First you need to read the book Nutureshock. Then you need to understand that 131 is not that big of a deal. Hell, my IQ of 142 is not a big deal and I would say my life is pretty mediocre, at least by WDC standards. Now the 166, of another family member, well that is more unusual but that individual has very poor social skills and hasn't really done that well in life/not a terribly happy person. IQ in and of its self is pretty useless, OP.

Anonymous wrote:Hahahahaha!! I'm laughing AT YOU because my brother has genius level IQ, was studied when he was in highschool because he score off the charts.. Never graduated highschool and works as a doorman. I was the one with the 'average IQ' who went on to get a Masters. Your little genius may just turn out to be average, and that's okay.

And, you don't have a genius on your hands. BTW

You might want to consider whether your brother was given what he needed when he was in school. It is not uncommon to hear of gifted youngsters losing interest and tuning out of life because they are not in an environment that 1) allows them to feed their curiousity and 2) that teaches them how to get through challenging situations/problems (because many of these kids are just not faced with anything challenging at young ages and they don't learn thosee skills.

It is also not uncommon to hear of families with 2 kids - where one has early success b/c they are brighter, the other has success because they "work hard" and it turns out that the one who learned to "work hard" is eventually more ambitious and successful. The tricky part for these parents is to somehow find the environment and stimulation for the bright child to have to face challenges that inspire them to work hard. If everything comes easy and you have nothing to strive for - it is easy to become complacent.

I 100% agree that you should not focus on "giftedness" with the child themselves, but that doesn't mean there is no need for a parent to find the right environment for that child to learn not only academic and social skills - but learn how to face the mental and social challenges that everyone will face in life.

I may be wrong here - but the saddest part of this post is that it seems like you look down on him.

I have a high scoring child on WPPSI-was I surprised initially no because I thought she seemed on track. What did surprise me was the fact that many of her playmates did not score high. This surprised me and has made me question the test because they all seem just fine. To your question about stimulation--I do think this applies to all and it is just to continue expose your child to educational opportunties. The only thing that does stick out in my mind regarding my dd is that she questions maybe more than some..it's a little annoying actually. She doesn't just accept a reason, it has to make sense to her and she will question until she is satisified she has gotten all of the info out of me and I can't bs her. The psychologist told me on a follow up that this can affect "gifted" kids more and is something to watch out for because it is annoying so she has to find ways to satisfy her curiosity in a group setting. I have never had a teacher complain but I have picked up on this. So maybe the round about answer is that if you notice this, this is a behavior to work on so your child doesn't annoy teachers/friends as life goes on and isn't impacted socially.

Could the "ignore the troll" poster be ... the only troll here today? Oh, the irony!

[quote=Anonymous]I'm confused. I don't see a single "troll" comment in this entire thread. No back handed compliments or bitch slaps to be found, so why the "ignore the troll" comment ?[/quote]

I agree. Actually, it seems as if "ignore the troll" comments pop up all over this site. Guess I'm not that skeptical about people!

I'm confused. I don't see a single "troll" comment in this entire thread. No back handed compliments or bitch slaps to be found, so why the "ignore the troll" comment ?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That being said, welcome to Washington: home of the super people ; where an IQ of 131 is a dime a dozen; as in about 40% of the Pre-K applicants with the remainder being all at about 110-120's and a few 140 and up.

Are you a child psychologist who administers this test?

Please share where you obtained this information, it's interesting.

If you google a bit about the ERB you will find some Bell Curves which graph %ile , stanine,raw score and FSIQ all together under one bell curve. Looking at the Independent school norm it shows that the largest cohort in the independent schools scores in a stanine range that correlates with a FSIQ in 120's, the kids who score in the 8th and 9th stanine are in the top 10% of their class and this correlates with 135 FSIQ and higher. The public school norm( bulk of scores) is a full 1-2 standard deviations lower. That doesn't mean public schools don't have bright kids, it just means that in private schools they are more a dime a dozen( more the bulk of the scores). Sorry I don't know the exact site, but it isn't hard to find if you just google: ERB,stanine,percentiles

You can also just feel this should you decide to be the parent reader one morning before you have had your coffee.

Interesting. Thanks for posting this.

Ignore the troll.

Someone got your number, huh?

The ERBs are an achievement test, not strictly an IQ test, so some of the same caveats about the impact of an enriched education or home environment would apply.

