Gifted Testing: A Beginner's Guide

Gifted Testing. What is it? Why should we do it? What are the best tests to use? What do the results mean? And most often asked... How can I prepare my child for Gifted Testing?

How can I prepare my child?

Let's start with the easiest question first. This is easy, you ask? Sure! Preparing your child for gifted testing is just like preparing her for a good day at school. Relax the night before, get a good night's sleep, have a well-rounded breakfast that includes plenty of protein and not too much sugar. But isn't there more to it? Not really. Test prep, while common in high-stress school systems (New York City comes to mind), is not only unnecessary, it can be counter productive. If we parents are stressed over the idea of gifted testing, our gifted kids will be, too. And that kind of stress rarely improves test scores. In fact, with sensitive gifted kids, quite the opposite may be true; stress may lower their test scores.

Meanwhile, a very well-prepped child may score a little higher on the tests... which may be enough to get a high-achieving but not gifted child into the gifted program. Doesn't that help the child? Not at all. That well-prepped child is still the same child, and the extra depth and speed of a good gifted curriculum is unlikely to serve him well. Meanwhile, the social benefits from being grouped with your academic peers are lost on him, as he's no longer with his peers, but in over his head. For more on prepping your child for Gifted Testing, read Aimee Yermish's How Can I Prepare My Child for Testing?

When should I test my child?

This may be a simple question: the school tests all kids in second grade. Or it may be complex: my child is struggling in school, and it seems like the classroom material is too simple, or he is very different from the other kids and isn't fitting in, or she can't sit still after he's completed his assignments. Gifted Testing may be part of a more comprehensive assessment, looking for a combination of achievement, intelligence, possible learning disabilities and more. But when is the right time to test?

The best time for Gifted Testing is when you have a significant question to be answered. You'd like your child to attend a school that requires Gifted Testing for admission. Or there's a higher level classroom available in your own school or district, but your child must "test into" the class. Or your child isn't fitting well in school, and you need an assessment to see if she's ADHD or LD or (yes, it's possible) gifted.

There is one question that is NOT a good question to answer by testing: Is My Preschooler Gifted? We all strive to be good parents, to follow our child's lead, to interact and spend time with them. Whether your preschooler is gifted or not, you will parent them the same way: with unconditional love and support. You will still spend lots of time together outdoors, and talk to her wherever you go. You will still read together whenever you can, and have him help with cooking and cleaning and shopping. Testing to determine if she reaches that "magic" number won't change anything. If Gifted Testing won't change anything, it's not a good time to test.

It's best to wait until your child is at least 6 years old before Gifted Testing (if possible). This way he can skip the less reliable years of preschool testing, when scores are less consistent over time, and kids are more squirrelly with the tester.

For more, read Why should I have my child tested?

What is Gifted Testing?

Gifted Testing means different things in different districts and states. In many districts, gifted testing starts with a group screening test, designed to determine which kids should go on to further assessment to possibly participate in the gifted program. These group tests, including the OLSAT and CogAT, are usually grade-level, multiple choice achievement / ability tests. For gifted assessment, many tests recommend that potentially gifted students are given a test one level higher than their grade level, so that they have "ceiling" room, and the school can differentiate between the high-achieving student who is at the top of her class, and the gifted student who is beyond her current grade level.

Publishers also provide a "margin of error" for their assessment, which should be added and subtracted from the target test score to include either 65% or 95% of the students who should be included in the program. The larger the margin of error on the test, the larger the confidence interval will be. For example, if the margin of error is 3 and the "cutoff score" is 130, then you should include all students who score 130 +/- 3, or 127 and up (since we want to identify all students at 130 *or higher*). The publisher tells us that this interval would include 65% of the target population. If your school wants to be certain to include 95% of the gifted kids in further assessment, they would have to use twice the margin of error, 130 +/- (2*3), or 124 and up. Easy enough. However, some gifted assessments have much higher margins of error. A margin of error of 7, for example, would require students with scores of 116 and up to be included in further assessment, to have the same 95% confidence interval.

