How to explain IQ testing to your gifted child

Your child received IQ testing as part of a gifted identification evaluation through the school. How do you explain the results to your child?


1.  A few reminders about IQ testing 

• Individualized IQ testing is administered one to one by a highly trained clinical or school psychologist. Don't confuse these tests with the group screening exams offered in classroom settings. While group tests may give some indication of a child's abilities, they are less accurate, and certainly do not provide the wealth of information individualized testing provides. (For more information about IQ testing, including understanding the GAI on the WISC-IV, see the articles listed below.)

• Testing is a valuable source of information about how your child approaches learning. Although a specific cut-off score of 130 is typically used for gifted identification in most school districts, the actual IQ score is only one piece of information that is gathered from the evaluation. Individualized IQ tests, such as the WISC-IV and Stanford-Binet, are composed of subtests, each measuring different areas of cognitive abilities. The scores on each of the subtests are combined to generate the overall IQ score. However, the subtest scores often provide the most useful information with respect to your child's strengths and abilities.                                                        

• Testing is a sample in time. Most psychologists know that IQ scores fall within a range of scores; there is not just one targeted score. Depending on your child's mood, attention span, physical comfort level (e.g., if hunger or fatigue interfere), and rapport with the psychologist, she could presumably attain a slightly different score on a different day. 

2.  Help your child before taking the test

• While you might question whether to have your child tested, it is important to support the decision once it is made. If you are ambivalent or anxious, these feelings may be conveyed to your child, who may not perform well as a result. If your child believes that you think the testing is unimportant, they may not take it seriously and not perform at their best. If they sense that you are anxious or are placing too much importance on the evaluation, they might become anxious as well, which also can affect performance. So work through any misgivings you have about the testing, and hold your feelings in check.

• Take care of the basics. Make sure your child gets enough rest, eats a good breakfast, and has some basic understanding of the evaluation. Speak with your child's teacher or the psychologist ahead of time to let them know if your child has difficulty with certain times of day. Do they get overly tired in the afternoons? Would they become distracted and upset if they had to miss recess for the evaluation? Do they become irritable right before lunch? All of these factors could affect the evaluation.

• Explain to your child that they are being tested to see if the teachers can understand them more. The results will help the teachers find ways to make learning more interesting. The more they know about what your child does best, the easier it will be for the teachers to sort out how to make school the best it can be for them. 

• Let your child know that the testing is different from exams in class that quiz what they have already learned. They will have to answer some questions, write some things, and even play with puzzles. Let them know there will be questions they cannot answer since the test is designed for children of all ages. They are not expected to know everything, but you would like them to try their best.

3.  You will have a reaction to results from the testing

• Be prepared to feel validated...or be surprised. Yes, an IQ score will be included in the results. But you will also receive feedback about your child's cognitive strengths and learning style. How do they approach problem-solving? Are they obsessive? Careless? Impulsive? Hesitant? How are their planning skills? How is their judgment? How your child approaches the test can provide almost as much information as their actual performance. Testing can identify any discrepancies in terms of strengths and weaknesses, uncover possible learning disabilities, and determine whether emotional reactions interfere with learning. All valuable information.

• It may take time to adjust to learning that your child is gifted. Receiving confirmation of your child's gifted ablities may evoke a range of feelings, from excitement to anxiety. Try to share these reactions with your significant other, family, or friends, but avoid conveying too much excitement to your child. They didn't accomplish anything. They didn't win a prize. The testing provided additional validation about abilities they already possessed. If you express too much excitement about their performance, it could be confusing to them. They might think that they are valued primarily because of their abilities. Or that they are "better" than the other children at school. Or that they have to be perfect to "maintain" their gifted status. 

4.  How to explain the results to your child

• Try to be as straightforward and relaxed as possible. Let your child know that results show that she might benefit from some more enriching and challenging school activities. This will make school more fun and interesting. They will still be with their friends but may be pulled out of the class a few hours a week, meet in smaller groups to do interesting projects, or get some different assignments than some of the other children. If subject or full-grade acceleration is an option, discuss the benefits and drawbacks in depth with your child. 

• Don't tell your child their IQ score. Nothing good can come from this. Why? Most children are not developmentally capable of understanding what an actual IQ score means. It is just a number, and your child may misinterpret it to rigidly define their abilities or limit their potential over time. My IQ is higher than my friend's - I must be a lot smarter than him. I only have an IQ of 130 - maybe they made a mistake and I don't really belong in gifted classes. Since I'm not as gifted as my sister, I guess I can't expect much more from myself. Sharing your child's IQ score with them is not much different from telling an 8-year-old what your salary is; they cannot really comprehend the value of a dollar or what it costs to raise a family.

• If your child learns that they are "gifted," help them understand what giftedness means. Explain that it is a term used to describe certain learning needs that differ from those of their peers. Help them to appreciate that it does not make them better than someone else or more special. Your child may have difficulty understanding why some other children behave the way they do, or cannot grasp what seems like easy material in class. Explain that everyone has uneven abilities. Even giftedness comes in all shapes and sizes; your child might have an easier time with math, for example, than with writing stories. Encourage humility, tact, and consideration when relating to peers. 

• Help your child with any ambivalence or confusion about being gifted. They may worry that this new label will create problems - isolation from friends, bullying, and extra busy work at school. Since gifted children possess a strong sense of morality, they might think it is unfair that others lack the abilities that come so easily to them. On the other hand, they may feel superior to their peers, although confused and guilty about this pride. Expectations about achieving perfection may develop. They may start to think that being gifted is the only thing that is important about who they are, or that they could "lose" their giftedness, for example, if they do poorly in a class at school. They might even wonder if being gifted is why their family loves them.

• Help your child realize that giftedness is not an excuse. Help them appreciate that hard work and effort is essential, regardless of the fact that some tasks come easily to them. Some researchers have suggested that praising a child for being smart creates an unhealthy reliance on encouragement and a reluctance to take on challenges. Children who attribute success or failure to stable, innate traits, rather than hard work, are less likely to develop resilience or willingly tackle obstacles in their paths. 

Although not without its flaws, IQ testing can provide valuable insight into your child's strengths, abilities, and areas that warrant further growth. It is up to you to determine how the information is conveyed to your child.

What was your experience when you told your child he or she was gifted? How did you explain the test results? Let us know what worked for you and your child!

Informative articles about IQ testing

Making sense of IQ

Why should I have my child tested?

Intelligent testing: The evolving landscape of IQ testing

Using test results to support clinical judgment

The least you should know about testing your gifted child

What do IQ tests test?


This blog is part of the Hoagies' Gifted Education Page Blog Hop on Testing. To read more blogs in the hop, click on the following link:
www.hoagiesgifted.org/blog_hop_testing.htm