IQ Test Results

My seven year old son was administered an IQ test last week. We got the results back yesterday an have an appointment to talk about them tomorrow. I’m kind of ticked off because I’m pretty sure they didn’t administer the test properly.

The test was broken into four sections and his scores in the four areas were as follows; 92 percentile, 79, 7 & 2 percentile. He’s never had any head trauma nor does he have any chromosomal disorders. I look at these results and I see a kid who clearly quit the test. Yet, from what I understand, they already have plans to have him work with biofeedback tools to get him to better utilize certain parts of his brain.

I think they should be more interested in retesting the low sections to at least confirm that he didn’t get burned out. After all, the test took around two hours with only short breaks between each section. I realize I may just be too stubborn to believe my son has some severe intellectual deficiencies, but I also think it’s legitimate to be suspicious of such discrepancies. What the heck do you guys think?

IQ tests are not even very reflective of mental deficiencies.

They were designed to diagnose children who would need assisted learning.

But in the end it is still simply asking questions.

They dont indicate your son is not intelligent, it does indicate what it was supposed to indicate.

That your son will likely struggle with the standard schooling process involving standardized testing.

At your son’s age, anything over 30 mins is going to cause his mind to wander. Those intelligence tests are overrated. I generally did well on them, and was often in the top percentiles, but I didn’t apply myself in school, and am behind a lot of “less smart” classmates. There are many people of average intelligence whose work ethic will carry them far beyond those lazy persons with high IQs. My advice: Teach your son a work ethic, don’t worry overly much about the scores (which sound like you said; he got bored), and tell those busybody test-people to back the F off!

How do you IQ test someone who’s brain is still developing. Since brains do not develope the same way in any two individuals. I am very interested in child psychology, this is a waste of time.

If you go to the interview. I would suggest you question the validity of the test. Who designed it and who sponsored it. As well as the reason for administrating it in the first place.

The retards that give these tests have zero idea what they are doing. Very few parents will understand the insignificance of these tests. Many however will start to treat their childern differently and this is not a good thing.

[quote]streamline wrote:
How do you IQ test someone who’s brain is still developing. Since brains do not develope the same way in any two individuals. I am very interested in child psychology, this is a waste of time.

If you go to the interview. I would suggest you question the validity of the test. Who designed it and who sponsored it. As well as the reason for administrating it in the first place.

The retards that give these tests have zero idea what they are doing. Very few parents will understand the insignificance of these tests. Many however will start to treat their childern differently and this is not a good thing.

[/quote]

you expect him to walk in and question the validity of the test…by what means? he doesnt know a thing about these tests. im sure these “retards” who desgined it know a bit more about it than he or you do.

My older brother would have 40 point fluctuations on IQ tests depending on his breakfast.

[quote]LiveFromThe781 wrote:
streamline wrote:
How do you IQ test someone who’s brain is still developing. Since brains do not develope the same way in any two individuals. I am very interested in child psychology, this is a waste of time.

If you go to the interview. I would suggest you question the validity of the test. Who designed it and who sponsored it. As well as the reason for administrating it in the first place.

The retards that give these tests have zero idea what they are doing. Very few parents will understand the insignificance of these tests. Many however will start to treat their childern differently and this is not a good thing.

you expect to walk in and question the validity of the test…by what means? he doesnt know a thing about these tests. im sure these “retards” who desgined it know a bit more about it than he or you do.
[/quote]

You do understand that the brain is continuously developing in major areas until around eighteen years of age. Then continues to grow at a much slower rate the rest of your life.

NO! those retards do not know what they are doing. What could possibly be the point of IQ testing someone with an undeveloped brain.

Point of interest. If you think people in positions authority have the answers or always know what they’re doing. You’re in huge trouble.

[quote]streamline wrote:
LiveFromThe781 wrote:
streamline wrote:
How do you IQ test someone who’s brain is still developing. Since brains do not develope the same way in any two individuals. I am very interested in child psychology, this is a waste of time.

If you go to the interview. I would suggest you question the validity of the test. Who designed it and who sponsored it. As well as the reason for administrating it in the first place.

The retards that give these tests have zero idea what they are doing. Very few parents will understand the insignificance of these tests. Many however will start to treat their childern differently and this is not a good thing.

you expect to walk in and question the validity of the test…by what means? he doesnt know a thing about these tests. im sure these “retards” who desgined it know a bit more about it than he or you do.

You do understand that the brain is continuously developing in major areas until around eighteen years of age. Then continues to grow at a much slower rate the rest of your life.

NO! those retards do not know what they are doing. What could possibly be the point of IQ testing someone with an undeveloped brain.

