Testing?

[kungfumoose]

I believe that both my children may be at least mildly gifted.
I sense it, I see other kids, and I see how different my children are. I have other parents mention how advanced they are too.
I never saw the need to get them tested until recently.

I want to KNOW, not just suspect. I feel like a lot of their unique "issues" can be understood by parents of gifted children, but I always feel like a fraud around parents of gifted children, because I don't trust myself.
I guess I just want to know. If they are not, no worries, then I know. If they are, then I think it will help me understand them better.

How can I go about getting them tested, and at what age?
My daughter is 3.5 and my son is 20 months. (gosh, sometimes I forget how YOUNG they are!! lol)
What tests are good, and how do I get them?

[daytripper75]

I have heard that testing isn't accurate until they are elementary school aged. It's too hard to get a real idea of what a preschooler's abilities are. Once they are at the right age for testing you can have it done through a psychologist, at a university with a psychology department, or sometimes through the school system.
If parents with gifted children are the ones you connect with, the ones who get your children...you shouldn't feel strange about hanging out with them or needing their advice.

[no5no5]

There's no way to test your baby at this point. As for your 3 year old, you could test her with the WPPSI, but it's going to be expensive and not terribly accurate. Usually it is recommended to wait until the child is at least 6 (and can be tested with the WISC-IV), but even then test results can be inaccurate. So...even a low test score isn't conclusive evidence that your child is not gifted.

But you certainly don't need test results to be welcome here.

[mom2ponygirl]

www.hoagiesgifted.org keeps a list of testers throughout the country.
We waited until age 8 to test using the WISC IV and WIAT-2.
However, for now, if you feel a sense of kinship when you talk with parents of other gifted kids, it is probably for a reason. Trust yourself. If you feel like the advice and conversation among gifted parents is helpful - use it!

[kittykat2481]

OP, I understand how you feel. DS is 26 months, and I'm always getting comments about how smart he is, how people can't believe he's only just 2, etc. Plus, he just doesn't feel like other 2 year olds we know, to me at least. I have 4 siblings and all 5 of us are gifted, and I suspect DH is too, even though his mother never encouraged his intellectual talents. All this is to say that I feel like the genes are there. I will follow the advice of your responders, and just follow my gut for now.

[itsmyturn]

Just curious if you are planning on home schooling or taking the public route.

If you are planning on public school. I would check to see which tests at what ages they accept for admittance into the gifted programs. It would be wise to align your testing with the schools requirements so you don't have to go through the process and pay twice, private testing can be expensive.
We tested through the school, using the RIAS- at 6, it was free

I would definitely recommend the hoagies website they have alot of information on the different tests.

[RiverTam]

Originally Posted by kungfumoose

How can I go about getting them tested, and at what age?

You can get low cost testing through a university talent search. Duke, Northwestern and University of Iowa serve my general location. I don't know who serves your area. Hoagies does, though.

Northwestern can test kids under 5, but recommends that the child have some familiarity with numbers and letters before testing, because that's on the test.

[no5no5]

Originally Posted by RiverTam

You can get low cost testing through a university talent search. Duke, Northwestern and University of Iowa serve my general location. I don't know who serves your area. Hoagies does, though.

Northwestern can test kids under 5, but recommends that the child have some familiarity with numbers and letters before testing, because that's on the test.

Talent search tests are a great, low-cost option...but they're not IQ tests.

[kgianforti]

Do you have a university nearby? Pysch students often need preschoolers for their classes...though the test isn't "professional", at least you'll have something.

[joensally]

Originally Posted by kungfumoose

I believe that both my children may be at least mildly gifted.
I sense it, I see other kids, and I see how different my children are. I have other parents mention how advanced they are too.
I never saw the need to get them tested until recently.

I want to KNOW, not just suspect. I feel like a lot of their unique "issues" can be understood by parents of gifted children, but I always feel like a fraud around parents of gifted children, because I don't trust myself.
I guess I just want to know. If they are not, no worries, then I know. If they are, then I think it will help me understand them better.

