexic as well as the reading being slow going she writes thing backwards some and her numbers in math are almost always written/read completely backwards. She can add 54+28 but the answer will be written =27 (only with both digits facing the wrong direction) and she will say it says 72 if i ask her to read the temp. on the digital thermostat she will say its 47 degrees when its 74 degrees.

Anyways should i have an IQ test done even know she is homeschooled and im not sure it would change anything?

We go through a private "umbrella" school because we live in Tennessee and they did a kindergarten (even though she just turned 7 on Feb. 9th Tn. says she has to do K because we lived in a state before that you didnt have to register as a homeschooler in so we have no state record of K from that state) stanford 10 achievment test on my daughter in april the results are below

Total reading: 93 out of 100 Score: 540 National%:93-8 Grade EQ.: 1.6

Sounds and Letters: 40 out of 40 Score: 608 National%:96-9 Grade EQ.: 3.0

Word reading: 27 out of 30 Score: 500 National%: 91-8 Grade EQ.:1.5

Sentence Reading: 26 out of 30 Score: 518 National%: 93-8 Grade EQ.:1.3

Mathmatics: 33 out of 40 Score: 508 National%: 64-6 Grade EQ: 1.2

Enviroment: 33 out of 40 Score: 583 National%: 82-7 Grade EQ: 1.9

Listening: 33 out of 40 Score: 588 National%: 88-7 Grade EQ: 2.4

Basic Battery: 159 out of 180 National%: 89-8 Grade EQ: 1.5

Complete Battery: 192 out of 220 National%: 88-7 Grade EQ: 1.7


Im not sure what these scores mean can you tell if a child is gifted on an achievment test even if they might be dyslexic?
HELP!!

So, if I'm reading you correctly, you have a couple questions here:

1) would IQ testing be worthwhile?
2) do the achievement scores you have indicate a gifted child?
3) if she has a LD such as dyslexia, would the achievement scores be off?

If you can afford, it I'd say that a full psychoeducational evaluation, which would include an IQ test along with other testing such as achievement and perhaps targeted tests to look for LDs, would be helpful. I say this b/c it sounds like you want more answered than just "is she gifted?" If her education was working fine for her and you had no worries about twice exceptionality, I'd be less likely to feel like IQ testing would be worthwhile at this juncture unless you needed it for a specific program such as DYS.

In regard to the second two questions, achievement tests are quite often impacted by 2e issues. What you have in terms of achievement testing, I'd unfortunately view as not highly helpful. She appears fairly high performing on that one test, but achievement really isn't a good way to gauge giftedness in isolation especially if a LD may be involved.

Those are pretty high scores for a kid with a LD so, if I were going to guess based off that just that one test, I'd say she's more HG and compensating well as a result or that she is MG with a very mild LD. On the other hand, given that she is 7 and taking a Kindergarten achievement test, I'd also say that she's out of the age range for the test and the scores are less meaningful as a result b/c she's not being compared to age or grade peers.

Cricket2 What are the benefits of joining DYS? Do you have to live near DYS to join?

If there is a question in your mind about a LD, then a Psychoeducational eval (will include an IQ test) is invaluable.

If you can't afford one, then call around to the local University and see if they have any studies your DD can participate in, or student trainees who can do the test.

If that doesn't work, I would shake the Homeschooling Tree and find Achievement tests you can administer at home. Get some for 1st and 2nd and 3rd grade. Slowly, work giving them all to your child. That should give you a pretty good idea of where her strengths and weaknesses are compared to kids her age, and older. One thing that many Gifted kids do is test well compared to kids much older than they are in some subjects that they have never been taught. You may not find that if your child has an LD, and your child might still be gifted or unusually gifted - makes sense?

Talent searches are another less expensive way to get a kid identified for gifted programs. I'm not current on how old a kid has to be to participate.

BTW - DYS is one program(of many) for gifted kids in the US. There are many other programs that are aimed at gifted kids. Some will be local to you. Getting an IQ score may be just the boost you need to make some connections.
Good luck,
Grinity

lol i looked at the davidson requirements and im not sure shes 145 gifted more like in the 130's somewhere but i dont really know.

