Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Figuring "Mental Age"?

I've been doing more reading about giftedness, and many of the books talk about ratio IQ and "mental age." We have WIS-IV and WJ scores for ds. Would his age-equivalent scores on WJ be the same as "mental age"? (If so, would I average them together?) If not, is there another way I can figure this out using the scores we already have?

TIA!
Stacey

My understanding is that the current consensus that "mental age" is not a valid or useful concept is one of the reasons why we don't use ratio IQ any more. Any particular reason why you are wanting to figure it?

Thanks for asking Stacey.

The modern IQ tests don't use 'mental age' anymore - they use 'unusualness of IQ level' to give a score.

(person A who has an IQ of 120 is not 'twice as smart' as person B with IQ 60)

Rather, a score of 100 is the most common score, scores at 130 or higher are rarer, with only about 3% of the population scoring 130 or higher.

Hope that helps!

As for as estimating - I would look to who your child likes to socialize with for a 'social age' what they like to learn for an 'academic age' and how they navigate the world for an 'executive function age.' I wouldn't look at the scores, I'd look at the child's behavior.

Smiles,
Grinity

FWIW my son's SB5 testing results included age equivalents, albeit with lots of caveats about how misleading they can be. I agree that they don't seem very useful in assessing intellectual rareness or level. One of my son's measures supposedly showed that he was equivalent to an average person 30 years, 0 months old, which of course seems questionable and doesn't help explain how to raise or educate him.* I think my tester might have included the equivalents for shock value, to prod school admins who might be in denial, and nothing more. (ETA: This page contains a link to an overview paper on change-sensitive scoring by the author of the SB5, Gale Roid.)


* I can imagine the conversations now:

Why can't I stay out all night?

While you live in my house, under my rules, ... (etc.)

You don't control me. I'm a man.

You're 10.

When I was five, I was already the equivalent of a 30 year old man (waving a sheaf of papers). I should have the rights of a 60 year old. If you need help with the math, give me a holler.