Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Non-gifted sibling

Hopefully you can get a report that will show the # of questions attempted. If she left a lot blank, it could just be that she was slow or distracted. My DD has ADHD and processing speed issues and simply can't take timed tests like the CogAT. The psych who gave her the WISC said that it took her an hour longer to give DD the test than other gifted kids. DD took her time and scrutinized all answer choices carefully.

Not CogAt, but my youngest had an almost 2-sd difference between his KBIT score and his WISC-IV score. Had our school not also administered the TOMAGS, which he maxed out, at the same time they did the KBIT, he likely wouldn't have qualified for the school-administered full WISC-IV testing (his FSIQ was 146).

Don't panic. Just because she isn't shown to be gifted on this test, doesn't imply she might have a learning disability. Comparing your children's OLSAT tests is counterproductive. I disagree, Sibling do and can have big gaps. Plus this was ONE test, on one day, while your child is still quite young and doesn't show everything about your child. I know it's hard but try not to compare your children instead try to look at them and see what they need individually.

What is your motivation behind wanting more testing? Does your daughter have educational needs that aren't being met in the normal classroom, that you feel would be best addressed by a gifted program? Is she struggling in some areas? I wouldn't pursue more testing unless you had other indicators.

I don't have any experience with the OLSAT, but fwiw my EG ds tested quite a bit lower on the CogAT than he has tested on the WISC, the WJ-III Cognitive Abilities tests, and what seems like 1000 other achievement tests through school. As others have mentioned, this was one test, one day, one moment in time. Also most likely a brief test.

If you are curious and really want to have an idea of what her IQ is, I'd suggest having her tested with either the WISC or another individually administered and widely accepted IQ test. If you're trying to get her into gifted programming at school, and the OLSAT was the screener, you might be able to successfully advocate with a score from the WISC/etc - if it's in the range the school is looking for on the OLSAT.

I 'm not convinced though, that siblings are destined always to be within the same IQ range. Maybe so, but there are so many other ways in which siblings can be different from each other in personality etc, I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that they may have completely different IQs. Some of what you said seems to possibly match what the OLSAT scores say:


If the OLSAT is scored with 100 as the median, then "98" is almost right there in the middle of the bell-curve average - and there are probably a lot of "normal" functioning kids out there with smack-dab average ability scores who can also be perceptive and mature with good sense of humor and good vocabulary. I'm not saying your dd isn't gifted - just noticing that with only one test, when you compare it to what you say you've noticed about her in school - the test might actually make sense. If it was me, I'd probably want another more thorough test Both because I was curious, and if I was hoping she could get into a gifted program within the school district.


Why do you wonder this? Is it only because of the discrepancy between her results and her sister's scores? Or do you have something else that makes you wonder about the possibility? If it's just due to the discrepancy in test scores, I wouldn't think twice about LDs. If, otoh, you've seen signs you feel your dd is struggling in any area at school (or home), or if you have extended family members who have LDs, then I would dig a little deeper, look at what was tested, do the OLSAT scores show any vairability, talk to her teachers to see if they've seen anything that indicates a challenge... and take her to a neuropsychologist for a full eval that will include individually administered ability and achievement testing.

Best wishes,

polarbear

It never even occurred to me that siblings would necessarily be very close together in intelligence until I read things on this board.

My sisters probably have an IQ that's two standard deviations lower than mine, at least, so wide discrepancy always struck me as normal.

In fact, my family had siblings that were close together in intelligence compared to another local family.

And my sisters have no learning disabilities.

Granted, I think that the overall families that my parents came from are two standard deviations apart.

My father is not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.

Both my brothers are PG. And I don't have iq scores but let's just say I am decidedly not PG but feel like a big doofus with one brother older than I am and one younger than I am. being sandwiched in between them was hard.

My baby sister just decided from birth her role was the social butterfly princess of the family so as to not have to compare to them. I am sure we are both just slightly below the gifted cut off...the high achieving above average kids. She was also a late bloomer (in college when she finally got serious).

My own experience is similar to JonLaw's above. I have two full siblings and one half-sibling, and the only one who is in my intellectual neighborhood is the half.

Take one gifted girl in an anti-girl era, simmer on medium heat with a rebellious personality, add one unremarkable boy with a pinch of "don't you dare date him," shake vigorously, bring to a rolling boil, and serve while scalding hot.

With that said, if your mommy-gut is telling you that these test results don't reflect your child, in cases where the parent is not afflicted with my-children-are-a-reflection-of-me-and-therefore-must-be-the-greatest-ever-itis (and that sounds like it's most definitely not the case here), then you should go with your gut and investigate further.

I also think there's a lot of variation. My brother is a high energy physicist, and while I don't think I'm dumb by any means, I struggled with math and did very well with reading/writing. If siblings do end up with similar IQs, a lot could be because of environment. It's not all genetics.

I agree with Dude that you should listen to your mommy-gut.

I mentioned the 2E thing because if there is a 2E issue, the sooner remediation/therapy/support starts for the second E, the better.

It's certainly not a reason to panic, but it might make sense to read a bit about how 2E kids present and spend some time simply observing with that in mind.