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Hello,

I'm new here and I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out what to do if anything with my daughter. She is 11 and just took the WISC - IV.

I had her take it for two reasons:

1. Testing into some of the prominent private schools
2. To see if there are any potential issues

She has always been a great student, and loves to learn. She reads novel length books daily and always carries her Kindle around with her everywhere. She is also a talented chess player (nationally ranked) but has been spending more time on soccer than chess for the past year.

My biggest concern is that she absolutely refuses to give an answer to a question unless she is 100% sure that the answer to the answer is correct. Same thing in chess, she has actually lost games in time because she refuses to make a "2nd best" move.

Not sure how serious the issue is but the scores seem to be telling.

Anyway, here are the scores the Psychologist gave, along with a basic summary of the only thing that is going to hold your daughter back is herself.

In the VCI section the psychologist said that she absolutely refused to answer several questions and that it was a shame because he feels that she could have done so much better had she actually tried.

VCI - 116 - 13, 14, 12, 12
PRI - 131 - 12, 15, 18
WMI - 132 - 17, 14
PSI - 147 - 18, 19
FSIQ - 139

I'm just wondering if her refusal to give answers when not sure of perfection is going to start causing her problems down the road. It is the same problem no matter what the topic or situation happens to be.

The psychologist also stated that if she weren't trying to be perfect her scores would have been higher.

He is sending the test and full report in the mail.

Do you know how to get the GAI from those scores.

Any feedback would be much welcomed. I also have two other daughters who are younger.

I forgot to also mention that she is part of the CTY program and EPGY. Her SCAT results were:

Test Date Talent Search Year Grade Test Form Test Norm Verb-Raw Verb-Scaled Verb-Percentile Quant-Raw Quant-Scaled Quant-Percentile
04/2011 2011 05 IX2 8S 44 472 94.00 41 481 90.00

And her ITBS scores were all 99%.

It is already causing her problems. It would be hard to believe that the VCI scores are accurate given her reading, Chess, and what the psychologist said - and yet, it might limit her change to participate in certian schools.

The general answer to reversing overly perfectionistic behavior is to change the educational environment so that the challenge level increases. Would this be too much of a step for your DD? Do you need to start smaller by afterschooling at home? Will these schools you are looking at provide more 'true peers?' - or just a lot of hype?

use 'perfectionism' as a search term here and start reading!

I like this thread in particular: http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....terioration_we_re_at_a_lo.html#Post98393

Good luck!
Grinity

Hi Grinity,

Thank you for the quick response. The 4 schools that we are looking at all require a minimum IQ score of 130 based on either the WISC IV or Stanford Binet test. Based on that I would assume that she would be with peers.

I am actually very glad that we took the test because it highlighted for me a concern that I've had for quite a while now.

She currently goes to a christian school that is very small. Her class is 5th and 6th grade combined and they only have 5 students.

YeahNope! minimum score of 130 may or may not be a good fit for your DD. 139 is two thirds of a standard deviation over 130, and remember that wherever one draws a line, the majority of folks bunch up right at that line. And we know that your DD's IQ score is a floor - a minimum estimate. She could be a full SD or 1.5 or even 2 SDs beyond most the kids in any of those schools. Depending on the flexibility of the teachers that might be fine or terrible.

You must get your but into the actual classrooms and observe the level of discussion and teaching. Observe the books in the classroom library shelf and the reading lists. See how the teacher reacts when a child makes a point that is a 'little too deep' for the general group.

Remember that there is tremendous variation amoung the catagory called 'Gifted.'

Srry,
Grinity

BTW - you DD's GAI would likely be lower than her FSIQ, because it removes PSI and WMI from the score. My hunch is that your daughter's true GAI would be similar to her FSIQ, but it's hard to know.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Thank you. Taking risks is exactly what we are going to be working on. Not being scared of doing things or answering just because you aren't 100% sure it's going to turn out perfect. It's been a constant occurrence throughout her life so I really want to help her get it under control now.

It might be helpful to work on tasks or games where the goal or scoring rubric is based on generating responses quickly, with much less emphasis on correctly.

You could play games like "How many words can we come up with in 1 minute that use only the letters from 'perfectionism' ( or 'paralyzed' or 'exasperate')." Incorrect responses have no penalty, 5 points gained for each response (correct or not) above a certain threshold, with one extra point earned for each correct response.

Anything that bases the reward on taking the chance rather than getting it perfect would be a step in the right direction.

HTH.