Testing for giftness?

[SnegurochkaL]

Hi, I am just wondering about necessity to test a child for giftness. How many of you did it and what age?

I was debating with my husband who doesn't see the necessity to do so. Thanks for your input. Lena.

[Mommy2BeautifulGirls]

We are on a waiting list for one of the local universities. Hopefully, by early fall we will have my daughter tested using the WISC-IV. She is just about 6-1/2 years old now.

 

I know that she is gifted, but I have a feeling it might be beyond what I originally thought. I want to know where she is on the scale so that I don't inadvertently push her too hard OR hold her back.

 

We are also starting to have disciplinary issues with her, that I think are because of her intensity related to her giftedness, so I'm hoping that I can also get some insight into how best to reign in her behavior problems now, instead of waiting until she is a teenager.

[Crimson Wife]

There's a great article on the subject at the Gifted Homeschoolers Forum website.

 

We had our oldest tested at 4 3/4 because we were trying to figure out the best educational option for her. When the results came back, we realized that we would either need to pony up the $23k/yr for the area private GATE school (which wasn't in our budget) or homeschool.

 

Our 2nd is "twice exceptional" and at 3 1/2 he was tested with parts of the WPPSI just to rule out an overall low IQ as the reason for his language delay. I knew he was very bright but it was part of the IEP assessment process. He was not particularly cooperative with the psychologist so she did not give the complete test. She'd gotten the information she needed when he celilinged on the puzzle assembly subtest.

 

We're planning to have a full evaluation when he's 7 or 8. The results are more reliable at that age.

[2smartones]

IMHO, the IQ score itself doesn't matter nearly as much as the information a good, trained-in-gifted-children psychologist can give you about the areas of strength and weakness your child has. Yes, an overall score will give you some insight into why a child is the way they are, but the explanations are the biggest plus in my book. A score doesn't tell you if your child will succeed or fail, but getting a better idea about how to tailor your instruction will go a long way toward success.

[zaichiki]

Hi, I am just wondering about necessity to test a child for giftness. How many of you did it and what age?

I was debating with my husband who doesn't see the necessity to do so. Thanks for your input. Lena.

 

Lena,

 

Testing is not necessary, though it can be useful.

 

In our case, when coupled with some other testing it revealed dyslexia in one child who is also gifted (that's a strange mix). We were able to get some objective "proof" that another child had significant strengths (and in some areas some significant weaknesses) which benefitted from a less popular approach to homeschooling. I felt relieved that I was NOT going crazy. I was able to put to bed all the wondering whether or not I was subconsciously pushing or expecting too much followed by days when I was convinced I wasn't challenging him enough.

 

Having those IQ test results allowed me more confidence when I chose not to use materials and/or teaching approaches that many espouse b/c they weren't a good fit for my child. (I was constantly given opinions by others, based on what works for typical children. I could now politely, but firmly, thank them and disregard their advice without all the self-doubt and anxiety.)

 

My kids did the WISC IV (the 7 year old) and the WPPSI (the 4 year old). I'm glad we did it, though I have no plans to have the younger two tested. (Based on their siblings' scores and our experiences, I feel like I can recognize the symptoms and can generalize, if necessary, with confidence. :D)

[ktmo]

We had my DD tested. We are afterschooling her, and she will start ps kindergarten in the fall. I struggled learning to read and was eventually diagnosed with a learning disability, so we wanted to be proactive and assess her to determine the proper school, if she did indeed have a learning disability. We'll probably do the same with DD#2. I probably wouldn't have tested her, if it were not due to our family history.

[catz]

Hi, I am just wondering about necessity to test a child for giftness. How many of you did it and what age?

I was debating with my husband who doesn't see the necessity to do so. Thanks for your input. Lena.

 

I haven't had full scale testing done for either of my kids. My oldest hit the ceiling of a gifted screener his school gave in kindergarten (NNAT). It wasn't until I researched that a bit and talked to someone in the office at school that indicated he did have a very unique score on that particular test. I considered having him fully tested, but since the school did very little to accommodate him with a score they KNEW was very high, I didn't think it would make a difference. Testing locally is very expensive and there is not a university that will do it. There are a few national known GT psychs that seem to have cornered the market here.

