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

My 6 year old DS actually comes across as delayed, and he IS delayed with various things. But his GAI is 133 (probably actually higher but he was tested right after a traumatic brain injury). He is twice exceptional though with developmental coordination disorder. No one who knows him casually would ever guess what his IQ is. They would probably say he is average or below average. People are shocked when they see what he can really do (like long division). I always thought he was "bright" and had some odd splinter skills or savant abilities, but I was very surprised by his perceptual reasoning score over 140--I didn't have a clue. So--you never know. What you consider bright might actually be in the top couple percentile.
My DS's uncle (on my Dh's side) had almost exactly the same issues that DS is having--he sounds like he was dygraphic and might have had DCD. He even got an IEP for it. I definitely think there's something genetic going on in some families.

My older son also came across as delayed between the ages of about 2-7. During that time, his FSIQ on the WISC IV was in the double digits. But subsequent testing revealed that his is actually HGish (I say "ish" because the testing shows him to be just below HG, but I believe that his LDs get in the way of an accurate assessment).

Well, since both parents and your first are very smart or gifted, that changes things; so yes, in that case, I'd go ahead and test, especially since there are apparently a couple of minor red flags (late reading). You may be surprised. And I think there is no doubt that having a very bright or gifted child distorts the view of what kids should/could be doing at any given time...

I've been following this thread. I don't know the Olsat so I looked around on Dr Google to find it is a multiple choice, group administered test. Reading your original question Nutmeg, I can see lots of reasons why this sort of test isn't necessarily giving you a score consistent with what you see in your child. Compared to having a child work with an individual assessor, you have no feedback on how your child approached the test, whether they understood or heard the verbally administered components, whether they were tired, hungry or distracted etc. Multiple choice tests are difficult for deep thinking kids who can argue the answers with themselves which can mean they lose time. They can talk themselves out of the right answer and they can fall behind in the verbal sections because they are still thinking of the question before.
With any test, if the results are not what you expect, you ask; was it the right/best test for what I want to know. If not, then investigate a better test. Then weigh the pros and cons of doing the test. Cost seems to be a major downside with individualised assessment and the time and potential stress involved. From my reading and personal experience, an individualised assessment with the WISC or, in our case the Stanford Binet 5 (minimal time stress), with an assessor experienced in giftedness provides a much better picture than a group test. So the short answer in my humble opinion is, if the results don't match what you expect, it is helpful and quite reasonable to go ahead and look at another test.
I would be very curious to hear how you get on if you decide to go ahead!

Just jumping in to say I agree with this. My two oldest are gifted and it was pretty obvious. We thought the third was bright but not gifted and had her tested just to make sure that was right. Nope - all three have the same GAI. Also the same processing speed - which was described by the psychiatrist who administered the tests as "slow as molasses."

I would have her tested. Very perceptive and mature, with a wicked sense of humor and a good vocabulary are clues I think.

I think those of us who come from families where there are a lot of untested gifted people have a warped idea of normal. My hg+ ds6 seemed completely normal to me - all the kids in my family are like that and none of them are gifted (well none of them have been tested because it wasn't something people did and anyway there was no programming and bright kids can take care if themselves). i had never even heard of gifted until about 10 years ago.

Almost a year later, I figured I would give an update on this situation. We finally got her tested with the WISC IV. Her FSIQ is 122, which was more in line with our expectations. I guess the OLSAT is not a reliable test.

I missed it, what did the OLSAT say? What range is 122? I quickly googled it, I think I know, but just want to make sure I understand.

The OLSAT results showed her as low average in terms of cognitive ability which we were shocked by.

Got it and just read all the posts. So the OLSAT was off. Thanks for sharing and updating.