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| Testing Gifted Children
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Should I have my child tested? If you suspect your child is
gifted, it's natural to want to have this confirmed, and to know *how* gifted.
Unfortunately, testing a child's IQ is complex & expensive; it can only be
done, both legally and realistically, by an appropriate child psychologist. The
test costs $400 to $500, with approximately a third to a half recoverable if you have
private health cover (in Australia), so there are a few points in deciding whether to go ahead
and have the test done. Unfortunately Mensa can't help because the test Mensa
has the use of, for testing IQ, is only suitable for adults (I recommend not
before 15 or 16 y.o.). The
first option: Not Testing: For
preschoolers I usually suggest that unless the cost is no issue at all, parents
don't bother having a test done unless some problem or situation arises which
means you really do need to know if your child's gifted, and if so how gifted, etc.
Common reasons can be behavioural problems, with a need to know what may be
causing them, or wanting to plan a strategy for schooling, giving you time to
find out what options you have, etc. If you decide not to have a
test at this stage, you can't go far wrong assuming your child *is* gifted
(research has shown that parents are usually right when they think this), following a course of
providing as much experience & stimulation of all sorts for her or him, as
you can, and in the process collecting any similarly bright kids you meet into a
little peer group for him or her - this latter is very important for gifted
preschoolers. The reason you can't go far wrong is that this is basically what
all preschoolers need anyway. If
you decide to test: In some Australian states,
the Government department which provides services for pre-school children (child
care, kindergarten, etc) has qualified psychologists and will respond to a
request for an IQ test to be done free of charge; it's worth checking whether
you can have a test done free through this loophole. However, there can be a
problem because these psychologists are not experienced in the area of
giftedness; their work is more in the area of helping to diagnose the problems
in children who are not developing normally for many reasons. Therefore in my
experience they often use a standard test such as the WPPSI or the WISC III, and don't understand the significance
when a gifted child simply scores perfectly on most sections of the test - so
the interpretation you get may not be appropriate, and also the test has not in
fact measured your child's full IQ. NOTE: THIS SAME PROBLEM CAN
ALSO ARISE WITH A PAID ($400-500) TEST BY A PSYCHOLOGIST WHO'S ALSO NOT
EXPERIENCED IN GIFTED ISSUES. Therefore if you decide to have an IQ test done
for your preschooler, it's important to ask the psychologist if he or she has
the appropriate test for a gifted child, and is experienced in its use (see next
paragraph for test details). If you are paying for the test, I strongly advise
you only go to a psychologist who is recommended by officers in your local
Gifted & Talented Association, as having a special interest in gifted
children - I have seen many totally useless assessments & test results, which
nevertheless cost the same $400-500 as the good ones. Using
the correct Test: The problem with all the Wechsler tests and the Stanford Binet 4 is that they were designed to test IQs between 70 and 130 - they were never designed to assess IQs as high as most gifted children have; their designer never intended them for that purpose (see more detail later on this page: The issues regarding the Wechsler Tests). Until 2005 there was a lack of
a widespread, current test which is actually able to assess gifted children at
their full IQ score. For some years, the test most authorities both
in Australia and throughout the US have recommended for children who may be gifted or
highly gifted, was the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale
(Form LM) - or more briefly, the Stanford-Binet LM (SB-LM).
This was an old, out of date test, but it was at least designed to be able to
test high IQs. There are some areas of Australia, Canada, the US, the UK and New Zealand where it's very hard to find a psychologist who does the Stanford Binet 5, and psychologists in these areas will often argue very convincingly that the older test they use is just as good or preferable. However it doesn't matter what they say, or how forcefully they say it, this is simply not true. The full explanation of this situation is complex, but because it's so important (ie saving you money, and knowing your child's true IQ), it is worth reading all that follows here: The issues regarding the Wechsler tests:
Neither of the Wechsler tests was designed to identify, or
even to be able to assess, gifted children.
The Wechsler tests were developed specifically for the “normal”
population: both tests have a designed IQ ceiling of 130 and any child who
scores higher than this should, by the definitions of these tests, be rated
simply as “IQ = 130+”. I’ve
often seen reports in which psychologists have extrapolated the test scores
and estimated an IQ higher than 130, but the design of these 2 tests doesn’t
in fact provide for this; by their own definitions these two tests can’t
give a result higher than 130. The
following quotation from the designer of the tests, David Wechsler, makes this
clear beyond any doubt:
"He (David Wechsler)
rejected most attempts that I made to add easy or hard items to the WISC-R
saying firmly, 'My scales are meant for people with average or near-average
intelligence, clinical patients who score between 70 and 130.'"
"They are clinical tests." When I reminded him that
psychologists commonly use his scales for the extremes, and want to make
distinctions with the 'below 70' and 'above 130' groups, he answered,
"Then that is their misfortune. It's not what I tell them to do, and it's
not what a good clinician ought to do. This clearly creates a
problem when one wants to have a child assessed to find out whether he or she
is gifted, and if so how gifted. One
can use the term gifted to mean all gifted children, or when making a
distinction between gifted (G) and highly gifted (HG), generally accepted
levels are gifted: 130 –145, highly gifted 145-160 (“exceptionally
gifted” and “profoundly gifted” are in higher ranges still, but the use
of these terms isn’t as consistent largely because of this very problem
regarding IQ results on the current commonly-used tests.)
