Where do I buy a copy of the WPPSI-III?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

SAM2 wrote:I think it's a great idea and should be very interesting. If it were me, I'd go back to the same tester and make it clear to her you're just doing this to learn as much about your child as possible and see how he's doing. She can best guide you on the most appropriate timing for the tests and any other considerations.

I seem to remember someone else posting a similar plan on DCUM a year or two ago. I don't recall how it turned out. You might check the archives to see if you can find her post, since it might include some good ideas.

I think testing your child every year to get an IQ measure on them is unhealthy. I assume that OP has a son or daughter and not a science experiment and there are equally good ways to "find out how he is doing" , such as: play with him, read to/with him, take him on walks in the woods and see how curious he is, have anothe rchild over and see how kind and generous he is or NOT. This , BTW, is all free . It is called parenting. The WIPPSI is a necessary evil because ....

To give you an analogy that perhaps you can relate to: how would you feel SAM2 if your spouse ran your earnings over the last year by a forensic accountant to see if you were earning to your potential based on your IQ , your degree and your work experience and she wanted you to go for this testing yearly, just to be sure that you were "developing appropriately" and "reaching your potentai" . Would that feel like being loved, to you?

Sorry I did not respond earlier; I've been too busy spending time with my family yesterday ... playing out in the rain, making up games indoors, and reading books. PP, you don't know me or my motivations, so I don't think you're qualified to judge me (or the OP).

Like anything else, the WPPSI is a tool. You can use it effectively or ineffectively. It has limited you need to be aware of. You should have other tools in your bag too. But to throw it out because of some bias about what other people do with it ... that is silly. The way OP describes her situation, she wants to use the WPPSI like a camera, to get a snapshot of what her child's brain function looks like at age 4. I still think that's a great idea if you can afford it.

Your analogy about my partner testing my earning potential with a forensic accountant doesn't really match what OP described, especially since OP indicated she's not concerned about benchmarks. But nevertheless, assuming my partner had no ugly hidden agenda, I actually think that would be sort of cool. What would be more interesting (to me at least) would be my partner signing me up for other diagnostics, like a MRI, or a sports aptitude test, or some other personality test. In fact, as I'm writing this, I'm recalling some discussion we had many years ago, where we daydreamed about going together to get professional personality tests. Ahh, young love ....

Anyway, I trust OP has figured out what she wants to do.

Sam2

[Anonymous]

Having your child retake the WPSIII strikes me as very odd for someone who went to the trouble to have child attend a private school given that avoiding public school emphasis on standardized testing is often one important reason people give for going private in the first place!!

I certainly understand being curious about how child would do a year or so later, but I agree with those posters who say there are far better ways to judge how your child is progressing. Feedback from your child's teachers, for example, would be a much better indicator of what your child's potential may be compared with other bright children and whether your child appears to be working up to that potential.

The WPPSI and other standardized tests given to young children are indeed a necessary evil of the private school entrance process ... I cannot imagine seeking to revisit such a yardstick voluntarily. I mean this respectfully when I say that you might want to very seriously reconsider your true inner motivations for wishing to analyze your child's "progress" ... it really does seem unhealthy.

[Anonymous]

Having your child retake the WPSIII strikes me as very odd for someone who went to the trouble to have child attend a private school given that avoiding public school emphasis on standardized testing is often one important reason people give for going private in the first place!!

I certainly understand being curious about how child would do a year or so later, but I agree with those posters who say there are far better ways to judge how your child is progressing. Feedback from your child's teachers, for example, would be a much better indicator of what your child's potential may be compared with other bright children and whether your child appears to be working up to that potential.

The WPPSI and other standardized tests given to young children are indeed a necessary evil of the private school entrance process ... I cannot imagine seeking to revisit such a yardstick voluntarily. I mean this respectfully when I say that you might want to very seriously reconsider your true inner motivations for wishing to analyze your child's "progress" ... it really does seem unhealthy.

Doctor,

Please tell me what's unhealthy about taking WPSSI over again, or any other examination or test? I have probably taking well over 1000 examinations (standardized and non standardized) from elementary school through graduate school. For some I even stayed up all night to study for with caffeine support. At the end of the day, I'm not sure what was unhealthy about this. I also played tons of sports, matches, competitions and finals and I would not say that was unhealthy either. I don't know many 3 to 6 year olds spending their nights drinking coffee and studying for the WPSSI so I am unclear what ill health effects they would get because they took a WPSSI test several times?

Help me out, what's unique about the WPSSI as a standardised test/exercise or game that makes taking it more than once or 20 times unhealthy? Children and young adults repeat many standardized and unstandardized mental, academic, intellectual tests, exercises or games. What's unhealthy about this? How do you measure or define this? Is this the same as watching our kids play the same video game over and over and over for hours and every day? The latter activity may come with long term adverse effects on children. Let me warn you there are private school parents with medical backgrounds reading this board.

[Anonymous]

I was not suggesting that retaking the WPSSI was unhealthy for the child being tested ... rather, I was suggesting that doing so might suggest an unhealthy obsession on the part of the parent in being so interested in seeing if such a score was "improving" or not. As others have noted, there are other and more effective ways to determine whether one's child is making good progress (however you choose to define that) in relation to his/her potential.