The CTP IV (ERBS) are not an achievement test. Some subtests measure achievement, other measure aptitude.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That being said, welcome to Washington: home of the super people ; where an IQ of 131 is a dime a dozen; as in about 40% of the Pre-K applicants with the remainder being all at about 110-120's and a few 140 and up.

Are you a child psychologist who administers this test?

Please share where you obtained this information, it's interesting.

If you google a bit about the ERB you will find some Bell Curves which graph %ile , stanine,raw score and FSIQ all together under one bell curve. Looking at the Independent school norm it shows that the largest cohort in the independent schools scores in a stanine range that correlates with a FSIQ in 120's, the kids who score in the 8th and 9th stanine are in the top 10% of their class and this correlates with 135 FSIQ and higher. The public school norm( bulk of scores) is a full 1-2 standard deviations lower. That doesn't mean public schools don't have bright kids, it just means that in private schools they are more a dime a dozen( more the bulk of the scores). Sorry I don't know the exact site, but it isn't hard to find if you just google: ERB,stanine,percentiles

You can also just feel this should you decide to be the parent reader one morning before you have had your coffee.

Interesting. Thanks for posting this.

Ignore the troll.

Someone got your number, huh?

The ERBs are an achievement test, not strictly an IQ test, so some of the same caveats about the impact of an enriched education or home environment would apply.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, all three 4 year olds on my block in NW DC (including my child) scored at the 99% on the WPPSI. Same goes for my child's 2 best friends at preschool. Sure the kids are all bright. But geniuses? No signs of it that I can see. I honestly see very little (if any) differences between them and any other 4 year olds I've ever known. I honestly was shocked when my kid's score came back so high. (but I'll certainly take it!)


I would question those results if you truly don't notice anything a little different about your kid. Unless , of course, they are your first or only and you don't get out in general population very much and so lack perspective. A typical 4 year old with a 98% ile or 99% on WIPPSI will pretty much get everyone's attention wherever he goes with his/her long detailed monologue, sharp observations, high degree of sensitivity or just by reading newspaper out loud while waiting for the flight to board at the airport kind of thing.....this is every day type of experience with these kids. Even if you get used to it, go to the play ground or the store and you will get at least a few raised eye brows. Also a 6 year old who regularly talks 35 year old Ivy League Grads into a corner is a dead give away.

I'm the poster with the 99% kid on the block of all 99% 4 year olds. I can assure you that none of these kids would get anyone's attention in public because of their shear brilliance. None of these 4 year olds are reading. None are doing advanced math (or any math). One is a dinosaur expert. Another (my child) is a whiz with Legos. A third is a fanatic about art projects. That's about it.

And I can tell you that my 99% child is adequately stimulated in our NW DC preschool. He he is squarely in the middle of the pack and does not require any special enrichment.

I generally agree with your observations--but some kids do pick up stuff faster and I am not sure if this is always correlated to IQ. My childhood friend could read at 3 and she tested high (140s) on childhood IQ tests (she is still brilliant). My son tested at 125 at age 3.5 yrs old (he will be 4 next month), so no genius and not 98%+ but he started to read, is advanced in math and other concepts that other preschool children in his class don't get yet. He is at the top of his class in the charter school literacy, math and social science curriculum. In the car last night I asked him where we lived (our address for safety reasons) and he answered but kept going telling me that we are in the northern hemisphere, North America and talked about Canada, US and Mexico. I don't know if this will continue or if things will even out with time, but his teachers have tested him using various educational assessment/instruments and he is consistently high. Maybe the WPPSI test wasn't accurate or it doesn't test these type of abilities? As for the OP, just keep reading, playing word, card, board games, visiting cultural institutions, cook with your child (my husband cooks with my son and he has learned a lot about math in this context), talk about his/her observations about the world. You would be surprised by how much a child can learn about math, colors playing UNO or Connect Four at an early age and it can be fun for adults too!

I agree with 13:32. Both my kids tested in the 99th percentile at age 4. One is at the top of her class; the other is not. Both are bright kids, but neither one is highly gifted or has required acceleration or enrichment beyond what their schools provide.

I think there is substantial grade inflation mixed in with the innate unreliability of such tests. So, it's wonderful when your kid gets a high score, but unless you've already noticed that your child is inadequately challenged, I don't think there's any need to change your approach.

(Note: I am not questioning the existence of highly or profounded gifted children. I'm just saying that a high WPPSI score alone is probably inadeqaute grounds for concluding that someone belongs in that category.)

