Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment So...did WPPSI...on to Stanford Binet-LM

I so remember trying to figure this out when my children were younger and I really feel for you -- both the uncertainty and the excitement and the "uh oh -- my kids can't really be that unusual!" There simply isn't anything else that produces a real sense of where a kid with FSIQ >150 really lands, but that doesn't make the SB-LM a substitute. I cannot imagine why GDC still does this. I suppose it's profitable. I suspect that it makes parents feel better to have some out there number. It's truly concerning that anyone uses a 1972 test that one can buy on the internet as a "valid" IQ measure.

"Numbers" from a test normed in 1972 aren't real numbers. It may help you to tell others than your son has an IQ of 180+, but it won't actually change where your son is or what he needs and it honestly has very little to do with your son's "real" IQ (all of which is of course a construct based on current definitions of IQ that will change over time and become irrelevant over time when what your son needs educationally matters much more than than the IQ number.)

Tests are limited. This is frustrating. A child who hits multiple ceilings at 4.5 may or may not test as very gifted at 8 or 10 when most IQ tests are more stable. Or the child may test as far more unusual at 8 or 10 and have higher scores. None of those scores will tell you what your child needs in terms of educational environment. If your child tests multiple times on multiple measures over many years at crazy high PG numbers, the child is likely far more gifted than a child who had one subtest on one day that was >140. I know PG children in college at 10 and others in 5th grade. Some can focus and some cannot. Some have myriad other interests outside academics that take hours per day and some just want structured academics all day. Some spend their days creating art or fusion reactors or puppets or poetry and others focus on math and more math. Very smart kids don't look all alike and you have to make decisions for your child, not the number that your child scores. I found this quite challenging because my children score similarly but are not.nearly.the.same in terms of educational needs.

I spent a year learning more about tests and what the scores meant and how to do extended norms on the WISC and learning whether achievement tests could really indicate that a child was 1 in a gazillion, etc., and what I concluded is that these are such limited snapshots. Scores can help you figure out a ballpark as a child with multiple ceilings is likely brighter than a child with an average subtest score of 12, but the details are so lacking. I hope the testing goes well and you get a good evaluation that helps you, but if the details change along the way, don't be too surprised .