I thought it might be helpful to share our experience doing testing recently. I would have liked to read something like this beforehand, so here goes.
First, why test? DS wasn't having problems at school, but did find ourselves at a loss when it came to quantitative, objective information about how he learns best. We also wanted to know a little more about his aptitude in different subject areas. It's an ongoing question of whether his school, which we as parents dearly love, is the best fit. Also, should we be doing more to nurture any areas? Finally, we wondered if he would qualify for any gifted programs, local and national.
It wasn't entirely easy to find a tester. On a local mom's group someone in a similar situation recommended a tester, but when I called, they were hard to reach and when I did talk to them, it was very expensive, over $1900, none of which would be covered by insurance. I made a tentative appointment, though, that we later cancelled. This tester was a private psychologist with experience testing gifted kids. I also found a university psychology department that would do it for very little $, but it was a 90 minute drive. It's hard to find recommendations since no one talks about giftedness and you don't know who to ask!
I thought of our pediatrician, and found out that their office has a child psychologist on staff. I talked to her last fall, when DS was 5.5 and she recommended we wait until he was 6, because the test she wanted to use started at age 6. She thought it would be a good thing to be at the beginning of a test's age range, than at the end. I really connected with her, and thought DS might as well, so we made the appointments. We scheduled for the week after school let out, first week of June. The cost would be $900 for the tests (WISC-IV and Woodcock-Johnson), plus three office visits (two for me, one for him) at $125 each. The office visits only would be covered by insurance, with copay. (Sorry if it's tacky to talk about money, but I think it's useful info for planning.)
(My understanding is that the WISC-IV is the IQ test an the Woodcock-Johnson is an achievement test, but I might be corrected there.)
(There was another option, to just have a short assessment (her term) and not the full testing. This would have cost $250, but we thought we would end up going back for the full testing anyway, so we skipped that. The results would have been her professional opinion, but not full tests.)
The first visit, on a Thursday, was for me to talk about DS's history (medical, educational), to share our thoughts and reasons for testing, to talk about any problem areas. It took about an hour. She took extensive notes.
The second visit, the next Monday, was for DS alone. She scheduled him for 9-12 and then 1-2 if needed. For preparation, DS was supposed to sleep well and eat a good breakfast. Despite our best efforts, he did not go to sleep until 11pm the night before. He did eat a hearty breakfast, though: boiled egg, juice, and waffles.
DS was a little nervous and clingy, but as I was walking him to the office, I reminded him that it would be similar to some linguistic research studies we used to do. After that, he was fine, and skipped on in the door. DD and I left to run some errands. The psychologist told us to come back at 11:30.
Around 10:30, she called and said that DS was doing well, but getting tired and that he should have a break. I picked him up around 10:45, and we all went to lunch and ran around on the playground. I returned him at 12:30 for more testing. She expected it would be another 45 minutes, but DD and I waited in the waiting room for over an hour. DS came home tired but jazzed at all the fun he had. He told me some of the notes she had written on her pad, and some of the words he hadn't understood, but other than that nothing (I didn't quiz him).
Three days later, on Thursday, I returned for the follow-up. I'll give a general feel of how the consult went: The psychologist did not have a written report ready, but promised it by the end of the month. She discussed his strengths & weaknesses, and things she found interesting. She told me some numbers, but not very specifically, more that certain subject areas (achievement test, I think) and the nonverbal (IQ I think) area were in the top X% of results. She also said for some subjects (achievement test, I think) he was performing on an Nth grade level. She mentioned some schools in the wider area that might be good fits, and we discussed how he might do in a neighborhood public school and some of the achievement-oriented private schools (I wish I had picked her brain before I did all that school research! Note, that's a good resource.). She also had done some unofficial tests of how fast he learned things, and provided examples. She talked some about his personality and energy level, and how those might affect his learning experiences. She talked about how he works on problems, and how knowing this might be used to his advantage. There were apparently some questions she asked him about general knowledge, and she was surprised he couldn't answer them, but then when she gave examples, I realized that he had not been exposed to the info because of our parenting style; interesting. She had very level advice about nurturing vs. pushing, and gave some strategies for encouraging his interests. We were very happy with her approach to the testing, and the level of follow-up she provided. It turned out to be a good experience for all of us.
