If you're happy with your child's school and confident that he's making progress, a test might not be worth the effort. But if it seems that your child's class is too easy for him, a test may be beneficial. Being assessed as gifted could allow him to enroll in a special program that might better meet his needs.
When should I have my child tested for giftedness? In regards to when to have your child tested, testing is generally believed to be most reliable and most predictive between the ages of six and nine years old.
The two primary types of tests for gifted children are IQ tests and achievement tests. Both types of tests have pros and cons. A combination of both IQ tests and achievement tests is often required for admission to a gifted program.
The most common mis-diagnoses are: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (OD), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and Mood Disorders such as Cyclothymic Disorder, Dysthymic Disorder, Depression, and Bi-Polar Disorder.
Although there are no standard IQ levels of intellectual giftedness, some experts suggest the following IQ ranges: Mildly gifted: 115 to 129. Moderately gifted: 130 to 144. ighly gifted: 145 to 159.
This means their thinking and reasoning skills are well above their same-aged peers. To be classified as gifted, most education departments require children to have an IQ score at or above 130 on a standardised test administered by a psychologist.
Gifted children often set very high standards for themselves and get frustrated when they can't meet them. This can sometimes result in tantrums and other difficult behaviour. It's great for your child to work towards high standards. But your child needs to understand that they can't have high standards for everything.
While gifted children may not be any more susceptible to mental health issues as other adolescents, there are certain aspects of giftedness that may influence or amplify a gifted child's experience of mental health issues.
Signs your kid may be gifted
Keen observation, curiosity and tendency to ask questions. Ability to think abstractly, while showing signs of creativity and inventiveness. Early development of motor skills (e.g., balance, coordination and movement). Finds joy in discovering new interests or grasping new concepts.
The average child's IQ is not stable until around four years of age. It may be much later in children who were born early or who have significant health issues.
The child may be both gifted and have ADHD, which presents as an inconsistent (or even average) performance across school subjects. It can be difficult to correctly address a common situation like this even for experienced teachers.
Programs and schools for gifted and talented children frequently use the OLSAT to assess scholastic achievement among students. The test consists of verbal and nonverbal questions, both of which evaluate a student's ability to handle academic tasks.
Years of depending on academic approval for motivation turns into burnout when a gifted child looks around after being rewarded for performing higher than their peers for their entire life and sees the people they left behind all those years ago at the same level as them.
Giftedness can create problems and conflicts; being a gifted child can also mean difficulty socializing with age peers, thinking styles that don't always mesh well with the demands from the environment, even children who see themselves as little adults, challenging teachers and parents.
Because autism and giftedness exist separately, it's possible to have a gifted child with more pronounced autistic traits who may benefit from more support at home and at school. You can also have a fully verbal and self-sufficient autistic child with a typical IQ who isn't twice exceptional.
Even though the gifted are no more susceptible to mental illness than anyone else, some gifted children and teens struggle with overthinking, worry, or cautious alertness. Their nervous system seems wired for heightened reactivity. For some, obsessive thinking transitions into anxiety.
Social Skills
The problems gifted children sometimes face with socializing often stem from their asynchrony and educational setting. Asynchronous development, or uneven development, is often considered a core trait of giftedness.
Gifted children may be under-stimulated or bored in typical social or education settings, [which] may result in behavior challenges like school refusal, tantrums, distractibility, or general acting out.
The eagerness in repeating the same task multiple times is not the characteristic of the gifted child.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) When did Elon Musk take an IQ test? The Tesla CEO is estimated to have an IQ score of around 155.
His performance beats those of physicists Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein, who were both estimated to have IQs around 160.