Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment test question

I have a DD5 who is turning 6 next month. Recently we applied early admission to 1st grade for her. As part of the application process, the school psychologist tested her IQ. We paid $150 for it. She used WPPSI. In the end, we only got a full IQ score without any subtest or whatever details. I am wondering if this is a legitimate IQ test. How accurate the result is? When I had my DS8 tested by a psychologist(a doctor), we got a full report of each subtest score and some written descriptions. I heard that the child can't be re-tested within 1 year. Is it true in our case although the test she got doesn't seem to be "official" enough? Has anyone had the similiar experience? If so, did you have your child test outside of school again? Do the two test results show consistency result? THanks a lot!

Have you asked for a full report, with subscores? I would imagine that if you ask, a licensed psychologist should have to give you the full report.

Is the school only for GT, or is it a regular school? I ask because most school psychologists are probably not as familiar with working with GT kids as they are working with kids at the other end of the spectrum.

I'm guessing that you don't feel the results accurately reflect your DD. Did your DD not qualify for the early admission based on this result? Would the school accept outside testing if you got it? What are your other school options? Based only on the limited info you have provided here, I wouldn't recommend further IQ testing at this point unless you are sure the school would accept it or you could use it for another school/program. Is the IQ test the only qualifier for early entrance? Would the school do/accept achievement testing?

I'm not sure about being retested again, but I think you cannot be retested on the same test. That is, your DD could possibly be tested on the SB-V within a year, but not the WPPSI.

Hopefully someone else here with more knowledge will respond soon.

The WPPSI is a legitimate IQ test. It is the preschool version of the WISC (i.e.--for children who are too young to take the WISC). The issue sounds more with the limited report than the test itself. I'd ask for at least the subtest scores.

Yes, we did ask for a full report. Then we got a VIQ and PIQ together with Full IQ score on a post-it paper without any subtest scores. I can ask again if they will provide any more official report.

The school is a public school with a gifted program which only provides a math accelerate program. The tester works for the whole school district not only just this elementary school. I don't feel that she is too familiar with gifted kids.

It is true that we don't fell the result accurately reflect my DD. She did get accepted to the early admission to 1st grade. This means that she will skip K. They tested her with achivement tests together with IQ test. The tester believes that her IQ score is supirior. However, comparing to my DS8, my DD5's score is like nothing. Based on our observation, our DD5 definitely is way ahead of our DD8 in a few areas especially reading at the same age. That is why we feel her score should be close to my DD8. But we could be wrong. That is why I ask how accurate these tests score from school psychologists are. How mush shall I trust these scores?

On the other hand, the school doesn't accept any IQ score outside of school. So we had no choice but to let her tested in the school district. But we really want to know her true IQ in order to make the best judgement on what education she needs. Now it seems that we stuck with this result and can't test her again in a year.

I don't have expertise in this but, just a thought since you are contemplating the test. How was your child after the test? Did she give any reactions?

The reason I bring this up is when DS had IQ testing done, the school psychologists did not prepare him for the test and he was upset after it. MY DS does not usually have any test anxiety and was already familiar with the tester. This makes me think if someone was in a similar situation they may get untrue results. But this may not be your situation.

You can't retest with the WPPSI but you can use te SB5. if you think a different result would change your decisions about school that is something you could consider.

If the school will provide you with a full report, you might get some clues on why the score seems lower than you expected. For example, maybe a particular area brought her score down. That said, one IQ test is just a snapshot of how your DD did on the test at one point in time, and cannot tell the whole story. For example, if the purpose of the IQ test was to get to a certain level to qualify for the early entrance, and the tester felt that your DD was gifted and qualified for the program, she might not have felt it necessary to go further. Then again, your DD could have gotten the same score from a tester who is familiar with GT. I don't think IQ scores ever tell the whole story.

I think it is a good sign that the school does consider both achievement and IQ in making placement decisions. If you are concerned that the school will not do enough to meet your child's needs, and you feel there's a better educational option available, then maybe you have something to worry about re: the scores. But if you think the grade skip plus accelerated math will meet your child's needs for now, I wouldn't worry about test scores.

I believe, although not 100% sure that you could retest her with the WISC IV once she turns 6. I would look for a psychologist that is very experienced testing gifted. I read on a thread that a good question to ask the psychologist is: About how many times have they had to use extended norms on the WISC IV? This will give you an idea if they know what extended norms are and if they have used them before. Then you could ask how long must you wait to give the WISC IV if DD was given the WPPSI.

We had DS tested using WPPSI by a local psychologist when he was 5 years 4 months, he hit several ceilings and we felt that we needed more information to better address his educational needs. So we had him retested in June when he was 6 years 8 months by someone who specializes in gifted, we had to travel and it was a lot more expensive, but the information we received was also a lot more comprehensive. This new report has already help us obtain a grade skip and further accomodations for his strengths and weaknesses in class. Eventhough it was a huge expense for us it has provided so much to information and recommendations such as, concentration issues, Occupational Therapy that we were not aware of.

The actual test result for DS between the WPPSI and WISC IV were not that different, a bit higher on the WISC IV, but the information we received from the second psychologist made all the difference.

The longer I've dealt with the concept of giftedness the more I'd agree with this. Yes, I still do believe that a superior IQ is necessary to be considered intellectually gifted, but I also think that a lot of other things play into the level of giftedness than the sheer #s.

For instance, I have one child who is just barely HG on the one IQ test she took years ago. She appears to be much more gifted than that, though, and I don't think that it is b/c the IQ test was a massive underestimation. It was probably not the best estimation for her b/c she wasn't highly cooperative and coming off a really bad school year when tested, but her personality, unusual direction and drive are what make her stand out so much, IMHO.

I don't think that you can necessarily look @ your kids and know which one is higher on IQ based on how they present. My child who presents as more typical likely has a higher IQ (at least she did when tested at the same age as was her sister).

I'm pretty sure you can test her with the WISC when she turns 6, but definitely ask about that. I'm not sure if they are similar enough to show practice effect.