 

All that being said, my child is a globally gifted kid, he's quite extroverted, and is an early and proficient reader. He didn't have any stand out things that made me think he might have underlying weaknesses. 4 years later I can see that my intuition was probably right. We've had several open ended achievement tests done and he does test in that top 1%+ for age, so his achievement is consistent too. But as a homeschooling family without any particular reason or issue, we just can't justify the expense of full scale testing.

 

My daughter is tracking quite similarly to him, although her personality is considerably different. And we are following the same road with her so far - won't test unless we feel we need to. If we HAD to put the kids back into school for some reason we might consider it too. Although, now at almost 10, my son is reaching the age where those achievement scores will speak volumes above an IQ score.

[JenneinCA]

We have tested each of the kids at newly six years old.

 

It was absolutely necessary for the oldest. I had no clue what was going on and I needed help desperately. She was the first and I didn't understand giftedness at all.

 

We tested my middle guy because he was so different from the oldest and I was worried about learning differences.

 

We tested my youngest so that we could go to a gathering for smart kids as a family. (Both the older kids were already in this group.) He couldn't participate unless he had the scores and we wanted everyone to go together and not leave him out.

 

I am very happy that we have done the testing. It is not NECESSARY, but it sure has been helpful. If you have the time, money, and energy it is a great thing to do. If not, then go on and do the best you can.

[cylau]

We tested DS with WISC IV and WJ achievement test when he was 7. We had to do it because we had 2 unsuccessful years in public school and to rule out ADHD and dysgraphia. DS was emotionally unstable before 7 yo. He was always very active, eg he was always looking for something to climb and jump off. The only time he was not active was when he was reading a very thick book. He was also working at many years ahead of his grade. The test results were the decision point of whether to pull him out of school the next year.

 

My educational psychologist was specialized in testing gifted children. I think it is important to find one that's specialize in this field, because they know how to deal with this kind of kids. He pointed out after WISC that ds would not do well in public school unless they are willing to accommodate an asynchronous child. I needed that "push".

 

IMO it is not necessary to test a child unless you are hitting a road block. The test results is useful for you to understand your child. In my case, the test results was the decision point to homeschool my son. The results also gave me courage to use more advanced curriculum on him.

 

After one year of homeschooling, ds is a different child. He is being challenged and learning new things everyday. He is no longer bored. Without the WISC and WJ results, I will still be testing his levels and not sure where to start him out with for homeschooling.

Edited July 12, 2010 by cylau

[rlowetx]

Our son was initially tested as part of ADHD testing at the public school he went to. The results are what solidified our decision to homeschool him (we actually did this in cooperation with the school as they felt they could not meet his needs).

 

He has done both WJ and WISC-IV. The WJ gave me better details on his aptitudes as well as helped guide us to his learning style. Again, we didn't know anything about parenting / educating a gifted child until we received the results and began doing research. The tests were great guidance in beginning this search. The research helped us not feel alone and really taught us how to communicate better with him and become better leaders in his life...it explained that many kids like him are asynchronous and have difficult times with their peers (as he does).

 

I don't think it is required, but for us in our situation we would be going down the wrong path if we didn't have it done.

[Dmmetler]

My daughter was screened for a possible ASD when her daycare provider at age 2 insisted that NO child could read or do what DD was doing without being some sort of a savant, and the test team at that point stated that she wasn't autistic, WAS almost certainly highly gifted, and basically wished me luck.

 

At age 4, she was tested by the school system for early K entry, and maxed out the tests they gave, except for the PPVT, where she shocked the tester by ending up in levels normally seen in high school graduates. It did get her into K early, and I think her high scores contributed to the school encouraging us to homeschool after their best efforts to accommodate her failed.

 

 

I haven't done more involved testing because at this point I don't see a lot of benefit to trying to qualify for special programs. When she's in 2nd grade, she'll be able to be tested by the schools again, and I think they'll do a FSIQ and achievement test then.