YMMV! Hope this is helpful info.
First, why test? DS wasn't having problems at school, but did find ourselves at a loss when it came to quantitative, objective information about how he learns best. We also wanted to know a little more about his aptitude in different subject areas. It's an ongoing question of whether his school, which we as parents dearly love, is the best fit. Also, should we be doing more to nurture any areas? Finally, we wondered if he would qualify for any gifted programs, local and national.
It wasn't entirely easy to find a tester. On a local mom's group someone in a similar situation recommended a tester, but when I called, they were hard to reach and when I did talk to them, it was very expensive, over $1900, none of which would be covered by insurance. I made a tentative appointment, though, that we later cancelled. This tester was a private psychologist with experience testing gifted kids. I also found a university psychology department that would do it for very little $, but it was a 90 minute drive. It's hard to find recommendations since no one talks about giftedness and you don't know who to ask!
I thought of our pediatrician, and found out that their office has a child psychologist on staff. I talked to her last fall, when DS was 5.5 and she recommended we wait until he was 6, because the test she wanted to use started at age 6. She thought it would be a good thing to be at the beginning of a test's age range, than at the end. I really connected with her, and thought DS might as well, so we made the appointments. We scheduled for the week after school let out, first week of June. The cost would be $900 for the tests (WISC-IV and Woodcock-Johnson), plus three office visits (two for me, one for him) at $125 each. The office visits only would be covered by insurance, with copay. (Sorry if it's tacky to talk about money, but I think it's useful info for planning.)
(My understanding is that the WISC-IV is the IQ test an the Woodcock-Johnson is an achievement test, but I might be corrected there.)
(There was another option, to just have a short assessment (her term) and not the full testing. This would have cost $250, but we thought we would end up going back for the full testing anyway, so we skipped that. The results would have been her professional opinion, but not full tests.)
The first visit, on a Thursday, was for me to talk about DS's history (medical, educational), to share our thoughts and reasons for testing, to talk about any problem areas. It took about an hour. She took extensive notes.
The second visit, the next Monday, was for DS alone. She scheduled him for 9-12 and then 1-2 if needed. For preparation, DS was supposed to sleep well and eat a good breakfast. Despite our best efforts, he did not go to sleep until 11pm the night before. He did eat a hearty breakfast, though: boiled egg, juice, and waffles.
DS was a little nervous and clingy, but as I was walking him to the office, I reminded him that it would be similar to some linguistic research studies we used to do. After that, he was fine, and skipped on in the door. DD and I left to run some errands. The psychologist told us to come back at 11:30.
Around 10:30, she called and said that DS was doing well, but getting tired and that he should have a break. I picked him up around 10:45, and we all went to lunch and ran around on the playground. I returned him at 12:30 for more testing. She expected it would be another 45 minutes, but DD and I waited in the waiting room for over an hour. DS came home tired but jazzed at all the fun he had. He told me some of the notes she had written on her pad, and some of the words he hadn't understood, but other than that nothing (I didn't quiz him).
Three days later, on Thursday, I returned for the follow-up. I'll give a general feel of how the consult went: The psychologist did not have a written report ready, but promised it by the end of the month. She discussed his strengths & weaknesses, and things she found interesting. She told me some numbers, but not very specifically, more that certain subject areas (achievement test, I think) and the nonverbal (IQ I think) area were in the top X% of results. She also said for some subjects (achievement test, I think) he was performing on an Nth grade level. She mentioned some schools in the wider area that might be good fits, and we discussed how he might do in a neighborhood public school and some of the achievement-oriented private schools (I wish I had picked her brain before I did all that school research! Note, that's a good resource.). She also had done some unofficial tests of how fast he learned things, and provided examples. She talked some about his personality and energy level, and how those might affect his learning experiences. She talked about how he works on problems, and how knowing this might be used to his advantage. There were apparently some questions she asked him about general knowledge, and she was surprised he couldn't answer them, but then when she gave examples, I realized that he had not been exposed to the info because of our parenting style; interesting. She had very level advice about nurturing vs. pushing, and gave some strategies for encouraging his interests. We were very happy with her approach to the testing, and the level of follow-up she provided. It turned out to be a good experience for all of us.
YMMV! Hope this is helpful info.
