Weschler Testing

[mmindy]

Hi

Has anyone had their child assessed, I've come across a few names: Peter Congdon, Joan Freeman, Dr Irene Broadley-Westerduin (on the NAGC website). Has anyone used any of these?

Or any advice on choosing an EP?

Thanks.

Most schools have their own system of assesment and often parents will not be notified that their child is on the list for a year as things change quickly. They may be great at maths in year 2 as they are good with numbers and adding but by year 3 when it gets tougher are only middle ability so come off the list. If you think they afe G&T then do extra acivites at home to encourage but not push it.

hi mmindy we initially were going to go with joan freeman but she had a waiting list of nearly 6 months and was quite expensive so we went with peter congdon,we were really pleased and would highly recommend him,he was great with dd and she really enjoyed the day.
Good luck

The NAGC is probably your best source of advice - there is a helpline as well as info sheets.

We used Dr Bettina Hohnen at the Child and Family Practice in London - she was fab and also able to offer advice about SEN (which an EP wouldn't) - i.e. recommend further testing if she picked up on something that needed further investigation.

Also check if your school will accept the results, if that is relevant.

Good luck! :)

I know of someone who would recommend peter congdon highly. there was another thread a couple of months ago that discussed it and gave some information on a couple of the people you have mentioned.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gifted_and_talented/1309012-Anyones-dc-seen-peter-congdon-or-joan-freeman?msgid=28374833

Brilliant. Thanks everyone. Its so good to have recommendations.

Hi EyeOfNewtToeOfFrog,

I was just thinking about what you said - I hadn't realised that all EP's didn't look out for or know about SEN. Do they just do an IQ test and make some recommendations, or is it that some don't make recommendations either?

Depends what you pay them to do.

Some will just offer basic testing and a report with the results of that. (more usual for an ep to do wiat in conjunction with wechsler as well btw).

We didn't use any of the names, but contacted a few locally and discussed our needs. (dd2 has cp as well). The other two were tested one at school, and one with a psych who was recommended by ds1's paed.

Dd2's and ds1's have comprehensive recommendations, but dd1's doesn't. (the school one).

My understanding is that EPs are not qualified to diagnose SEN. (If this is not right please someone correct me!) Whether they can point you in the direction of requiring further tests, I have no idea. Probably best to ask when you phone to book for an appointment?

Ours made recommendations - but then, we didn't need just a cognitive profile, DD had a multi-disciplinary assessment.

Is there any particular reason you're thinking of having DC tested...? If you don't mind me asking of course.

Can anyone enlighten me please about these assessments wanting to be done on young children? What are they and what are they for? I know my dd on G&T has always been really "brainy" and finds her lessons so easy but she has never been properly tested by anyone. Should she have been?

Ibizagirl - there are lots of gifted and talented children whose needs are not being met at school, because their high learning potential has not been identified. Something like 90% of kids who are identified as G&T are bright, high-achieving, co-operative and socially skilled - therefore they are usually already very successful.

However, if your child happens to be very intelligent and lacking in one (or several) of the these characteristics they might instead be an under-achiever who acts out, out of boredom and frustration - and therefore doesn't get identified as G&T. They may be seen as wilful, badly behaved children, perhaps with a learning disability (this is what happened to my DD, 7). Either the school or the parents may have concerns and want to have the child tested to see what might be causing the problems.

If your DD is intelligent, hard-working and mature for her age - great. Sounds like she is having her learning needs met! But many gifted children struggle with aspects of social and emotional skills, or have physical or emotional overexcitabilites (which can interfere with learning) or they just do not have their learning needs met properly at school.

This is why people go for testing - to understand their children's needs better. HTH?

We only went for an IQ test because it was part of an ASD assessment. Son turned out to be G&T and dyslexic rather than ASD. Seems so obvious now in hindsight but it was beyond any teacher or school Ed Psycho to get the bottom of it. School had him on bottom table, bored out of his mind, poor kid.

I feel your pain niceweather, my dd is also vastly underestimated at school despite being on the 99.9th percentile for IQ,although things are getting a little better.
She was put with the remedial maths set once at school until i called and said in no uncertain terms i was not happy for this to happen again, she too was bored out of her mind and completely turned off.

