Is My Child Gifted?

Yes. The answer is always "yes".

Someone asked me if they should bring their kid for an IQ test. I'm sure, as a parent, most of us sometimes wonder if we have a genius in our hands. The reasons to bring the kid for an IQ test can be many: you want to better engage the kid, know what kind of enrichment to allow, perhaps to even justify setting them back a little in case the results are not what you expect.

I have 5 children, and all of them are radically accelerated: they went to university all before they turned 15. Only one of my five was ever tested. He is twice exceptional: gifted and, at the same time, carrying a disability that runs alongside it. The Ministry of Education needed a number. I didn't really need to understand him, the system did, so that they could justify where to put him. (And they made me pay for it.)

He scored 153 on the WISC-IV that maxes out at 160. I am not even sure if it is accurate. I was told he is one in a million by some, and one in 10,000 by others. The number told them what to do. It told me nothing I did not already know.

He was tested again when he went to high school. By then he was so frightened he hid in the toilet while his friends were throwing cookies at each other in a party. The teachers did not know what was wrong with him. They had his file. They had his score. They had a boy they could not find. He just came back gifted. Same IQ number, and the same child. Nothing in the report helped me to help him.

So when a parent asks me whether they should test, I ask what they plan to do differently once they have the result, because every parent should already know that their child is gifted and brilliant in a special way that no psychologist can tell you. In fact, the psychologist has to interview the parent in order to write a proper report. Unfortunately, most of the time, the number comes back lower than they hope, and this is not good. They adjust. Quietly, and downwards. They stop offering the harder questions, more meaningful activities in case their kid cannot cope. They stop expecting the difficult conversation. The child notices, because children always notice, and they grow into the smaller room you built for them.

We parents don't have that many years with our kids, only those few years where your child believes what you tell them about who they are. That is the whole window. If you let it close, then it does not reopen. Ever.

My answer to whether you should bring your child to any IQ test: Why do you need to ask? You already know they are. Why change the way you bring them up? No matter what the world says, just raise them gifted anyway.