Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Which test for shy child gets best score?

Hi, I have a shy, quiet child who is in the top of his 1st grade class at school. And has done awesome on yearly school testing. Which IQ test will work the best for him? since he is so shy and not very verbal?

I'm not sure that I can recommend any specific test, but someone may have an idea or two. However, I think more important may be to make sure that your child has a chance to meet and grow comfortable with the testing Psych before any testing starts.

I strongly agree with the recommendation to have your child meet with the psychologist before testing. Our situation is not exactly the same, but I think our experience may be helpful. My daughter isn't necessarily shy (or quiet) in most situations, but she can be very slow to warm up in a situation where she does not feel comfortable. We are also dealing with anxiety issues, and that played a huge factor in our experience.

We had DD tested at 4.5 for admission to school. When I set up the testing, I mentioned that I would like to have her meet with the tester once or twice so that she would be comfortable at the time of testing. My request was essentially dismissed, and we proceeded with testing anyway. After very casually telling her that she would be meeting with someone to do some puzzles and thinking activities, we ended up with a child who went into testing on 4 hours of sleep, no breakfast and a tummy ache.

Her scores qualified for admission to the school, but I feel that the results are pretty much useless to us otherwise, as I know she could not have performed to her fullest ability under the circumstances. I really would like to have a more accurate picture of her abilities/strengths/weaknesses, and I wish I had acted more forcefully on my mommy-gut.

I don't know enough (or much at all, really )about the different tests to give any advice on which tests work for which strengths/personalities, but I know that personality plays a part in the process of testing. It's definitely something I would discuss with the psychologist in advance.

Hi Rose,
I think it might help if you said more about what you are hoping to get out of the testing experience. Is there some issue or challenge or worry you have that you'd like to have addressed? Do you think a gradeskip may be needed? Or perhaps that your son would be less shy if he were somehow surrounded by kids who understand his vocabulary and get his jokes and shared his interests?

If you are willing, Rose, say somemore, ok? What has it been like to raise him so far? My guess is that talking with your local mom's has encouraged you to not share more than necessary, but really, it's ok here.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

I have to type a lot to quote this book I'm reading "smart boys.". But at least I can save this note because I'm sure it will come up again. � �
"Although the S-B and the WISC III are good long-term predictors of academic success, but not necessarily the abilities needed in each particular class. �Sometimes discrepancies between IQ and classroom grades are the result of comparing the student's high verbal test scores with low academic performance in tasks that are non-verbal. �Or sometimes the student will obtain very high visual-spatial or overall performance test scores, but will function poorly in classroom activities that require verbal performance only. �

A student who scores very high on the Stanford-Binet is likely to be a student with excellent verbal and reasoning skills. �There is very little on the S-B that can predict mathmatical reasoning skills, artistic ability, social studies, or fine or gross motor skills. �

Gifted students with very high scores on tests of spatial-visual abilities, such as the WISC-111 performance scale or the Raven Progressive Matrices can fail to perform well in gifted education classes if they are high on the visual-spatial test but average range on verbal. �Because most school activities for gifted children are highly verbal in nature. �It is possible for the child to score full scale in the gifted range on the WISC-111 with only an average verbal ability score carried by an exceptional performance scale.

So I was reading this part of the book the same time I was reading your post and I thought this answer might help you decide based on what you need to know and what you're trying to do. �Hope it all goes well for you.

I just read your other thread and everybody is saying the exact opposite of what this book is saying, that "


hmm. My bad.

La Texican, what happens is that the book you are citing refers to the older versions of the tests. WISC-III was better for determining visual-spatial/mathy abilities and SB-4 for verbal abilities.

In the newer versions, the reverse is true. WISC favors slightly verbal abilities and SB5 non-verbal ones.

Thanks- Since he took the wisc 4 i had heard it was more verbal - So we are going to have him retested on the SB 5 next thursday since we hear it is more nonverbal - math directed.