How can I go about getting them tested, and at what age?
My daughter is 3.5 and my son is 20 months. (gosh, sometimes I forget how YOUNG they are!! lol)
What tests are good, and how do I get them?

Hmmm...all gently said, as the written word doesn't convey tone.

I'm not clear on how knowing they're gifted will help you understand them better. They are as they are, regardless of the source of the issue. Reading about gifted issues can be informative, so there's nothing stopping you from doing that - hoagiesgifted and senggifted are great starting places online, and here's a free preview of James T Webb's book on gifted, which is great:
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZyV...age&q=&f=false


There is a preschool WPPSI that can be used, and it needs to be administered by a psych to be considered valid for any kind of admissions AFAIK in any jurisdiction. But there can be as much as a 30 IQ point range in the childhood years, so some preschoolers may test gifted in the PS years who are not, and the reverse is true as well - gifted kids may not be picked up in PS tests.

IME, the openness of other parents is the key to finding sympathique with other parents. And you don't have to frame issues as "because he's gifted, we're finding..." Many parents can relate to sleeplessness, emotional intensity, sensitivity, intense interests. Do these other parents discuss their child's giftedness as giftedness, as opposed to talking about their child as an individual? I'd be suspicious of that word being thrown around too casually, myself.

[SkySunSea]

I'd wait until there was a reason for testing. We didn't have our daughter tested until it was apparent that she was having difficulty in school and we suspected that her acting out was related to being "bored" in the classroom. Especially since she was underperforming and was doing different stuff at home as at school.

However, since you are curious, here is a table of indicators of giftedness for babies/toddlers. You can take a look. I don't know about the accuracy of this information or how it was developed, but my dd definitely was early to a significant degree on many of these milestones. That being said, a child can be gifted and NOT do these things too. And I am sure there are many bright kids who do some or all of these things but haven't really been identified as "gifted" per se (taking into account there are many differing views on what giftedness is, of course). Take this lightly, I am just sharing because it's interesting.

http://gleigh.tripod.com/gftskills.htm

SkySunSea

[kungfumoose]

Thanks for all your replies.
I think I will be waiting awhile to get any testing done. It doesn't sound terribly accurate for awhile.

It's good to know for the future though. Thank you!

[kt~mommy]

i did check into testing for my 29 month old for the same reason as you... i don't want to be delusional, i just want to know. and i really do see how much more advanced he is than other kids, his teachers, doctor charts etc confirm it.

anyway, i called a guy on that hogiesgifted list, and he would have tested our son, but it would have cost us $200 per hour (x probably 2-3 hrs). soooo i opted for books on the subject instead... at least for now

[RiverTam]

Originally Posted by no5no5

Talent search tests are a great, low-cost option...but they're not IQ tests.

Some talent search offices do intelligence testing along with achievement testing.

To test for the summer program for preschool students through 3rd grade, the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern does both a Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test and a Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement.

The testing fee is $110.

It's a great low cost option for the parent of younger kids.

[no5no5]

Originally Posted by RiverTam

Some talent search offices do intelligence testing along with achievement testing.

To test for the summer program for preschool students through 3rd grade, the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern does both a Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test and a Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement.

The testing fee is $110.

It's a great low cost option for the parent of younger kids.

Do you think of the KBIT as an IQ test? I've always thought of it as an estimate, like the CogAt. (But I may be showing my ignorance here.)

[RiverTam]

Originally Posted by no5no5

Do you think of the KBIT as an IQ test? I've always thought of it as an estimate, like the CogAt. (But I may be showing my ignorance here.)

The K-BIT is designed to give an IQ score and the CogAt doesn't. CogAt is scored using standardized age scores. K-BIT is an IQ test, with a 100 mean and a 15 point standard deviation.

The K-BIT isn't as accurate as a WISC, but it's still a useful tool. Tons of schools use it to refer kids for further testing. The K-BIT can overscore some kids a little because it doesn't have as many subtests, and it underscores some kids for the same reason. As long as K-BIT scores are reported in intervals (eg. IQ = 125-129), it's generally considered pretty reliable.