I don't know my child's IQ - am I a bad parent?

[Anonymous]

I don't know where you get the idea that 135 and over is it -- look at WISC IV scoring and you will see that the highest score is 160.


I have to say, I have one kid who's in high 130's and one who's in low 150's per the WISC score and they have completely different ways of looking at problems, approaching things, etc. They are both smart and wonderful kids but the one with the 150-range score is so different -- sometimes he seems like he's on a different planet!

But 12:20's post shows something really interesting: she's assuming her friends have a higher IQ and therefore are in the 140/150 range. Likely they aren't.

[Anonymous]

That test is bullshit. Go consult with anyone who works at the most prestigious firm of psychologists who specialize in intelligence testing in this city and they will tell you as much.

[Anonymous]

Supplemented to add: The highest score may be 160 -- meaning someone, somewhere, has decided that 160 is as high as it gets for us mere mortals. But if you're saying that there is a test that claims to be able to accurately measure an IQ at 160 -- or anything over 135 -- that test is nonsense. It's 135 or above, and that's it. Some teacher or group of teachers may, over the course of observing your child over time, decide that your child is in the "or above" group. But saying "my IQ is 140" or "my IQ 150" is about the same as looking in the mirror and saying, "I'm so pretty!"

[Anonymous]

You do not have a kid in the low 150's. Someone may have told you that, but the experts in this town will tell you it's bunk. You have a kid whose been judged to have an IQ over 135.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does an adult go about testing their IQ? As a child I was tested and scored reasonably high, but nowdays, I really can't imagine being that much above average. Could my IQ have lowered? And no, this is not a fake post. I'm seriously curious.

You can take an IQ test through Mensa: http://www.us.mensa.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home , which is what I did. They did not provide me with my score, however I qualified and as a member I get a nice Geico discount. So you can find out if you are over/under 130 (or whatever the cut-off, I can't remember).

you only want to take an IQ test once.

I completely understand the poster who thinks her IQ is lower now than as a child. I feel the same way and would not take a test now if you paid me!

You score your best on an IQ test as a child. Duh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Sorry to burst your bubble, but any qualified psychologist who conducts intelligence testing will tell you that it is not possible to measure, with any certainty, an IQ higher than 135 "or above". So all those who claim a 145, 150, or 160 IQ are either liars or victims of bad intelligence testers. 135 and up is it.

Can you cite that?

Go consult with the firm of psychologists most well-known for conducting intelligence tests on children in this city. I trust them much more than some test given over the internet, or what your parents or teachers told you 25 years ago, or what someone else told you yesterday. It just gets to difficult to accurately measure anything over 135. They can say that it's above 135, but that's pretty much it.

[Anonymous]

hi which experts are you talking about, who say scores of 150+ are "bullshit"?

There are a lot of them that don't say that.

You seem to feel so strongly about it -- are you the parent of a kid with in IQ of 135, perchance?

[Anonymous]

All this talk about whose IQ is what and how my kid really does, too, have an IQ of 145 or whatever is obsuring the very important point that 11:09 made. Sometimes a very high IQ can be a burden to a child in learning work habits before it is too late. I could have written 11:09's story word-for-word. Sometimes it's a wonder to me how I managed to succeed at all given my pathetic study habits. I've learned some work habits as an adult, but not the ones some of my very successful colleagues in grad school had - they were machines.

My kids attend private school in part because I want them to learn good work habits. Their WPPSI scores are in the mid-90s percentile. I would call them bright, not genuises, but I don't care about the label or the number. What I care about far more is that they learn to love school and learning and that they develop good work habits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:... isn't so terrific when they actually report the score, though.

You think? I don't mind. I actually do see a difference between the kid who has an above average IQ test score of say 125, and once who is up around 145 -- or higher! There is a big difference in the way the two kids think and learn, and it helps me picture the intellectual situation for lack of a better way to describe it. Same thing if parents are talking about their children with mental handicaps/retardation but one has a child with an IQ score of 75 and the other, 55.

So, according to what you stated above, if you had two kids with very different IQs, you'd treat them differently - one as the dumb bunny, the other as the king/queen of gifted and talented?

You know, I didn't say anything at all like that. I think you are assuming an awful lot, as if you have some kind of chip on your shoulder.