Thank you for your warning on the presence of posters with medical backgrounds ... I was almost too frightened to clarify my opinion. <snort>

[Anonymous]

No problem. Well you are entitled to your view of a parent following the progress of their child with annual assessments (e.g., WPSSI or whatever the test maybe). I don't know the poster, but I do know several families who do this, some homeschoolers, because they simply don't trust the schools systems entirely. Some have had kids are in schools getting grade inflated As and then hit middle school (or when to rubber meets the road) to find out the straight As were a false security hidding gaps and poor teaching and preparation. More parents should get more involved in their children's education and not assume (particularly in elementary school) that because their child is in Big 3 with Big 3 teachers and has great evalautions and grades that their children are de facto getting educated at a reasonable pace. I think it's a great idea to chart progress. If schools can attempt to do so with annual ERBs to assess whether their teachers are educating their pupils why shouldn't parents have their own system of annual tests to assess whether the school and teachers are educating their children. In this day and age of poorly performing schools and American children to outside and global standards I, too, am curious whether my children are falling behind the facade or charade of straight As. A little quality control and assessment may be needed and I would not wait for the school or teacher to tell me for it may be too late and my child behind the proverbial 8 ball playing catch up.

[Anonymous]

Taking IQ tests to frequently affects the score and invalidates them b/c kids get too familiar with the test. This is the reason why you do not test young kids more than once a year.

[Anonymous]

Taking IQ tests to frequently affects the score and invalidates them b/c kids get too familiar with the test. This is the reason why you do not test young kids more than once a year.

That's not the reason some parents repeat them...or any other test. How many times do some children take the SAT, SSAT, ERB, ACT, Explore tests? Are all those scores invalidated? In many instances the tests are not used for validation or admission to any school. However, serial retests can give a parent a trend in a child's improvement (learning effect) until a child hits the high ceiling and needs a more challenging and difficult test. I have zero interest in validation of one point in time. As a parent I'm more interested in the trends in the score. You have misunderstood why some parents may take a test on a periodic (annual) basis like the WPSSI, SSAT, Explore, SAT, ERB, ACT observe the trends with time until the ceiling effect then advance to a harder and more challenging test repeating the sequence. I have a few beautiful linear curves with time until a child hits the high ceiling then repeats this with a more difficult exam. It's very similar to training in athletics (e.g. swimmers and runners). The linear curves are remarkably similar. The mind and muscle respond in similar ways for all who object.

[Anonymous]

...similar with training on a musical instrument.

[Anonymous]

So you're saying that if I time myself once per year on a one-mile course, my times will improve annually through that simple repetition?

That makes no sense and is clearly false. With most endeavors, it's not taking the test (or running the race) repeatedly that improves your performance -- it's the training you do in between that matters.

[Anonymous]

The WPPSI is not an achievement test. It can't be used to track your child's progress, thats not the point or design. Thats what grades are for. The analogy to athletic performance makes no sense either. Sure, you can train and train and take the test over and over again and your child's scores will improve. Is that what you want? And the point is what? Do you have a more intelligent child?

Perhaps the point is to compare your child's scores with others, and if you retake you can say "look my child is now X%." I stand by my earlier post that this is unhealthy. And though you have tried to spook us with the specter of medical doctors coming on board, I think any professional who deals with child development would say you are off your nuts.

[Anonymous]

A glimpse of comprehension. Yes, annual tests like WPSSI, ERB, SAT, ACT, Explore do permit parents to follow trends in intellectual and academic improvement in their children. I would not recommend running a mile once a year for a old geaser like you. You'll die of an acute myocardial infarction.

[Anonymous]

You're not nearly as clever as you think, and you're a jackass to boot.

Also, I ran 9 miles this morning. Want to race?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're not nearly as clever as you think, and you're a jackass to boot.

Also, I ran 9 miles this morning. Want to race?

8:21/15:30 has derailed several threads in the past few weeks with her theory that mind and muscle are the same, and that "training" for the IQ test actually means your kid is smarter. No, it means your kid learned to do the specific tasks that are on the IQ test, like repeating a sequence of numbers backwards.

Really, you don't want to get into a tangle with her, and the rest of us don't watch. You've got her number in your first sentence, and that's all you need to know.

[Anonymous]

You're not nearly as clever as you think, and you're a jackass to boot.

Also, I ran 9 miles this morning. Want to race?



11/05/2011 17:23 Subject: Where do I buy a copy of the WPPSI-III?
Anonymous



Anonymous wrote:
You're not nearly as clever as you think, and you're a jackass to boot.

Also, I ran 9 miles this morning. Want to race?

8:21/15:30 has derailed several threads in the past few weeks with her theory that mind and muscle are the same, and that "training" for the IQ test actually means your kid is smarter. No, it means your kid learned to do the specific tasks that are on the IQ test, like repeating a sequence of numbers backwards.

Really, you don't want to get into a tangle with her, and the rest of us don't watch. You've got her number in your first sentence, and that's all you need to know.

Great job. Keep the insults coming. You're doing a great job as usual.

[Anonymous]

You're not nearly as clever as you think, and you're a jackass to boot.

Also, I ran 9 miles this morning. Want to race?

Excellent points. Keep it up poster.