Some Gifted Tests aren't tests at all. Instead, they are surveys, with components for the teacher and possibly the parent to complete. This type of Gifted Test requires that the teacher be well-trained on the characteristics of giftedness. However most U.S. teachers receive no gifted education training in their pre-service education, and only those who intentionally select it receive gifted education training in Continuing Education or advanced degree programs. The parents are similarly handicapped, because unless they are teachers, scout leaders or other instructors of same-age children, they are unlikely to know just how different Abby is from her "average" classmates. Even with other children and extended family, the nature vs. nurture research tells us that Morgan's family peer group is likely to be skewed. Her parents will likely have no average child at home to compare to, and may answer the survey questions incorrectly as a result.

Survey-type Gifted Tests are also likely to underestimate the giftedness of non-native-culture kids, and kids who are seen seen as having "difficult" traits such as speaking out when they're finished their own work, complaining about the classwork due to boredom, or moving around in the classroom. Kids who have both gifted traits and learning disabilities are often thought to be "average" because assessments may try to average their strengths and weaknesses. But having gifted strengths and LD weaknesses is far different from being average in all areas!

Some states and districts require individual IQ tests for gifted identification. This is the most accurate means of identification for most students, but like any one-time measure, it may be only as good as the combination of factors that occur at that moment. Does the test style suit the child's strengths and weaknesses? Is the tester hurried or stressed? Many gifted kids can sense this; this sensitivity is one of the characteristics used for identification. Is the child well today? Is he hungry? Is she tired? Is the room too hot, too cold, or full of distracting noises? Is the kindergarten playground occupied right outside the window? Was he pulled from lunch, or recess, or his favorite subject?

The most common individual IQ tests are the WISC and the Stanford Binet. But no matter what Gifted Test your child might take, you can learn more on Hoagies' Page: Tests, Tests, Tests. This inventory of tests given to gifted kids for various reasons includes links to lots more information, no matter what test or assessment is used.

What's the difference between in-school testing and private-assessment? The short answer is, in-school testing gives you results: scores. Private assessment evaluates the whole child, and gives you a report with score, what they mean, implications for education and suggestions for your child's future. Julia Osborn provides more detail in Assessing Gifted Children

What do the test results mean?

Often the test results are more confusing, rather than more clarifying. So much child is in this percentile, with that standard score, and the other grade level... what does it all mean for my child's education? Before you can decipher the results, you may need to ask for a full score report. It's required for the school to make a full report available, but often, they give only a summary, or only a single number that means either she's "in" or he's "out." The federal law FERPA allows parents to ask the school, and see the full score report and any other contents of your child's records at school, including the cumulative folder (usually the one in the office with only attendance and grades) and more personal records kept with the counselor or psychologist.

Once you have the full score report for each test, you can begin to discern the meaning in the results. A quick guide to test scores, and how different tests and their scores compare can be found in What Do the Tests Tell Us?. And for those confusing variations between ability and achievement tests with scores that sound the same, read Why do my child's test scores vary from test to test?

Widely scattered test results don't necessarily mean that your child is both gifted and learning disabled, often called twice exceptional or 2e. But those variations in scores definitely deserve futher attention, and a psychologist should be able to point you towards others assessments that may give you more information on the variations in your child's scores.

Now you know everything you need to know about Gifted Testing!

Well, not really. For lots more information on Gifted Testing, read David Palmer's Parent's Guide to IQ Testing and Gifted Education**. I stand by my review, as true today as when the book was first published, "Not just every parent of a gifted child, but every teacher and every guidance counselor of gifted children, too, should read Parent's Guide to IQ Testing and Gifted Education. Palmer explains all in one book, what it took me years of talking to dozens of gifted professionals to learn for myself. And Palmer makes it easy to read, with review points at the end of each chapter - if you're in a hurry, read the review points first, and pick the chapters that answer the questions you have right now. But read the whole book cover to cover when you have time - it's worth it!"

**Hoagies' Gifted Education Page is an Amazon affiliate; Amazon purchases made through this link support Hoagies' Page.

 
This blog is part of Hoagies' Gifted Blog Hop: Testing. Visit and read all the great blogs, from parents, teachers, students, gifted coordinators and more!

