I have come to believe testing young children is ridiculous. There is a reason many professionals do not recommend IQ testing for children under the age of seven.
I used to live in a city where everyone who is anyone tested their three and four year olds for admission to private school. It was a scam. Testing was expensive. There were testers who were known to give better scores than others. Parents passed around test prep. The expensive preschools touted curriculums designed to prepare your kid for the WPPSI. There was just a lot of money involved. And, there were supposedly a lot of 99 percentile kids.
I now live in a city where the public school will test three and four year olds for free. I talked to the psychologist about testing a very shy child last year. He said not to bother. He was very candid. He said the three and four year olds who do well on their testing are the outgoing, confidant children who come from enriched homes. I basically learned that the gifted magnet school was a way to keep UMC families in the poor performing district from flocking to privates. The school operates one grade level ahead and does not serve the highly gifted child. There is another program for that. Surprise, surprise--they do not accept testing done before the age of seven.
It is about money. It is about politics. But, I think in the end it is hurting the kids.