Psychologists who use the
Wechsler tests will often argue strongly in their favour, and can be very
convincing when they throw a few bits of jargon in. But the fact remains that simply knowing that the child has
IQ 130+ is no practical use when addressing the various issues that will arise
in that child’s life. Above 130
there is a detailed range of IQs; a child with IQ 160 for instance, has issues
as different from those of a child with IQ 130, as the child with IQ 130 has
compared to a child with IQ 100. A
child with an IQ of 170 or 190 obviously has different issues again.
Parents, and everyone who becomes involved with trying to work with or
help that child, need that extra information. I don't know if this information is still needed, but I'm including it here in case some parents may still (January 2006) be offered this test, and wonder how it fits in. The SB-LM is now very old-fashioned and out-dated, but before the release in 2005 of the newer Stanford Binet test (number 5), it was regarded by experts as the best test available for testing a gifted child. If you really can't find a psychologist who uses the new SB-5, I think it would be better to accept the SB-LM than to pay for any of the completely inappropriate Wechsler tests. The more detailed information is as follows, but only read this if this issue really does apply to you: The Stanford Binet Form
LM, does have disadvantages; it was last normed in 1972, and because of
this most psychologists, even many with a reputation for experience with
gifted children, won’t use it. They
have many convincing arguments against it, and even its advocates admit that
it has many defects due to its age: However the overwhelming
unarguable advantage of the SB-LM is simply that it can measure higher
IQs – and if one’s identifying a gifted child one obviously needs to be
able to do this. If there’s any
possibility that the child is highly gifted, then the ability to assess higher
IQs is crucial. It gets even more
complicated, because apparently the differences in the internal design of the Wechsler
tests, combined with their statistical basis in the Gaussian distribution,
mean that the performance of a gifted or even highly gifted child emerges as a
lower IQ on the Wechsler tests than their actual IQ as measured on the SB-LM.
“A child scoring 160 on the 1960 norms of the Stanford-Binet
(L-M) would score approximately 129 on the WISC-III”; 2
and “Whereas, previously, a score of 145 on an L-M would have resulted in
different recommendations from a score of 160 or 190, the highest scoring
children on current tests frequently score in the 140s, with a large range of
abilities receiving approximately the same score.” 2
Some authorities recommend assessing a child with the WIPPSI or the WISC III first, because these are the tests most schools accept because they’re familiar with them, followed by use of the SB-LM if it’s indicated, that is if the child performs at the 99th percentile on 2 or more of the subtests. However, Silverman & Kearney’s assertion quoted above that even a child with an IQ in the highly gifted range or higher can score below 130 on a Wechsler test, seems to me to negate this advice strongly, as the possibility surely exists of a gifted or highly gifted child not being recognised at all. From my experience of them, David Wechsler knew his own tests very well; I believe the various questions and puzzles on them would be boring to gifted children, and not even relevant to their interests – hardly likely to lead to an accurate IQ estimate in their case; as Wechsler himself stated, they weren’t designed for this purpose. I've explained the above to try to help you yourself understand what's going on. It's usually best not to speak in those terms to a psychologist who is pushing a different test, because they're likely just to argue with you - only because they're arguing to defend their own position, not because they're right.
How to insist on the Stanford-Binet LM
test when talking to psychologists:
"I understand that the Stanford Binet Form LM
has the highest ceiling of any IQ test currently available. Apparently
it is old-fashioned, but the more modern tests currently available have
lower ceilings. I've been told that they're currently working
on a Stanford Binet 5, which will be a modern test and have a higher ceiling,
but it's not available yet. I understand that the ceiling of the WISC
III is about 140, but I've been told there's a strong possibility that my
child's IQ is higher than that, and the SB-LM has the capability to calculate a
child's IQ above 140. The education consultant who's advising me
needs that extra information in my child's case, in order to know how to help
her/him in the schooling system."
In the US, among people who are experts in highly
gifted children, for example Kathi Kearney, & Dr Linda Silverman (there
are links to articles by them on my website - have a look & they may
reassure you further), the SB-LM is accepted as the best test currently
available if there's any chance a child may be gifted or highly
gifted."
Finally, remember that there are many Stanford Binet tests, including the SB 4, so be VERY careful to emphasise again & again that it needs to be the "Stanford Binet Form LM", or the new SB 5. When you're living in an area where they use other tests, you'll often find people will say several times "Yes, yes, that's not a problem" - and then when it gets closer to the test date they'll say "Oh, I'm sorry, were you asking for the Stanford Binet LM?" So make sure & double sure that the one who says he/she can do it is actually talking about the SB-LM. 1
Intelligent
testing with the WISC-III by Alan S. Kaufman, New York : Wiley, ©1994 |