I am curious how much testing you do of your child? Because this was our first year trying to "figure" DS out, he took the SCAT in winter, WISC IV in spring (first and likely only IQ test), and has been achievement tested on a within district test by his school in June for about 2 hours over two days and again a few days ago for about an hour. He will also likely be taking W-J sometime this summer (waiting for a cancellation slot), although that may not happen immediately.
I feel guilty. If I knew then what I know now about what the school will pay attention to, I would have skipped the IQ testing and had W-J done immediately. SCAT was interesting and his scores there started us on this path, but same story, it wasn't particularly useful to the school (although admittedly my willingness to advocate strongly was in large part based on those IQ and SCAT scores, so not discounting them).
However. . . (you knew it was coming, right?), I am very tempted to sign him up for EXPLORE in winter (we will have to drive a few hours, but not too terrible), and I am also tempted to have him repeat SCAT to have a year to year comparison. He actually liked SCAT (despite all the grown-ups in the testing center) and while I think EXPLORE will be a stretch in terms of focus for 2 hours (he will be in 3rd grade and age 9), I kind of think he will enjoy the various areas (esp. getting to do some science).
So, I guess the question really is, do you worry about burning your kid out on testing? And assuming the baseline IQ and achievement testing is already done, how many/what tests do you think are reasonable (assuming a child who does not appear to have test anxiety - although who knows when it could show up?). Does this question make sense?
Thanks, Cat
