Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Ideal age?

When is the ideal age to test? We just went through all this with my oldest and I am looking ahead to the other children. When is the ideal age to test if it is for our own information? What tests would be the best? Is it best to test more than once with a minimum time apart to be sure of results?

My oldest is now 9, do I need to test her anymore? I have heard a lot about ceilings and feel we have a good picture of where she is right now. The twins are now six and have never been tested in any way.

Yes, something in the 6-8yo range is what I've heard. FWIW...No official pronouncement, though. This is just what "they" say.

Testing was pretty useful for us. Not only did it get DS7 into DYS, which has been good for many reasons, but it also helped me to know about a bottleneck in his learning that has changed the way I teach him.

Different kids are different, and much depends on what the test results for your specific kids are, of course. But I always recommend that if you have a reason to test beyond just mere curiosity, and if you have the money to test, and if you can find a good tester...well, then you should probably test.

DS tested on the WISC at 9y10 and hit serious ceilings and his score was probably an underestimate. We then waited for a couple years for him to be mature enough to sit for the ACT and SAT before we had the information we were looking for.

So for HG+ kids I sort of feel like there is a gap between 9 and 11/12 where there isn't much great testing since the SAT and ACT require a level of stamina that may not be reasonable to expect from a 9 or 10 yo. Given our experience, I guess I would suggest getting something around 8 because you don't really know what you might need through those gap years.

Testing was useful for us too. For a reason, just like Kriston suggested. My DD5 was complaining about how simple the K work was for her, we already knew that she was gifted we just didn't relized how gifted until after the testing (and after I read the book by Ruf). The type of testing we had done for her was just to identify what grade level she was at with all the subjects, nothing to grueling. It gave us the information we needed to make a decission in her education. If you are looking for testing with an IQ score the tester suggested 6 or 7.

I was wondering the ideal age to test as well.
We tested DS at 4, we will prob test again maybe 7ish just for comparison.