A few things i should explain..

She has yet to have any formal schooling. We have taken a very relaxed approach these past couple years. DD7 has always been a quick learner. This coming year will be our first year getting full curiculums for her and her younger brother who is 5 and will be 6 in sept.
I have never had much concern because all my kids have always been at or above level for the grades they would be in at school.
However i do believe given that they are very quick learners that my daughter would be very far ahead had she had as strict curiculum learning as they do in schools. If that was the case she would more then likely be on a 3rd grade level in most areas.
She is very bright and i know what she is capable of i am expecting she will more then likely breeze through our curriculums this year and possibly even work through 2 grades worth of school by the end of the year.
I do believe she is probably in the 130's for IQ but i really am only guessing.

Her younger sister who is only 3 i believe will have an IQ over 140 easily she said her first sentence at 6mo. and by 8mo. was full on speaking in sentences she also walked at 7mo. old and is still a very different sort of child.

My 5yr old son has some set backs but is also a bright child he has really bad sensory disorder as well as something else that has yet to be figured out possibly ADHD im not sure so im never sure what he is capable of i do know he took to reading easily on his own and is doing well he also does very simple math in his head.

Sometimes i just think... Why does it even matter? So the kids are smart? Who cares? Why not just ignore it? We homeschool so why not just move at each childs own pace and not worry about "IQ"?

Do you understand what im saying?

Reasons would include getting insight into possible learning disabilities. You wrote that your daughter is "above average in math and most other areas although she does not excel in school". How does she demonstrate being above average in math and most other areas?

It seems to me like you do want to know whether your children are gifted and/or want them to be gifted (due to guesstimating IQ numbers for them, guessing that your daughter would be X years ahead if formally taught when you really don't know, etc.), although you're also trying to talk yourself out of testing them, which indicates to me that part of you would rather not know for sure. Is this because you'd feel let down somehow if the numbers didn't agree with your own feelings? I agree with you that IQ scores may not matter as much for homeschooled children, and that the most important thing is that each child has her individual needs met.

If I were you, I'd get started on finding out whether your daughter has dyslexia, and worry about the rest of it later.

lol I dont care if they are gifted (i cant say im really hoping in the favor of giftedness) but i do sorta want to know so that im not wondering.
However I come from a very smart family who always ignored/down played IQ and said it had no importance at all to the point of causing more harm then good in my opinion everything always came easy to all of us we were the kinda people who never had to try in school we would just breeze through and although both my parents had college degrees a lot of people including my uncle who has an IQ of 166 dropped out of school.
I myself know what im capable of im not even remotely stupid its always been clear that my mind went to place and questions that other children my age just didnt in school (actualy i only went to grades pre-k, K, half of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 9th i was at home but not really homeschooled at all the other years). Im great at problem solving and many things but never bothered trying. In highschool i actualy got decent grades without ever reading the text books i failed english in the one year of high school i attended because although my first essay blew everyone away after that one i never felt the need to write another essay the rest of the year even though i was asked to write several more. I slept through science and never opened a book but got an A and got b's in most other classes really the only thing i did in highschool was use the school library A LOT i read 2-3 books a day during school none of which were school related then i dropped out and took my GED and easily passed in fact with my score i was told i could have gotten in to the best college in our area St.louis university (SLU) anyways i didnt feel i was ready to apply there and just went to a comunity college which i also dropped out of got married to a very smart husband and had some very bright kids the end lol but wait i never bothered to learn a whole lot of anything that schools find usefull like punctuation for one lol if you havnt noticed as well i also never learnmed any math beyond pre-algabra. It doesnt mean i cant learn those things lol i could more then likely pick it all up in under a week but im not sure the point in learning it and really i dont have the time.

Point being IQ/ability being ignored and down played in my family seems to have done little good....

So why not try something different and embrace the gifted world with both arms?

The number doesn't matter. What matters (to me at least) is for our children to reach their full potentials.

If there is LD involved, you want to find out and seek help.