Optimum Intelligence: My Experience as a Too Gifted Adult...

by Carolyn K.

This week is Parenting Gifted Children Week, thanks in large part to SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted) . One thing I've noticed is that gifted kids tend to grow up to be gifted adults. Yes, I'm talking about you, ducking in the back, blaming your spouse for the kids' giftedness, and you, at your desk, arguing that you were gifted as a child, but now you're a regular adult. While we may grow and learn up to hide our gifts, moderate our speech and vocabulary, hopefully find places to work with folks more like ourselves, and generally "look" normal, we are still what we are: gifted adults. And in parenting my gifted kids, I've learned a lot about adult giftedness, about friendship, and about myself.

The original question asked, "In the book, Guiding the Gifted Child, by Webb, Meckstroth, and Tolan, the authors suggest that there is such a thing as optimum intelligence (OI). They state that this "OI" is between 125 and 145 IQ and that most of our "cultural leaders" probably have IQ's in that range, They are thinking that IQ's above that range probably alienate that person from his peer group / society."

One response assumed, "... by the time a person becomes an adult, he or she understands about different types of giftedness & has learned to make friendships without discrimination. I disagree with the assumption that society rejects extremely gifted individuals. Many gifted adults reject society long before society is ever given a chance to make amends for their childhood!" 

I disagree...

Long before I read "Guiding the Gifted Child" or any other book on gifted, or knew anything about levels of giftedness, or had kids... I worked. I work in a place where most of my co-workers are gifted, if not all. Software and hardware engineering tends to attract people like that. Worse, within a few short years I was asked to join a group that some people teasingly called "the unmanageables." Take your choice: either we didn't need management, or we wouldn't take management. It seemed to me a little of both. 

Meanwhile, I just did my job. I was low man (so to speak :-) on the totem pole. I got some of the less glamorous jobs in the projects. But I did them with the same effort that I applied to everything I did (OK, this often meant messing around while others were getting up to speed, but then finishing ahead and winning awards I didn't think I deserved... Impostor Syndrome is another subject entirely).

In return, some of my peers were good friends. As I had kids and they started into the educational system with problems, some understood. Others listened, but explained that their kids were nowhere near as smart as my kids. Knowing their parents, I wasn't convinced, but perhaps they are right. I still don't know. And still others ... well, I'm not sure how to describe what happened. 

Even in this place where literally everyone is gifted, I became an outcast without trying. The only other two women, both moms of kids around my older child's age, just couldn't imagine what I was dealing with or talking about.  But I didn't realize that, not at first. 

At first they thought I was making it up (thankfully, there was another older woman in the next department, who started handing me articles and materials on raising profoundly gifted (PG) children, back before I even knew what PG was - I still don't know how she knew - but I thanked her often, later, and I am still thankful for Jane in my life and my work). Later people thought I was "pushing" my children. I even had one mom from another department ask how I managed to teach my child math at age 3 - 4. I'm afraid I had a pretty blank look when she asked - I didn't teach my child - she just knew!  And I didn't realize that all children didn't just know!

In short order, it became clear that other moms were allowed to talk about their kids, but my kids were not to be discussed in this place. And no, I'd never had any trouble making friends before. 

At the same time, a few of the men made some snide comments when our group was asked to work with another group on a project. I did my research, and knew my assigned areas going into meetings. We were all supposed to do that. But not everyone did, or ever really knew their subject, or their audience - their customers. And I got comments, to my face, like "you know too much about everything." No man ever told a man that at the conference table, even the very bright ones - they were complimented on their knowledge - but I was called out. I started to shut down and hide what I knew in meetings, on business topics, too.

Worse, I was also a teacher. I was often called on to create classes when there was a need. Sometimes the classes were on topics I didn't already know. But no problem, I'd just learn it and write the class, and then teach it. And co-workers, managers, secretaries, everyone raved about my classes and my teaching. Again, I won awards - these I thought I deserved - well, most of them - I'd usually worked hard to make the class right for the audience.