The conversation on this thread was along the lines of this: Someone posted saying that parents shared their kids IQ scores just to brag. I said, I don't think so. I find the posting of IQ scores when a parent is describing their child to be a useful piece of descriptive information. Especially if the discussion is in the context of having something to do with schools and academics or behavior with other kids, etc. If a parent is talking about their child's weight gain or somehtng and mentiones, "oh, yeah the child has an IQ of... whatever" that would be a little ridiculous. But honestly I havent seen anything of the sort mentioned like that.

So anyhopw, yeah, I do see a difference between kids with an IQ measured at 125 and kids with and IQ measured at 145. Does that mean I'd treat one like a dumb bunny and one like the queen of the gifted? No. I don't know why you would think I was saying anything like that. But if a parent was talking about possibly redshorting a child with an August 30th birthday and one had an IQ of 125 and the other an IQ of 140, that would be a useful piece of information that might inform my advice (for what ever someone thought my advice was worth).

[Anonymous]

It is true that IQs are harder to measure over 125, particularly is someone has a very high score in one subtest and a much lower one in another. And it's possible to top out on one or more subtests, which would make the score not as accurate. There is a way of evaluating such scores, called GAI, which tries to make up for some of these problems.

That said, there IS a difference in the scores. If you have one person who gets all but three or four questions right in a particular subtest, that's very different from someone who gets every one right and, in fact, could keep on going were there more questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
School work was always very easy for me, I scored high on any standardized test, and could gets As without doing much work. I could crack a book cold and write a 4 page paper in under an hour. I am no rocket science. Once I got into the upper level under grad and grad courses where academic work required more than just knowing the answers and doing actual work my grades slipped. I had never developed good work habits and this really took my by surprise.

This was the primary reason I wanted to be sure my chid was in our school district's TAG school surrounded by other children as smart or smarter than my child. Iffelt as if my child could easily just coast through elementary school, unless surrounded by a peer group. So afr it has been working -- the first Ds were a big shock, but made my child realise that it wasn't enough to be a fast learner -- one also had to develop work habits and study skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:hi which experts are you talking about, who say scores of 150+ are "bullshit"?

There are a lot of them that don't say that.

You seem to feel so strongly about it -- are you the parent of a kid with in IQ of 135, perchance?

No. Are you an assh^le, perchance? If you don't know the name of the firm most well-known for accurately testing the IQ of children in this small town, you are not putting your high IQ to very good use.

Sure, there are a lot "experts" out there who will take your money and tell you just about anything to make you happy, but the honest ones with the great reputations will not. And they don't. And they told me that they don't. Not with respect to either of my children, who have never been tested, but in the course of an in-depth conversation I had about the nature of IQ testing in general with the name partner of that firm.

Who also said that although they will test children younger than 5 at the behest of the private schools, they are very constrained as to what they can measure. You want an accurate score? Bring your child back when he or she is 7 or 8.

Nuff said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is true that IQs are harder to measure over 125, particularly is someone has a very high score in one subtest and a much lower one in another. And it's possible to top out on one or more subtests, which would make the score not as accurate. There is a way of evaluating such scores, called GAI, which tries to make up for some of these problems.

That said, there IS a difference in the scores. If you have one person who gets all but three or four questions right in a particular subtest, that's very different from someone who gets every one right and, in fact, could keep on going were there more questions.

Over 135. Not 125.

[Anonymous]

Well, much as I'd like to believe some anonymous person on the internet who states categorically, "There's no such thing as an IQ score of 150, ask anyone reputable in the city and they will tell you" -- experience has showed me that it is better to believe references and citations. Cite it, and I'll consider your statement. Otherwise, it's a little hard to evaluate the source of your information. Jes' sayin'...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:hi which experts are you talking about, who say scores of 150+ are "bullshit"?

There are a lot of them that don't say that.

You seem to feel so strongly about it -- are you the parent of a kid with in IQ of 135, perchance?

No. Are you an assh^le, perchance? If you don't know the name of the firm most well-known for accurately testing the IQ of children in this small town, you are not putting your high IQ to very good use.
Sure, there are a lot "experts" out there who will take your money and tell you just about anything to make you happy, but the honest ones with the great reputations will not. And they don't. And they told me that they don't. Not with respect to either of my children, who have never been tested, but in the course of an in-depth conversation I had about the nature of IQ testing in general with the name partner of that firm.

Who also said that although they will test children younger than 5 at the behest of the private schools, they are very constrained as to what they can measure. You want an accurate score? Bring your child back when he or she is 7 or 8.

Nuff said.

This has nothing to do with a high IQ. Why don't you stop beating around the bush and just post the name of the firm?