Hi all! My son turned 5 just a couple of weeks ago. We had him tested about three weeks ago b/c we are thinking of applying to a gifted school in our district. They require the WPPSI. So, after the testing we got the score report, listened to the tester, and felt very comfortable with what she said. Since then we've come home, done some research on the internet, and begun to question and wonder about the results. Maybe we are in a "denial" stage, that I read here that some of you mentioned. It is hard b/c we really don't have other parents to talk with this about. Anyone I would mention it to (I think) would feel like we were bragging or nuts.
I don't think we doubt that our son is gifted--he is an unusual child. That's why we had him tested in the first place. He is very intense, has an incredible vocabulary, super-focused interests that he cannot be torn away from (right now its LEGOS and it's about all he wants to do), trouble at school relating to same age peers.
But, I do wonder a little about his scores and the level of giftedness.
The tester that we used is experienced with gifted kids. She spent almost 2 hours giving him the tests, taking time to talk with him, allow him to have some control over the testing process (he is a difficult kid and I was worried about this). Still, she put in her report that the scores are a low estimate b/c she feels like he is an extreme perfectionist and was reluctant to respond. Also, he did not want to do the timed processing test and got out of his seat four times during the timing.
These were his scores:
Verbal IQ--145 (Info 14, Vocab 19, Reasoning 19)
Performance IQ--144 (Block Design 17, Matrix 18, Object Assembly 16)
Processing--134 (Coding 17, symbol search 15)
FSIQ--149
So, I'm curious what you all think about the scores. I also read about ceiling effects on these tests. The psychologist didn't mention this but did tell us that she would recommend that he be retested in a couple of years with a different test b/c after spending time with him and observing him she feels like he should have scored higher. Do you think ceiling effects are an issue? You all seem to have a lot of experience with the testing results and with giftedness in general.
What also gets me is that after reading a lot on the internet, my son does fit many of the characteristics of giftedness but he is just barely starting to read. Many of the children I read about in the HG category were super-early readers--like age 2! He is in a play based preschool where there is no direct literacy instruction. Our tester said that she would not be concerned about it because she feels that right now his focus and intensity are not "academically oriented" and that this will change when he gets into school and he should need significant accomodations at that time. What do you all think? Anyone have similar experiences with a highly gifted preschool age boy?
Thanks so much for your thoughts!
