I strongly agree with the recommendation to have your child meet with the psychologist before testing. Our situation is not exactly the same, but I think our experience may be helpful. My daughter isn't necessarily shy (or quiet) in most situations, but she can be very slow to warm up in a situation where she does not feel comfortable. We are also dealing with anxiety issues, and that played a huge factor in our experience.
We had DD tested at 4.5 for admission to school. When I set up the testing, I mentioned that I would like to have her meet with the tester once or twice so that she would be comfortable at the time of testing. My request was essentially dismissed, and we proceeded with testing anyway. After very casually telling her that she would be meeting with someone to do some puzzles and thinking activities, we ended up with a child who went into testing on 4 hours of sleep, no breakfast and a tummy ache.
Her scores qualified for admission to the school, but I feel that the results are pretty much useless to us otherwise, as I know she could not have performed to her fullest ability under the circumstances. I really would like to have a more accurate picture of her abilities/strengths/weaknesses, and I wish I had acted more forcefully on my mommy-gut.
I don't know enough (or much at all, really )about the different tests to give any advice on which tests work for which strengths/personalities, but I know that personality plays a part in the process of testing. It's definitely something I would discuss with the psychologist in advance.
