Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Gifted Denial

My DD 10 has always seemed normal to me. Bright to be sure, but normal bright. I went back and forth about whether to test, but finally did. I had her tested by a friend who is a fellow homeschooler who has known my daughter for several years. When I arrived to pick her up, my friend was explaining some of the scoring to her. My friend told me "it" looked like it would come in around 154. (I'm not sure what "it" is. Perhaps VCI.) She told me that her perceptual skills were "just as strong." She said she hit the ceiling on three subtests, and so would be using the extended norms. And the only other thing I remember that my friend said is that her working memory was 126.

I should be getting the full report in a few days, but I'm having trouble being patient. I find myself thinking that my friend must have made a mistake, or spoken too soon. I'm not sure how these things get scored, and I wonder whether she could possibly know those numbers within minutes of finishing the test. On the other hand, I tell myself she probably wouldn't have thrown those numbers around unless she were pretty sure.

Oh my, it is hard to wait with just a little information. I feel as though I can't even start wondering what it means because I don't really know yet. I won't let myself believe the numbers until I see them in writing. I also see myself "undoing" it. ("Gee, maybe my friend made a mistake, or my daughter just got very lucky in terms of the questions that were on the test.") What is that about?! (Rhetorical question... Years of therapy and I think I do actually know the answer to that.)

Thanks for "listening!"

Assuming your friend is a qualified tester and not someone who bought the test off the internet... yup :-)

I see now that I go and look that you did answer my question on your other thread about why test - it drives me mad about this forum that there's no way (unless I'm missing it, in which case someone please tell me!) to be sure you see later posts on a thread you posted on. Both your answers make more sense in the context of denial, I have to say, so I think your main challenge is "don't do that"! (To summarise crudely, you said you wanted external validation and that you wanted to know whether you were challenging her enough. The former is really between you and your therapist :-) and the latter, well, the IQ numbers may give you a new perspective if you're lucky, but to tell whether you're challenging her enough you have to look at her, not her scores. As you know :-)

When you post, click the box below where you type that says, "Add this thread to my Watched Topics. Then next time you get on, click My Stuff->Watch Lists->Watched Topics.

I rarely remember to do it myself but when I do it's helpful.

Ah, thank you, W's Mama! The stupid thing is that now that you say it, I have known this in the past, but not well enough to remember it, much less remember to do it...

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Hah! Yes, my friend is a licensed school psychologist. Shoulda said that!

I so don't understand extended norms. My dd hit ceilings on I think 6 in the SBV but didn't get extended norms. FSIQ on the SBV came in at 145, 99.9th

The term "extended norms" applies to the WISC-IV. The SB-V has EXIQ (extended IQ) scoring, but only for a testee whose FSIQ is 150+ to begin with.

Oh thanks!! Makes perfect sense now.