We went with the school counselor because it was free and our purpose for testing was for acceleration. In our case it was not a good fit. The counselor of our low achieving district did not get the kids *at all.* Both of my kids are reserved. My older child, a people pleaser, was told before subtests that he would probably not finish, was not expected to be able to do this, etc. My younger is that different kid and beyond the capabilities of his older brother. He was the impetus for proceeding with acceleration. Our report was brief, lacking in insight, confusing in its inconsistency with what we observe. The counselor made himself physically available to explain, yet explanations only made clear how much he missed the mark on our dc. I suspect it can go either way. Perhaps looking at the make-up of the district will help you decide?
Maybe you could meet the school counselor first? I had, though the children had not, and figured that it wouldn�t matter that he didn�t understand them. I thought the test could speak for itself. Who knows if it did. It was a brief moment in time. The older came back with 136 FSIQ, 143 GAI. The younger, by all other measures an HG+ kid (multilevel academic acceleration �even in areas he pays absolutely no attention to-, philosophically driven, musically gifted, intrinsically motivated, etc.), came back with 124 FSIQ. If anyone is 2e it would be the older. We are not inclined to retest in the near future as the scores were still enough to proceed with the process of acceleration (this district combines IQ and achievement for the decision). The odds are probably better that you will get accurate observations by going to a psych who deals frequently with gifted kids and has a solid reputation. But there�s never a guarantee.
I think it is important to think very carefully and honestly about what testing is for. We did consider private testing, but concluded that our reasons had more to do with validation than genuinely believing that a single day could yield profound insights we had missed in the years we�ve lived with these little people. That is not to say that validation isn�t itself important and worth getting. Good luck!
(And if you read this, thanks for the welcome Dottie. I will do an introduction at some point)