Mrs Shears, glad to hear things are getting better now for your DD. I'm afraid my experiences have left me very cynical. I remember a post of yours where you said that your Head didn't believe in IQ scores which is an experience I share. I now have a non G&T child going through the same system and for him, it's perfect - number bonds, zoo animals and phonics - great stuff! In the end I gave up on hoping that they would "get" DS1 and we encouraged his strengths at home as they were outside the constraints of the SATS. At secondary, the focus seems to have shifted and he is at last beginning to shine. There is a great thread on Special Ed Needs about loads of kids with (mild/moderate) dyslexia who are suddenly taking off at secondary school.

Thanks niceweather ,not as better as i would like but it's a small start, mainly in the form of them having a more positive attitude towards dd.
We are very cynical too and dd does most of her learning at home(middle ability group for maths at school and fractions,percentages,times tables and division at home,which she understands easily) and we tend to use school for social development.
I'm really glad your ds is having a better time of it at secondary school,we were told by the NAGC that things should get better from a schooling point of view for dd as she gets older,fingers crossed it's sooner rather than later!!

Thanks EyeOfNewtToeOfFrog. Yes dd is doing well at school thank you and was put on G&T since year 1 of primary i think but it hasn't done anything for her. School didn't push her or challenge her in any way and she always said she was bored at school and was made to help others with their work or learn children to read, i kid you not. Or sometimes she was just sat there when she had finished her work. Even when i asked about giving out extra work i was told "look on the internet". Great,thanks. I ended up buying those workbooks and they were always easy but dd liked doing them. Even now (12 and year 8) she is a hard worker and always does loads of work for each homework - far too much but she won't listen. Best of luck with everyone's children.

@mmindy. Hi just wanted to tell you that I took my little boy to Joan freeman and it was a waste of money and time. I told her in advance that my boy who is only 2 yrs and a half is very shy to strangers and she assured me that she is fully qualified and has years of experience with little children and she is always successful!!!! We went to London from Barnsley in south Yorkshire the day before the test and stayed in a hotel and went to see her the day after, she was very serious and hardly smiled. My boy didn't like her at first at all. Then she started talking about my boy infrontbof him. Which ant good psychologist should know that is the wrong thing to do. My little boy got upset when he realised he is the centre of attention and started asking me to leave. He got so upset that he actually fell asleep in my arms. After half an hour we had to wake him up and he refused to make a relationship with Joan freeman and she was unable to test him. She said I'm sorry but I can't help you. She didn't even try hard to get close to him. Then as soon as my little boy was starting to open up, she told us that she can't do the test and my boy has problems and she suggested aspergers syndrome! She said he is gifted but he has personality problems because he is not making problems with strangers..... How many 2 year olds are there that open up to complete strangers straight away???? Then she charged us £450 for doing absolutely nothing. I was so upset and worried about my boy. But when I read some of these comments here about people's experiences with her I realised that she just found my boy hard to deal with and decided to get rid of us. I have now spoken to dr Peter congdon and got an appointment to see him. I'm really hoping that he is able to help us. He told me that he will not charge us a penny if he is unable to test my boy. Hitch is what decent people do. So my advice to everyone here is please do not go to Joan freeman.

@mmindy. Hi just wanted to tell you that I took my little boy to Joan freeman and it was a waste of money and time. I told her in advance that my boy who is only 2 yrs and a half is very shy to strangers and she assured me that she is fully qualified and has years of experience with little children and she is always successful!!!! We went to London from Barnsley in south Yorkshire the day before the test and stayed in a hotel and went to see her the day after, she was very serious and hardly smiled. My boy didn't like her at first at all. Then she started talking about my boy infrontbof him. Which ant good psychologist should know that is the wrong thing to do. My little boy got upset when he realised he is the centre of attention and started asking me to leave. He got so upset that he actually fell asleep in my arms. After half an hour we had to wake him up and he refused to make a relationship with Joan freeman and she was unable to test him. She said I'm sorry but I can't help you. She didn't even try hard to get close to him. Then as soon as my little boy was starting to open up, she told us that she can't do the test and my boy has problems and she suggested aspergers syndrome! She said he is gifted but he has personality problems because he is not making problems with strangers..... How many 2 year olds are there that open up to complete strangers straight away???? Then she charged us £450 for doing absolutely nothing. I was so upset and worried about my boy. But when I read some of these comments here about people's experiences with her I realised that she just found my boy hard to deal with and decided to get rid of us. I have now spoken to dr Peter congdon and got an appointment to see him. I'm really hoping that he is able to help us. He told me that he will not charge us a penny if he is unable to test my boy. Hitch is what decent people do. So my advice to everyone here is please do not go to Joan freeman.