Assessment Services
We offer assessment services for children ages 6 to 16. All services are offered virtually.
Intellectual Assessment
This includes testing level of intellect, areas of cognitive strength and weakness and whether children qualify for possible membership in Mensa or Davidson Young Scholars.
Intellectual assessment allows the examiner and parents to establish the baseline for your child. How advanced is the child? Does the evaluation show any additional special signs of ability or weakness that may need to be addressed? If the child is exceptionally gifted, what does this imply academically?
Intellectual Assessment incudes testing the child virtually using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fifth Edition. This test is for children ages 6 to 16. It uses a special virtual format validated by the test publisher, so the results are comparable to in-person testing. Other alternate IQ tests may be used as available.
Intellectual assessment takes three to four hours with breaks. This is due to the greater number of questions most gifted children are able to answer compared to more average IQ children. Assessment continues in all the subtests of the WISC-V until a stopping point is reached. This point is not reached until many more questions are answered by the gifted child; thus, testing takes longer.
Achievement Testing
This includes testing levels of educational attainment in reading, math, spelling, and written expression. Such testing can pinpoint areas of advancement, areas of weakness, and possible learning disabilities.
Achievement testing allows for comparison with the child’s intellectual potential to see how they are doing academically based on how they might be expected to do given their intellect. Because achievement testing evaluates both basics and applications of skills it can pinpoint specific weaknesses in reading, math, and writing. Areas of special advancement can also be documented.
The Woodcock-Johnson IV is the test used as it is the best available in virtual formats. Other supplementary tests can be used as well to further assess specific areas, for example visual-motor skills and handwriting.
Achievement testing takes about three to four hours depending on the child. Most gifted children do score much higher on the test than do those of more average intelligence because they are able to answer more questions, do harder math problems, spell more advanced words, write to a higher level of competency and have greater science, social studies, and humanities knowledge.
Screening for Twice-Exceptionality
This includes using parent, teacher, and self-report measures as well as observations during interactions with your child to determine the possibility to ADHD, ASD, anxiety, or depression.
We no longer offer full neuropsychological evaluations, and our screenings provide information about possible problems that may require further investigation. Thus, while we may be able to determine that your child does have a dual exceptionality, we also may not be able to provide a definitive answer due to the nature of our screenings.
Younger gifted children may only exhibit some symptoms at the time of testing and are compensating well due to their high intelligence. Thus, while they may have some symptoms of an exceptionality, they may not fully show it until the level of need for executive functions or focus exceeds their ability to perform at the level of their intelligence. We will describe what to look for in the future in these cases.