Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment What do you tell your DC before IQ testing?

WOW. That BIG difference to see in the SAME child. That does raise the concern of test accuracy/possible subjectivity.

It's good to have the insight as to why silliness may occur. St Pauli Girl shared wonderful experience on how she addressed this with her child.

Since you mention that you did not choose the tester, is the testing arranged by a gifted coordinator, principal, etc, someone you might have already met and have a working relationship with?

Is this someone from whom you might learn the tester's name? Some psychologists in private practice with a specialty in gifted, also work for school districts affording parents the opportunity to learn a bit about the tester by looking at the psychologist's website.

Is this someone with whom you might be able to share a copy of each of the two articles which have been linked upthread (A-Yermish, N-Webb), possibly with the one difference highlighted, and have a brief conversation about test administration? Goals might be learning whether gifted screening begins with questions above chronological age, raising awareness of that approach if they may not already have heard of it, and possibly having something documented in policy/practice statements to help ensure uniformity in gifted screening test administration processes for all candidate students.

and Given the information provided, this may be an apples-and-oranges comparison, as different tests measure different components of intelligence and are scored differently. For example Hoagies' Gifted Education Page shares a chart of approximately same level of intelligence indicated by different scores on different tests. (link- http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/highly_profoundly.htm) As another resource for parent research, Davidson Database also has a number of articles on the uses of various tests. ETA: Pearson offers a PDF explaining FSIQ, GAI, VCI, PRI, CPI, WMI, PSI for WAIS-IV and WISC-IV, easily found by a web search.

Testing is set up by the school, so they select the tester. DD's school starts in 3rd grade, so the school and all of it's personnel are very new to us. They do not like "parent volunteers" in this school, so I have not had the chance to get to know the staff like I did in DC's original school (where parent volunteers are more welcome).

Yes, I did try to check the name of the tester to get an idea of the tester's background, but there is little data available, other than that this person works for the schools.

I guess the only concern I have with offering articles to them unsolicited, is it will not be well-received. I am assuming that they are doing things the way they are to at least attempt to remove subjectivity - if I contact them, will they feel that I am perhaps trying to influence the process? I do not want to do that at all! I really have no reason to believe that the school and the tester do not have the best intentions. All of the children being tested have made it through the "gauntlet" so far, so they have at least achieved minimum scores. I am just a bit concerned about how this testing DOES actually sound like it can produce such different scores in the same child. That worries me.

Some might say that offering to test another day sounds like a solid plan?
With a child scoring 106 without completing the test, the tester did not have serious concerns about his intellectual functioning, therefore it seems to have met the requirements you stated at the time? While hindsight may be 20/20, it may not be fair to blame the tester who seems to have followed your wishes at the time?

She should have stated in the report that he refused to answer questions so she had to discontinue testing, and also that he was very silly throughout the test and the score may not be reliable. But none of that is in the report. I assumed she wouldn't actually write up a score report when I declined to bring him back to finish the test. She could have left it as telling me verbally that he scored 106 with the questions he actually answered and if she DID need to write a report for whatever reason she should have included that the score is not reliable. But she didn't. Luckily the worst that has come from it is that it is in his medical records. The other issue was that since the developmental pediatrician got the results from her he stuck it in with other test information and therefore I couldn't share ANY of it with the school system. I was not going to give the school system bad test results. Otherwise it doesn't matter.

Loy, try to remember that this is just one more test, one more day. She'll most likely do fine! And if not, you'll move forward and figure out what to do next.. whatever direction that may be.


For us, it depended on the context of the test. When my kids were young, and going for full neuropsych testing or reading/educational type evals, I told them it was a series of questions to learn more about how they learn, and that is would most likely be fun (and it was). When they've been tested at school for either state testing or gifted program etc, I've told them to do their best and also reminded them that it mattered that they answer the questions and didn't rush through the testing etc. I told them that the scores mattered, but I didn't tell them that getting into a program etc hinged on their scores.


We don't have similar CogAT scores (our EG ds is one of the kids who had much lower scores on the CogAT than he does on other tests including the WISC). What I'd keep in mind is that she does have high scores on her CogAT and chances are she will also have high scores on this test. If she doesn't, you'll try to figure out why. If the scores do come out lower, you can always opt to have private IQ/achievement testing (although you can't take the same IQ test within the same year). I'd try to worry less about the actual number and test result and just focus on what you see your child needing in school, and advocate toward that however you need to. I know quite a few parents in our local area who've had children come up with one or more required test scores lower than needed yet still actively advocated to get their children placed in gifted programs. Having a teacher advocate for your child's placement helps tremendously here. BUT- don't worry about that until you need to! Let this next test happen and see what her scores are.


I'll just put this out there, although I don't think it's what's going to happen with your dd and with a big caveat that I don't know anything about the program you're trying to get her into (ie, is it focused on high achievers or out-of-the-box gifted thinkers or both or something else) - she might very well be ready and up for the challenge of the program and still not have a 130 IQ. If you find that happens, don't just give up - advocate to get her the challenge she needs And remember that every test she takes is just one more data point

polarbear

Agreed. It may be difficult to approach someone you have not already had the opportunity to develop a working relationship with.

Sharing and discussing articles with those with whom we have established a working relationship does not cast aspersions on their intentions, neither does having things written in policy/practice statement so that all may be aware of the standard.

Hoagies' Gifted Education Page provides some resources for interested parents to begin their research, including Why Do My Child's Test Scores Vary From Test to Test? and An Inventory of Tests

Can you ask the developmental pediatrician to generate a report without those results? If you explain to him what happened with the testing, it sounds like he would agree that it's not reliable, anyway.

Our neuropsych generated a "redacted" version of her report that omitted parents' and family medical information that we didn't feel was any business of the school district. She offered to do it - it wasn't the result of a request from us (but only because I didn't think of it).

I'd second Elizabeth's suggestion - the private professionals we've used (neuropsych and educational eval specialists) have all offered to generate reports from school that only included the relevant information from their evals and left out other extraneous info about family history, previous testing etc.

polarbear