I'm not going to even try to debate whether or not you can improve IQ scores by prepping for the test, but since I was the poster who mentioned having a dd who tested gifted at 5 and since then has tested twice at a lower IQ, I wanted to add that in her case, there was no test prep - in fact, we weren't even taking her in for IQ testing, she had an unexpected IQ test as part of a psych work-up for anxiety.
rhondau, do you have the subtest scores from your dd's IQ test? If you do, are they all consistent across the board or are there any scattered highs and lows? Although it's not likely, your dd's experience mirrors my 2e ds' quite a bit - gifted traits at a young age, gifted IQ score at a young age, school performance doesn't match expectations based on ability, high anxiety experienced in early years of school. My ds was also in counseling for anxiety when he was in first grade. It took until the end of 2nd grade when what seemed like average performance in school slid into below level performance and his anxiety really *really* ramped up for us to take him to a neuropsych, and that's when we discovered he had a disability that was severely impacting his ability to function at school, and that was the source of his anxiety.
polarbear
I'm not even trying to get into intentional prep for a test and have no reason whatsoever to assume that the OP did anything like that. I was more implying that early scores are less stable overall and a good or poor environment can impact the score more in a younger child making the number possibly more "off."
OTOH, I have a child like polarbear's who tested gifted - HG+ on an IQ test twice and whose performance in school was wildly erratic and not on par with her IQ scores, and who is 2e (gifted with a learning disability in case you're not totally up on the board vernacular yet!). I would certainly consider that as a possibility especially if there are other warning signs:
- a lot of variability within the IQ scores like polarbear mentions
- erratic school performance
- a lot of frustration
- headaches when reading or other odd signs that most kids don't experience despite performance that is good enough not to appear problematic to the school
