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IQ Test for PreschoolersBy Inderbir Kaur Sandhu, Ph.D
Q: My son is 5.5 years old and has issues in his preschool to the fact where I have dis-enrolled him from the school. My son started walking and talking at 8 months old. Now at 5 he speaks with the vocabulary and sentence structure of an adult. His psychologist recommended the school giving him more challenging work, but they just gave him more work.
His psychologist said it is hard to give someone his age an accurate IQ test, but I strongly believe my son is gifted they are just seeing him as a problem child. He is bored. He knows everything in his age group. My question is what is an accurate test we can give him to see if he is truly gifted? Thanks in advance!
A: It is not clear what the issues in your son's preschool are. It has to be really serious for you to have him out of the preschool. As parents are the best predictors of childhood advanced abilities, you may be right in determining what may suit him better and what may bore him further.
There is no single test that indicates giftedness accurately, and the numbers are just a guide for parents and educators to find strengths and weaknesses in a child. Generally, IQ tests measure a specific functioning ability and may not accurately assess a person's talents or future potential. Results of any intelligence test may be culturally biased. If you are really interested in testing him, the Wechsler's and Stanford-Binet are good standardized tests. He must be 6 by now, so he would be eligible for the tests.
It is not uncommon to see gifted children as being difficult, especially for teachers and parents who may lack awareness on typical behavior of gifted children. It is indeed easier to see a child as being difficult and punishing the child than seeing the child as above-average and putting in lots of effort to understand and deal with certain behaviors.
Parents should never only depend on tests to determine childhood giftedness. Instead, if you feel that your child has advanced abilities and the school is not aware or not doing much about it, there are a few things you can do. As what you did, take him out of the preschool. But you need to compensate this time with home schooling, which can be very taxing. Furthermore, if he is a loner, things may get worse for him socially. Or enroll him in another school which may have different activities which you feel your son may benefit from - perhaps one with a curriculum that is not too rigid. There should be space for self-development and free play. You can also allow him to remain in the same school if he is okay with it and keep supplementing him with more challenging work that he enjoys at home. Sometimes, children need to learn that things cannot happen the way the want all the time and they need to prepare for primary school which has even fewer options for children.
At the end of the day, it is parents who will have to decide what is best for their child by observing their child's strengths and weaknesses and giving them the best that the are capable of. Remember, having a gifted child is as long journey on a rough road, but the end is always sweet if parents are willing to give their best in time and effort.
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