Point of interest. If you think people in positions authority have the answers or always know what they’re doing. You’re in huge trouble.[/quote]

The problem here is that you’re assuming that the people who administer these tests interpret the results the same way that people talk about them casually. If the person knows that they are doing, this is not the case.

There is no such thing as “IQ.” It’s a made up construct. What an “IQ” will tell you is how one person’s scores compare to a comparison group (a normed sample from the population that was used after test development).

So if someone scores a 115 on a test, all that says is that person did better than most (better than a certain percentage). It would be incorrect to make any concrete judgments about a person’s intelligence.

[quote]LiveFromThe781 wrote:
streamline wrote:
How do you IQ test someone who’s brain is still developing. Since brains do not develope the same way in any two individuals. I am very interested in child psychology, this is a waste of time.

If you go to the interview. I would suggest you question the validity of the test. Who designed it and who sponsored it. As well as the reason for administrating it in the first place.

The retards that give these tests have zero idea what they are doing. Very few parents will understand the insignificance of these tests. Many however will start to treat their childern differently and this is not a good thing.

you expect him to walk in and question the validity of the test…by what means? he doesnt know a thing about these tests. im sure these “retards” who desgined it know a bit more about it than he or you do. [/quote]

Absolutely I’m going to question the validity of it, or at least the way it was administered. When they see a huge drop off from one section to another, especially with a young child whose attention span may be short, they should stop the test and resume later. Stopping the test was an option. I know it was because the woman administering it said “we’ll see if we can get through it in one session”.

Also, I’m not certain, but my impression is the first section was the 92 and each section got lower. That may be just a coincidence but it looks like diminishing interest to me.

[quote]on edge wrote:
LiveFromThe781 wrote:
streamline wrote:
How do you IQ test someone who’s brain is still developing. Since brains do not develope the same way in any two individuals. I am very interested in child psychology, this is a waste of time.

If you go to the interview. I would suggest you question the validity of the test. Who designed it and who sponsored it. As well as the reason for administrating it in the first place.

The retards that give these tests have zero idea what they are doing. Very few parents will understand the insignificance of these tests. Many however will start to treat their childern differently and this is not a good thing.

you expect him to walk in and question the validity of the test…by what means? he doesnt know a thing about these tests. im sure these “retards” who desgined it know a bit more about it than he or you do.

Absolutely I’m going to question the validity of it, or at least the way it was administered. When they see a huge drop off from one section to another, especially with a young child whose attention span may be short, they should stop the test and resume later. Stopping the test was an option. I know it was because the woman administering it said “we’ll see if we can get through it in one session”.

Also, I’m not certain, but my impression is the first section was the 92 and each section got lower. That may be just a coincidence but it looks like diminishing interest to me.[/quote]

Do you know the name of the test they administered?

From the spread you posted it sounds like your theory is pretty reasonable. Some of the biofeedback stuff is geared towards improving the ability to sustain attention and if your theory is right then this might be appropriate. I say might because I don’t know how strong the evidence is for efficacy here.

I’ve gotta ask though, what were the areas corresponding to those scores? I’ve known enough people who were brilliant, say, mathematically, but borderline retarded when it came to writing ability. There are also people who have the reverse issue. It is worth investigating this to figure out if it’s a false alarm or not. The brain at that age is quite malleable and if there is an underlying issue then it would pay over the long run to work on it early.

[quote]on edge wrote:
LiveFromThe781 wrote:
streamline wrote:
How do you IQ test someone who’s brain is still developing. Since brains do not develope the same way in any two individuals. I am very interested in child psychology, this is a waste of time.

If you go to the interview. I would suggest you question the validity of the test. Who designed it and who sponsored it. As well as the reason for administrating it in the first place.

The retards that give these tests have zero idea what they are doing. Very few parents will understand the insignificance of these tests. Many however will start to treat their childern differently and this is not a good thing.

you expect him to walk in and question the validity of the test…by what means? he doesnt know a thing about these tests. im sure these “retards” who desgined it know a bit more about it than he or you do.

Absolutely I’m going to question the validity of it, or at least the way it was administered. When they see a huge drop off from one section to another, especially with a young child whose attention span may be short, they should stop the test and resume later. Stopping the test was an option. I know it was because the woman administering it said “we’ll see if we can get through it in one session”.

Also, I’m not certain, but my impression is the first section was the 92 and each section got lower. That may be just a coincidence but it looks like diminishing interest to me.[/quote]

and what are you going to make of what they tell you? do you have a background in childhood development, psychology, or medicine? if you dont think your kid is the level of intelligence the test says he is you dont have to believe it. so long as he makes good grades i dont see what difference it makes either way. im just saying you may bite off a little more than you can chew trying to argue with these people.

i understand everyone thinks that since they know more than the average personal trainer they should question every single method out there but the people who develop these tests didnt do a 2 week course, they probaly went to school for 10 years.

