Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy IQ test/Assesment: What was most helpful?

DS:
Tests: WPPSI-III, WJ-III
Age: 4 yrs. 6 mos.
My questions: What the heck is going on here? I know my older DD is smart but this boy looks like a different kind of animal. Am I crazy? What should I do for him?
What I learned: Yes, he IS a different animal...I am NOT crazy...I need to research the options (gradeskip is looking good.)

DD:
Tests: WISC-IV, various writing diagnostics
Age: 8 yrs. 9 mos.
Questions: Is she really at a different LOG than DS? Why does she seem so GT verbally (orally) but not in writing? Why is writing a struggle for her?
What I learned: Yes, once again, my instincts are confirmed, she IS at a lower LOG than DS, she IS verbally GT, I am not imagining the writing issues although it's less clear what the cause is, I now have some strategies for helping her.

Overall, testing has helped me be a better advocate for my kids because I have hard evidence supporting my observations. This not only helps me convince others of what my kids need, it helps me convince myself! It's so easy to be swayed by ALL those other people--including family and professional educators--who are telling you there's nothing different about your kids. You really start to question yourself. Having data has really firmed my convictions!

What tests: WISC IV (9y 10mo) and SB5 (10y 8mo) and ACT (12y)

What questions you had in your mind: We wanted to know how gifted he was. We had a good school situation and hadn't felt that we needed testing, but then I thought it would be good to have for later, should problems develop. I had heard that testing should be done before 10 if you think your child is HG. Since DS was almost 10 when I read this, I rushed to get him in before the window closed. As it was the tester felt that DS's scores were already an underestimate because of ceilings (and I think fatigue). His VPI came in just under 145 and his GAI just over 145, but his FSIQ was under 130! He had two 19's in the VPI subtests.

So in a year we did the SB5--the tester thought it would be good because if its higher ceilings. He hit ceilings on half the subtests and again had a score that the tester thought was an underestimate (between 140 and 145).

By this time I began to realize that we really were too late to be doing IQ tests, that we had really already missed the window.

So we waited and had DS take the ACT. I think this gave us a much more accurate sense of what DS could do because we no longer had to worry about ceilings. His scores are higher than we would have predicted based on his SB5 and WISC scores and are certainly not the result of hothousing.


What you learned: We knew DS was highly gifted. Our interactions with the psych definitately confirmed this and were part of our process of realizing that DS was way above MG. But, given the price and the scores that the psych said were probably not accurate, I am not sure it was totally worth it. Since we waited so long to start the testing process, I wish we had cut right to the talent search testing and skipped all the expensive testing.

The nice thing, though, is that DS loves any test he gets to take.

I guess that other thing that was nice, was that the psych told us that he had never seen a HG kid this happy and well-adjusted. That has been very encouraging, because having heard this I do worry less about the choices we had made.

Lori H,
I totally agree with your point here, and think that it is an excellent one. When I say: Gifted is as Gifted does, I am trying to say what you just posted.

Thanks,
Grinity

Test:

WISC IV and WIAT (partial), age 8 years 2 mos

Test was given by school as required part of assessment for fine motor/OT issues.

We had wondered for years about our child, because he seemed HG to us, but his school didn't seem to think so. They grouped for math last year (one of their few deviations from the 'heterogeneous classroom') and DS wound up in lower groups.

After the test, he got OT, but no accommodation for giftedness. It confirmed our impression of our child, helped us understand that his strength is verbal but he is also gifted in math (just less so).

I thought with concrete "proof" of his smarts I would be able to get the school to differentiate for him, but they really don't seem to recognize that DS needs more. The school's lack of response prompted us to contact a gifted testing expert, who looked at his scores, took a detailed history, and advised us to get him out of this local "great" elementary school by next fall and begin applying next fall for some private schools for the gifted that are in our area for the following year. (We have already missed the boat for Fall '08 for private schools). I had to laugh when the gifted testing expert asked if I had heard of DYS and recommended we apply for DS. I told her about this board!

DS begged not to go to the school in K, and we kept sending him there because each year, there seemed to be some hope on the horizon that they were going to accommodate his needs, and it just never came to fruition. We were about to throw in the towel after last year, but then we thought the test scores would make the school see the need, and he got assigned to a "star" teacher this year. This star teacher told me at the first parent-teacher conference that we needed to give our third-grader help at home to help him learn his addition and subtraction math facts! The IQ and achievement tests meant nothing to this teacher. The teacher now says DS is "excellent" in math-- but only because he's seen the results of the "predictive assessments" (i.e. practice tests) for the state NCLB exams, and DS did really well on those.


bk

The tester we used for preschool admission testing also does Hunter (SB5) and she talked to us how the SB5 creates really fat tails. She said too many kids were hitting the ceilings and she didn't like the test.

Anyone else hear feedback like this? I understand it is a relatively new test. Hunter ended up with 50% more kids in the second round, kids scoring in the 98th percentile, than they expected because of the fat tails.

Ren