No matter a gifted child’s learning style, he or she will likely face standardized testing at some point. While it might take place for grade placement in an education system, it might also used as part of a process to determine whether the child is gifted, and to what extent. While traditional gifted testing is becoming less common as educators and school districts expand their definition of giftedness, your child may still encounter one. Here are a few ways to help your child prepare for individualized gifted testing.
Prepare Yourself First
Before ministering to your child, be sure that you understand the nature and scientific underpinnings of the test which will be administered to your child. An “IQ test” is not a fill-in-the blanks worksheet. When your child takes a modern IQ test, it will be scheduled in advance and administered on a personal basis, one-to-one, by an independent clinical psychologist, counselor, or school psychologist.
An IQ or giftedness test is not given in a group or classroom environment. Such screenings can produce inaccurate results, skew the outcome, or provide a frame which is too narrow to fully assess a student. They are a first step, a single data point. The test will not, then, take place in the usual time-driven, anxiety-producing environment you or your child might associate with “testing.”
Parents should also understand that IQ tests do not, and should not, form the entire basis of whether or not a child should be considered “gifted.” IQ tests are but one form of information, and the subsets of IQ testing provide a window into your child’s cognitive abilities. As such variables as the psychologist administering the test, your child’s state of mind, and even the conditions of the room might cause variance in the outcome, it’s important to treat IQ testing as what it is: Part of a discernment process which takes place over a child’s entire educational career.
Avoid Placing Too Much Emphasis on One Test
If you are overly anxious about the test, your child almost certainly will be, too. Fretting over this single data point will communicate to the child that he or she may “succeed or fail” based on this single encounter. Such fear or anxiety may raise a child’s stress level, which in turn will likely negatively impact the experience. Emphasizing the supposed importance of a single IQ test, then, could ultimately prove counterproductive.
If the child feels the evaluation is not progressing well, he or she may feel attacked or defeated. As gifted children may place out-sized importance on perfectionism and outcome-based performance, they need to understand that the evaluation will not impact their grades, that you will love him or her regardless of what the outcome is, and that the test does not reflect on who he or she is as full person.
Explaining Gifted Testing to Your Child
Once gifted testing is scheduled, inform your child about it, honestly answer any questions he or she may have, and explain that the evaluation is designed to help his or her teachers find out more about how he or she learns. Rather than stressing the IQ test as a traditionally understood “test,” the child should understand it as an “exploration,” one for which they cannot prepare by studying or practicing. This might assist children who have testing anxiety or who do not perform well in traditional academic environments. Using the term “test” or “exam” may cause him or her to approach the evaluation with dread or fear.
It is important, however, to have a balanced approach to the evaluation. While children should not fear it, they should also understand that it ought to be viewed as part of a learning experience. Encourage him or her to have fun, but to also do his or her best.
Your child, especially one with perfectionist or structural tendencies, should be forewarned that some parts of the evaluation may seem difficult, and to not feel upset or like a failure. Explain that the evaluation is designed for students of all ability types, and that there is no “passing the test.”
Day of the Test
How to treat the day your child takes an IQ test? Like any other one. Showing nervousness will only transmit itself to the child. Enforce a usual bedtime, provide a normal routine in the days leading up to the IQ test, and ensure that the child has had sufficient rest and nutritious meals.
If the child has many questions, answer them honestly, but avoid peppering him or her with reminders or encouragement. If you don’t know what the test will specifically entail, tell him or her so, but reiterate that the evaluation will not measure class material, enter a teacher’s gradebook, or affect his or her peers.
Keep your replies simple and avoid over-dramatics. He or she might put together puzzles, draw pictures, answer questions, or describe drawings. If at all possible, ask your child’s teacher, school psychologist, or guidance counselor what the IQ test might entail so that you can properly prepare your child for the experience.
Once you see your child after the test, avoid persistent questioning about it. This, too, can generate anxiety. Should he or she want to talk about the experience, engage him or her, but avoid pressuring him or her into revealing or quantifying “how well” he or she did.
Working Through the Results and Findings
When your child’s test findings are communicated to you, it’s important to have a holistic view of the process. Would you love your child more or less with a higher or lower number? Of course not. Having an “it is what it is” attitude towards the results will help temper your reaction to the outcome of the evaluation.
Experts caution against telling a child what his or her IQ is. Doing so may place undue pressure on the child, encourage him or her to compare peers favorably or unfavorably, or anchor his or her self-esteem in scholastic or gifted pursuits.
