Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment TalentIgniter (Dr. Ruf)

Yes, I saw at least one post from someone who has used it.

Many of us have read her book and are familiar with the five levels. The assessment is an online version of that, from what I understand. So I think that people can have a meaningful discussion about the ideas behind her work without having actually paid the $45 to try the online version.

I used it, but didn't pay for it; I beta tested. I did not get more information than I'd gotten from Ruf's book, and in fact, I feel that I got less.

As I said before, I used Ruf's levels to persuade DH that DD has unusual abilities. Since he has little experience with NT kids, he believed that DD was typical, despite her level 4/5 milestones. (I think he still has trouble understanding how advanced she is, but at least he's convinced that she's gifted.) As a list of milestones, I found it to be a helpful, if extremely limited, piece of information. As an online test, I found it to be pretty ridiculous.

In a private email she had actually mentioned this but I had no idea it was going to be the same online assessment. I really do see this as a problem because A. how could they know the required information and B. it really will be a problem for parents of a late bloomer and/or 2E child. Talk about a potential road block!

Hmmm ... I do find this a bit disturbing as well unless it is used in conjunction with other screening tools. Use of this tool for my particular child pre-K would definitely not given me accurate information and he is NOT 2E. I worry most about kids that could fall through the cracks. Both my husband and I were kids that were NOT ided, so gifted was not remotely on our radar until my kid hit the ceiling of a screener at school. Had that screener not happened, he'd most like be a underachieving behavioral problem right now and probably labeled ADHD.

I've heard rave reviews on individual assessments from Dr. Ruf. I know plenty of people who've used her locally and who have been very pleased. I'd be more ok with this tool if it were free.

No, not change there. Level 3 says the book is 98th and 99th, level 4, 99th, and level 5 above the 99th.

So, in that it doesn't make sense to me that DYS would be level 3, unless the scores are inflated as per her explanation in the FAQs listed above.

And the jump is even harder to understand in terms of rarity when t is more personality driven.

The other thing that has not been noted is that her research/book/website seems to focus on more evenly gifted kiddos. She does say that level 5 are globally gifted, good at everything. She doesn't say this about the other levels, but I do think that it is geared more for the balanced kids.

Now, perhaps that is another category of kids that are missed by the assessment: those that are much more gifted verbally or non-verbally than in the other area.

If the online assessment is completed by only providing a list of your child's milestones to Dr. Ruf for her to read through, then I'd say no, it's not worth it. It was most definitely the combination of her history form (which asked for details of developmental milestones as well as medical history and educaitonal history), the personality profiles(of our son and both parents) and SB-5 testing that provided us with meaningful information. Our son does not fit the level 4 developmental milestones precisely but yet was placed as a level 4 by Dr. Ruf due to his test scores and math-specific ability as well as specific developmental markers. His milestones alone placed him at a level 2/3.

I have to agree that the website is a bit off-putting to me. I don't think I would have gone to Dr. Ruf had I seen that site first. We went based on feedback from others who had seen her and found it beneficial. I believe in the advice to test when you have questions and get the testing that will answer those questions. For some, Dr. Ruf can provide those answers. It's just not for everyone.
Just my 2 cents.

I think that when you define the levels by early milestones rather than by IQ, you're naturally going to have overlap. As I recall, she distinguishes level 5 insofar as these children must have the earliest possible milestones in every conceivable category. You can't be level 5 in one area; if you're not level 5 in every area, you're level 4. Hence the rarity. I'm not joking, but I do think it's funny.

Oh, she's not going to read through this stuff. It's a computer program that will tell you "just how smart" your child is, based on a handful of specially-selected milestones.

Actually a kindergarten/preschool entrance test is the first great use for such a tool I've seen yet. It looks more like a personality test than an iq test so it would group kids togeather with other kids at the same level of development with many similar needs at the target age of 3-6 when she says the test is most effective.
Also about her work I can see a huge public service announcement to parents who already knew their kid was gifted, exceptionally bright, but would only have thought of the higher levels of gifted as those talented in one domain.
I wouldn't think it very likely for someone to find her work before figuring out somehow they were dealing with giftedness, so it might help to see a very gifted child as maybe just beginning to read at three years old, not necessarily just prodigies who win world chess tournaments at 7, or play concert violin at 3.
But that school test almost seems ideal for ability grouping at that age for meeting their needs at that moment, without worrying how the parents may misinterpret what it may mean about the future.

In spite of claims on the website that the assessment will tell you "just how smart" your child is, I see over and over again on the site that the assessment is intended to be a screening and DOES NOT take the place of formal, standardized IQ testing. But if all it does is go through her milestone list then it would be much cheaper to get the book from the library and read it!

FWIW, the testing she did with our son was helpful precisely because he is NOT globally gifted. She pinpointed his specific strengths and helped us to realize just where he was in terms of math ability. But, as I said, this was not based on just the milestones. In fact, his milestone achievement was a bit misleading.

I'd like to see her publish her research on the correlation data and the standardization of the assessment. I don't see that information anywhere on the site.