[quote]mrw173 wrote:
on edge wrote:
LiveFromThe781 wrote:
streamline wrote:
How do you IQ test someone who’s brain is still developing. Since brains do not develope the same way in any two individuals. I am very interested in child psychology, this is a waste of time.

If you go to the interview. I would suggest you question the validity of the test. Who designed it and who sponsored it. As well as the reason for administrating it in the first place.

The retards that give these tests have zero idea what they are doing. Very few parents will understand the insignificance of these tests. Many however will start to treat their childern differently and this is not a good thing.

you expect him to walk in and question the validity of the test…by what means? he doesnt know a thing about these tests. im sure these “retards” who desgined it know a bit more about it than he or you do.

Absolutely I’m going to question the validity of it, or at least the way it was administered. When they see a huge drop off from one section to another, especially with a young child whose attention span may be short, they should stop the test and resume later. Stopping the test was an option. I know it was because the woman administering it said “we’ll see if we can get through it in one session”.

Also, I’m not certain, but my impression is the first section was the 92 and each section got lower. That may be just a coincidence but it looks like diminishing interest to me.

Do you know the name of the test they administered?[/quote]

Wechsler Intellegence Scale for Children

I’m just curious, why did you have your son take an IQ test at 7 years old?

I was under the assumption IQ tests were for adults.

[quote]on edge wrote:
mrw173 wrote:
on edge wrote:
LiveFromThe781 wrote:
streamline wrote:
How do you IQ test someone who’s brain is still developing. Since brains do not develope the same way in any two individuals. I am very interested in child psychology, this is a waste of time.

If you go to the interview. I would suggest you question the validity of the test. Who designed it and who sponsored it. As well as the reason for administrating it in the first place.

The retards that give these tests have zero idea what they are doing. Very few parents will understand the insignificance of these tests. Many however will start to treat their childern differently and this is not a good thing.

you expect him to walk in and question the validity of the test…by what means? he doesnt know a thing about these tests. im sure these “retards” who desgined it know a bit more about it than he or you do.

Absolutely I’m going to question the validity of it, or at least the way it was administered. When they see a huge drop off from one section to another, especially with a young child whose attention span may be short, they should stop the test and resume later. Stopping the test was an option. I know it was because the woman administering it said “we’ll see if we can get through it in one session”.

Also, I’m not certain, but my impression is the first section was the 92 and each section got lower. That may be just a coincidence but it looks like diminishing interest to me.

Do you know the name of the test they administered?

Wechsler Intellegence Scale for Children[/quote]

Okay, well I can tell you that it’s generally a valid test. What may be invalid is administration of the test or interpretation of test results.

Someone who is well-trained and knows what they’re doing would be well-aware of the possible alternate explanations that you’ve mentioned (losing interest in the test, fatigue, lack of attention, etc.). The problem is that a score is a score, and any interpretation of why someone obtained a score gets very subjective. Like I said, all one can say is what score someone obtained, which represents how they did to the general population of others the same age.

I’d also be interested in hearing, as someone else suggested, if there’s a pattern of strengths/weaknesses on the test that make sense, like a strength with verbal information and memory but weakness in perceptual reasoning and processing speed. Scores that discrepant are very rare, but who knows.

Did you go to a reputable place to get this done? Was it done at school? There are so many unqualified people out there doing this stuff. I’d also second the concern about how much evidence there is out there about biofeedback. Learning and school stuff is not my specialty, but in my field, biofeedback is generally regarded as a joke. I don’t know if it differs in other areas, though.

You are right to question the test and to ask all the questions that you have. The sharp drop in the scores should be explained to you. They should take a bit of time to explain everything to you.

If they haven’t bothered to explain these discrepancies to you, then they should. If the tests were administered correctly or not, these things should still be explained to you.

Good luck.

[quote]Kreal7 wrote:
I’m just curious, why did you have your son take an IQ test at 7 years old?

I was under the assumption IQ tests were for adults.[/quote]

you are thinking of cigarettes, alcohol and strip clubs.

how about don’t let the mental health people touch your kids in the first place

next thing you know they’ll be saying he has “ADHD” or some fucking bullshit diagnosis and demand that you to put him on Ritalin or some other kind of psychiatric prescription crack

[quote]belligerent wrote:
how about don’t let the mental health people touch your kids in the first place[/quote]

X2