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to the private school forum, OP. You have stepped right into the sh@t that is this forum, and I think it's fair to say this forum has a worse reputation than any other forum on DCUM. Except for maybe the Flame Me! thread.

When you raise the subject of IQ on this forum, you will get several types of response:

(1) Mockery: "your kid will end up cleaning my kid's office."

(2) The superior/snooty response: "so what, every kid in the area is as smart as your kid."

(3) The poster(s) who come on here to wail about how nobody understands her needs ... oops, I mean the needs of her gifted kids, not of the poster herself (to be fair, a lot of posters make things all about themselves). If you disagree with whatever she's wailing about, she will say: "you're jealous and you don't understand because your kid is 'merely' normal."

Hey, you got a few helpful responses, count yourself lucky.

There are at least two trolls on this board who respond to almost all posts about giftedness. This is one of them. Ignore her, or she'll start hurling insults at you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That being said, welcome to Washington: home of the super people ; where an IQ of 131 is a dime a dozen; as in about 40% of the Pre-K applicants with the remainder being all at about 110-120's and a few 140 and up.

Are you a child psychologist who administers this test?

Please share where you obtained this information, it's interesting.

If you google a bit about the ERB you will find some Bell Curves which graph %ile , stanine,raw score and FSIQ all together under one bell curve. Looking at the Independent school norm it shows that the largest cohort in the independent schools scores in a stanine range that correlates with a FSIQ in 120's, the kids who score in the 8th and 9th stanine are in the top 10% of their class and this correlates with 135 FSIQ and higher. The public school norm( bulk of scores) is a full 1-2 standard deviations lower. That doesn't mean public schools don't have bright kids, it just means that in private schools they are more a dime a dozen( more the bulk of the scores). Sorry I don't know the exact site, but it isn't hard to find if you just google: ERB,stanine,percentiles

You can also just feel this should you decide to be the parent reader one morning before you have had your coffee.

Interesting. Thanks for posting this.

Ignore the troll.

I should probably add that if you have a kid who is teaching him/herself to read or writing out tables of number facts for fun, don't get in the way. So don't stifle an interest or make a kid wait until school to pursue it..

But in situations where you the parent are agenda-setting or where DC has lots of interests, then I'd steer toward stuff s/he will NOT be doing in school anytime soon. So in my DC's case, rather than teach her how to read, we kept reading her books (or getting her audiobooks) that were more interesting and challenging. So rather than basic phonics skills, she headed off to school with an amazing vocabulary, a good sense of writerly "voice," and strong interests in politics, science, and philosophy. She picked up phonics quickly and easily when it was taught, she wasn't bored or pissed off to be taught it.

re the abacus --

Abstractly, the logic of what I was saying was teach things that enrich and will reinforce what s/he'll learn in school rather than anticipate/duplicate the curriculum. So the abacus, for example, makes more sense than number fact flashcards.

Concretely, an abacus gives a kid a good sense of place value and of number patterns, as well as the ability to handle larger quantities and running totals easily. When my DC was a preschooler, we often used the abacus to keep score when we played games.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, all three 4 year olds on my block in NW DC (including my child) scored at the 99% on the WPPSI. Same goes for my child's 2 best friends at preschool. Sure the kids are all bright. But geniuses? No signs of it that I can see. I honestly see very little (if any) differences between them and any other 4 year olds I've ever known. I honestly was shocked when my kid's score came back so high. (but I'll certainly take it!)


I would question those results if you truly don't notice anything a little different about your kid. Unless , of course, they are your first or only and you don't get out in general population very much and so lack perspective. A typical 4 year old with a 98% ile or 99% on WIPPSI will pretty much get everyone's attention wherever he goes with his/her long detailed monologue, sharp observations, high degree of sensitivity or just by reading newspaper out loud while waiting for the flight to board at the airport kind of thing.....this is every day type of experience with these kids. Even if you get used to it, go to the play ground or the store and you will get at least a few raised eye brows. Also a 6 year old who regularly talks 35 year old Ivy League Grads into a corner is a dead give away.

I'm the poster with the 99% kid on the block of all 99% 4 year olds. I can assure you that none of these kids would get anyone's attention in public because of their shear brilliance. None of these 4 year olds are reading. None are doing advanced math (or any math). One is a dinosaur expert. Another (my child) is a whiz with Legos. A third is a fanatic about art projects. That's about it.

And I can tell you that my 99% child is adequately stimulated in our NW DC preschool. He he is squarely in the middle of the pack and does not require any special enrichment.