But this, too, made two things happen: 1) students (co-workers) would call me anytime, interfering with my job, to answer and support them on topics related to my classes. And 2) people felt I knew everything, knew too much. It was not appreciated.

Now perhaps there is something I was doing wrong. I certainly changed what I was doing after these things happened: I stopped talking about my kids at work, entirely. I stopped volunteering information at meetings, to some degree. And I stopped working with some people... what was the point? They just wanted to hear what I knew to pick on me for knowing it. 

I was still called on by people all over the company, from management down, to solve problems. But I no longer interacted with most of the people I worked with in a social fashion. I even avoided the lunchroom and walking trail. I tend to avoid pain, and these places were often the sites of painful conversations, where I could only listen, and my speaking up was outside the boundaries of "normal." I stopped running to the local kids stores with the women at lunch. And I even stopped running to the computer stores with the men at lunch.

Here, in a haven for gifted people.

It was worse in the neighborhood. The neighborhood pediatrician pointed out (at least she was pleasant!) that my kids and I were way above the doctors she trained with, at least most of them. There were a few, she was always envious, and everyone knew who they were... And she was my closest peer in the neighborhood; I had to guard my words with everyone else. Talking about my kids, and their needs, or worse, their accomplishments, was totally off base. 

We're in a new neighborhood now, and things are mostly better. Again, a doctor lives here, and he and his wife "get it." But he has recently joined the practice we use (it is not comfortable having your neighbor as your doctor, I can tell you, but he's the brightest guy I know, and more and more of the neighbors are seeing him as their physician. Why give up the smartest doctor I’ve ever met?  And the other doctors in the practice sometimes talk to me to get information on gifted children, when they run into a child who is being teased to the point of abuse due to their intellectual differences from other children, or other situations. 

The rest of the neighbors accept that our kids are different, but they still accept them... and I'm allowed to talk about them at Ladies Night Out, just like everyone else.  And there's only one neighbor pushing me to tell my daughter's SAT scores, so that she can "prove" my child is smarter than her.  I haven't shared those scores, even though I'd love to brag, "Hey, my child made SET!"  And worse, that neighbor may be one of the smartest people in the neighborhood, another engineer, with a profoundly gifted brother... but that's another story.

Between these years, before I moved to this new neighborhood, I met other people with kids like my kids, initially through the On-Line Support community for gifted families on the Internet. It was with them I could finally talk about my kids and their needs.  It was with them that I finally learned to understand the Impostor Syndrome that I was suffering from as an adult. And it was there that I found my first “best girl friend” since elementary school.

Perhaps my experiences are unique; perhaps not. I don't know my IQ, to know if it falls in that Optimum Intelligence range. But I suspect not. The results Webb, Meckstroth, and Tolan, and others, describe, did in fact happen to me, as an otherwise happy adult.  Without any pre-conceived notions of optimum IQ, or a "chip" on my shoulder.  They just happened, as soon as I had kids.

It is easy to say that I should have learned by now to make "friendships without discrimination." I think I have. But what is a friendship when I cannot reciprocate?  I cannot talk about my kids, while the other person can; I cannot talk about my concerns, my daily struggles, my life, while the other person can. Friendships are based on common interests. My children are a big part of my life, as they are for most parents. If we cannot share that common interest, because my children fall outside of someone else's comfort zone, then... what is there to base a friendship on?

As for leadership, again, people consider my children when considering me. I was declined as a Girl Scout leader by our service unit because of who my child was. No other reason. My husband and I were black-balled right along with our child, without our even knowing or realizing until nearly a year later, when our child was suddenly prohibited from scouting.

Our child is back in scouts now, in a different troop, in another school, where they appreciate her... well, at least they appreciate the money she brings in as high cookie sales person every year, though they never mention it (I learned recently that they do talk about it amongst themselves). And my youngest is in a troop, in yet another school, where the leaders appreciate us both... she is high cookie sales scout and I am cookie mom. But I'm not sure I'm appreciated by the other parents for knowing the way the badges are supposed to be positioned on the vests - didn't anyone else read that? The placement is in the book, and came drawn on the tag. Again, I know too much. I remember too much. I learn too quickly. I make people uncomfortable. And it is hard to hide these things. I try. But it is hard to spend your life hiding...

