Do parents and kids typically have about the same IQs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, scoring high on the IQ test only means you know how to take the test.
Same for other exams, like the GRE, or SAT.
In a significant measure, it is a learned skill.

I was tested in the 130s, once at 156, and got a perfect score on my verbal GRE.

Did it make me very "successful"? Not particularly.

The only thing you can do is train yourself and your kids to think happy!

This just misses the point entirely. IQ testing isn't the same as the GRE or the SAT -- you can't prepare for the test and it's designed that way. And no one EVER says it's a predictor of success or happiness or anything else.

Look at it this way -- there are plenty of people with a superior sense of pitch who don't go on to be concert musicians. That doesn't mean it's not interesting to discuss whether perfect pitch is inherited, and how one might go about nurturing a child with this particularly ability.

You could also look at athletic ability -- not all kids are going to be professional athletes and not all professional athletes are going to have happy lives. That doesn't negate their superior athletic ability.

I strenuously disagree that IQ tests cannot be prepared for.
But it is true that I did not directly answer OP's question. To answer it now - IQ scores are not hereditary.
I am a biologist, and specialize in Genetics.
Research shows that genetic information is transmitted from parents to children, but no one has found an "intelligence" gene. Rather, parents probably transmit a specific layout of neural pathways that may predispose their children to learn or perceive the world in the same way that their parents learn or perceive it - therefore increasing the likehood that the children may attain the same reasoning abilities as their parents.
But they may not: we believe today that environmental factors (stability in the home, stress, nutrition, toxins, homework, reading, discussion, etc) play a HUGE role in forming children's minds, because they also shape the neuron connections in the brain, and shape how emotion influences critical thinking.

So intelligent parents probably create an environment more conducive to increasing critical thinking than less intelligent parents, and that is maybe more important than the neural pathways they transmit to their children at birth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP please do not focus on these numbers. IQ tests are a virtually worthless predictor of success or happiness in life. I used to be a teacher and I remember so vividly a student who was charming, adorable, and quick-witted but not high-IQ-smart like her parents, and the parents really struggled with it. They tried to keep it from her but kids are perceptive and she knew that they were hung up on the numbers and you could tell it really hurt her. This is a meaningless metric--I would worry instead about encouraging your children to love learning and persevere in the face of challenges.

I have to disagree, at least in part. It is not a meaningless statistic. I think it is quite meaningful to educators who are able to identify whether children are or are not working up to potential. For example, the child who does not turn in homework or do well on tests but has an outrageous IQ. A teacher can determine from that whether there is a learning issue, a learning style issue, a social problem at home or school and then attempt to address. An IQ on the lower side can provide explanation to why a child is lagging is some areas and nudge a teacher to provide extra support (and not just think a child is being stubborn in not doing the work or is not provided appropriate support at home). A deficit in the spatial relations area of the test provides context to the seemingly shy child just as a lower score on only the processing portion of the test provides additional context that can possibly be supported with OT or other therapies if it is determined to be helpful. And, of course, though rare, you will find the true outlier with the 160+ IQ (on other versions of the test that can norm this high and tease out higher scores) and that can also provide teachers or a school system with a wake-up call to provide or encourage a modified curriculum.

I do agree very much, though, with your statement above that parents should foremost encourage their children to love to learn and to persevere.

I'm not the one you were disagreeing with, but just have to say that most educators and parents can tell this without an IQ test. I personally think most parents in this area test because they want to be able to say "my kid is so smart," bla bla bla

Yes, it may be true that some parents and teachers can tell this without an IQ test but it does help to be armed with the test in order to get the support, extra work, proper placement, services, etc. that a student may need. I've had principals, teachers, OT therapists, tell me this and have been asked for IQ results from people ranging from doctors to the CTY programs. It is one metric of many and shouldn't be dismissed out of hand in the same way it shouldn't be the sole test upon we measure a person.

[Anonymous]

The Duggars and their kids all seem to have less than average IQs. As do the Osbournes and the Hiltons. Mmmm.

[Anonymous]

And so do you, for tuning in and watching them.

[Anonymous]

Hello there, Biologist. Thanks for chiming in, I think what you may be saying, though, is that nobody knows whether or to what extent IQ is inherited and that no specific code/sequence has been identified. That's pretty different from saying that it's not inherited. As far as i know, it's an open question within the genetics community (unless there's something new in the past 2-3 years I'm not aware of). All I know for sure is that I've got my mom's backside the size of Texas, as does my sister, so I'm hoping I have her smarts as well!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kid is at a top Ivy. My husband and I aren't as smart as that...not bad...but not genius level either. Two of my siblings are genius level Mensa members.

Huh. I went to a Top Ivy too, but I'm no genius!

Pretty smart, and hard worker, but not a genius.

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty sure my mom has a higher IQ than I do even though you wouldn't know it to look at us. She has been stuck working her butt off in a physical blue collar job for her whole life and will never be able to reach her academic full potential. Not like there is anything wrong with that but it is a waste of an otherwise sharp and intelligent brain. Thanks to her hard work, I was able to rack up lots of degrees, as well as develop other skills, including communication skills, studying and memorization skills, socialization and charm, and quick thinking - all of which are very helpful in the working world. And, I'd say that I'm moderately intelligent. But, I'll never be as smart as she is naturally.

[Anonymous]

"Our kid is at a top Ivy. My husband and I aren't as smart as that..."

Have you met your kid's top Ivy friends? Smart???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In NurtureShock, the authors have a chapter on intelligence testing. Turns out that none of these tests are reliable until children are about the age of third graders.

Love this book.

Who in the hell cares, anyway?

[Anonymous]

This reminds me of a set of parents I know who are DYING for their child to be popular. Always to the child's detriment, sadly. If parents would learn to back off, it would make a huge difference in favor of the children. What can be most important is the parents exercising some restraint and common sense, both of which I rarely see. I really do feel bad for the children whose parents are not more hands off, trying to compensate for (the parents) too obvious shortcomings.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, there is not enough emphasis on living a full, happy, productive (in no particular order) life. The D.C. area parent needs to have lists, scores or pie charts to be satisfied. No matter how slanted. They would often be better served emphasizing emotional intelligence, but lack the wisdom to know this very important fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
This just misses the point entirely. IQ testing isn't the same as the GRE or the SAT -- you can't prepare for the test and it's designed that way. And no one EVER says it's a predictor of success or happiness or anything else.

Look at it this way -- there are plenty of people with a superior sense of pitch who don't go on to be concert musicians. That doesn't mean it's not interesting to discuss whether perfect pitch is inherited, and how one might go about nurturing a child with this particularly ability.

You could also look at athletic ability -- not all kids are going to be professional athletes and not all professional athletes are going to have happy lives. That doesn't negate their superior athletic ability.

This. It is innate intelligence, which is different from testing well. A guy I know tested at genius level IQ but did poorly on standardized tests like the SAT. And no, he was not a slacker; hard worker at an academically rigorous high school.

[Anonymous]

If I asked a question about having perfect pitch ( such as, how early can I tell if my child has perfect piutch) do you think 5 posters would come on to tell me that it doesn't matter if a kid has perfect piitch, all that matters is that she's happy, people worry too much about being perfect, what does "perfect" really mean anyhow, and BTW did you read that book "Nurtuire shock" which says all those tests of perfect pitch are bogus anyhow?

Probably not. Just for IQ the parents do all that.