The people you list as brilliant and respected - Einstein, ... I agree. But how many of them were respected in their lifetimes? I'm not very concerned about how people feel about me after I'm dead. I need to live now. I need friends now. I need people to talk to about my whole life, not just little pieces that I find are safe to discuss. I need to have true friends, just like my kids.  And I've learned, mostly by accident, that it is easier to find those friends among folks with similar IQs.  Even if they don't know their IQ, as I don't know mine.

But whatever my IQ is, it doesn't seem to be an optimum IQ...

"Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate to others the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible . . . If a man knows more than others, he becomes lonely."  Jung, 1989, p. 356.

"Have no friends not equal to yourself." Confucius

Addendum:

I eventually did find a peer group, where I can talk openly, without guarding my words, where I can share things about my kids, and even brag once in a while, when something terrific happens.  And while I didn't intentionally search it out, I found this phenomenal peer group in an unusual place... on the Internet.

©2012 by Carolyn K.
May not be republished without permission.

If we don't tell them they're gifted, they'll never know

It's the hot topic of the week... should we identify the gifted child as "gifted?"  Should we label him?  Once she's identified, should we share the "gifted" label with her?  Or should we ignore this aspect of the child, hide the identification if we do become aware of it, and pretend that there is nothing unique about the gifted child?

The answer is so obvious, it makes me wonder why we're asking the question!

Let me ask this another way. If you have a son, do you label him a boy?  If you don't, will he eventually figure it out?  You bet!  What if your daughter is good at soccer?  Do you help her grow and hone her skills, sign her up for clinics to improve her play, and allow her to try-out and play in the elite travel soccer team?  Or do you have her stay in local youth soccer, playing alongside the average soccer players instead, as her soccer peers go off to the travel team?

The answer is clear.  We can't hide the child from himself for very long; to think we can is just silly.  That boy is going to figure out that he is more like the other boys than like the other girls.  There are obvious physical differences. The child may be a boy, blond, brown-eyed and tall, and not telling the child that he is all of these things will not change that he is.  And he will certainly figure it out for himself.

How about that young soccer star?  No one tells a parent of a child who has a talent in sports not to label the child talented in that arena.  No one frowns at the parent who allows his child to play in elite programs or encourages his child through advanced skill clinics. No one counsels the parent, "No, don't enroll your child in the travel soccer team; it might make her age-peers in the youth soccer league feel bad."

But isn't this exactly what is asked of the parents of gifted children?  Some education professionals suggest that we should not identify our gifted children at all, that gifted identification creates excessive expectations for the gifted child.  These excessive expectations of their teachers and parents might pressure the child in ways that aren't good for her, ways that might "take away her childhood."  Others tell us that, once identified, we should not share that identification or its implications with the gifted child.  "Don't tell your son he's gifted, it might give him a big head."  "Don't put your child in the gifted program; it might make the kids in the regular classroom feel bad."

If we do not label the child "gifted," he'll never know, right?  Wrong.  Gifted kids are different.  The differences vary from child to child.  Often, the gifted child is more sensitive than his age-peers.  What is the gifted child to think?  I'm supposed to be just like them, but none of them care about or even notice the homeless people on the street, none of them are overwhelmed by the bright lights and loud noises in the school gym... Why am I so different?  And as the gifted child quickly learns, different is bad.  Suddenly we've gone from not telling the child he's gifted, to giving the child the impression that he is bad.  We should never do that to a child!

If we ignore the talents the gifted child shows in academics, and we do not encourage him to join the gifted classroom or program... what are we saying to the child?  Kids, all kids, need encouragement.  They need to know they're accepted for who they are.  They need to stretch, to learn and to grow.  The parents of that young soccer star know that, and they enroll her in the travel soccer team to get that encouragement and growth.  But the parents of the gifted boy are not supposed to label their son "gifted" and enroll their him in the gifted program, where he might be accepted, encouraged, and learn to stretch his abilities?

Why not?

Carolyn K.