OK, have just been told DS has an IQ of 140. What does that mean?

[Mercythompson]

Have name changed for this - as don't want to out myself.

DS - 5 - has social communication difficulties and has been assessed for autism - though his difficulties were not considered severe enough at this time to diagnose - though they may revisit it as he gets older.

In the meantime -they decided to do a cognitive assessment on him - which shows that he has an IQ of 140.

I have no idea what the implications of this are. - I knew he was fairly bright - but had always considered that part of his autism - now it seems that the school are planning on treating him as very bright - with the social communication difficulties being part of that.

Anyone have any experience of any of this?

Possibly, in that DD had a cognitive assessment and is now being assessed ASD (she's definitely got spectrum issues but enough to diagnose ... I think it depends on who you see). However I took her cognitive assessment with a pinch of salt as she was young and it was the Stanford Binet Form LM (which is quite outdated but popular with some people who assess the gifted).

Do you mind me asking which cognitive assessment was used for you DS? I'm assuming it was the WPPSI and not the WISC as the latter is for 6+ year old children only, but there are other tests too.

As to what the implications are - well some gifted assessors recommend using the Stanford Binet Form LM if you get an IQ of 140+ on a standard test because very bright children get all lumped together, and the SBLM is the only test that can pull them apart. Look to see (or ask the assessor) whether he was very close to any of the test ceilings. The point of doing the SBLM after a score like this on a standard test is because the needs of a highly gifted child are quite different from a profoundly gifted child - and only the SBLM can differentiate at the top end of giftedness.

Some profoundly gifted children may demonstrate what seem like communication problems, but are in fact a lack of desire to engage with children of the same age or ... uninteresting adults. These problems usually disappear with interesting adults and older children. Equally a child can be both gifted and be ASD (or many other learning difficulties) - this is called twice exceptional.

It is superb news that your DSs school is taking on board the assessment and looking to support him - sad to say that not all schools do.

I'd recommend you take a look at the following website:
www.potentialplusuk.org/new_parents_main.php?contentid=329&webid=251#.UePlf85waos
they have excellent advisors that you can call and have a chat to as well.

I suggest you check out the Potential Plus UK website www.potentialplusuk.org

Results on different IQ tests do differ, but regardless 140 is a very high score.

tiredbutnotweary - it was the WPPSI - I don't know anything about it really (though trying to learn now) - as we have been so focused on the ASD - interesting to hear that they can present similarly.

Thankyou so much for the information - and thankyou both for the website - will have a read.

The school are taking it seriously, which is great - he really needs more support at school - so I am seeing this as a way for that to happen. Haven't really thought through the other implications of it all - still trying to get my head around it - They did say that as he is only 5, they will prob get the ed pych in when he is 8 = to do it again - so I imagine thats when it becomes more important to see what level he's actually at (or am I wrong and we need to know now?) - will def see when get the report (today was just verbal feedback to me and school) - to see where he was on each bit.

It's fine to wait of course - in the mean time you can get lots of information about the different levels of giftedness through this book:
5 levels of gifted

Sorry to hijak thread but tiredbutnotweary> Something in your post really caught my eye. "Some profoundly gifted children may demonstrate what seem like communication problems, but are in fact a lack of desire to engage with children of the same age or ... uninteresting adults". My 3 year old has just finished first year of playschool and they have reported that he doesn't really speak to any of the other children much and rarely speaks to the adults he was only given age 22-36 months for speaking but he speaks really well at home. i can't understand why because when we are out and about he is always talking to other kids but then i've noticed the kids he tends to talk to are slightly older maybe 6 or 7 or older. When we went on the playschool trip he didn't seem to engage with any of the other children so i believe what they are saying. I don't think he profoundly gifted but he is definately very able with his letters and numbers. Starting to read very simple books and can count and recognise numbers in excess of 300.

Do you have any personal experience of this and how do you get over it? He is starting new nursery school in Sept and i don't want the same thing happening again, part of the reason he is changing is that HV advised he might be bored where he is.

He doesn't really come across as clever, he can come across as quite silly sometimes and i do worry then when he starts school he'll end up being naughty if he's bored.

not much you can do really - but the other children will catch up enough for him to be able to relate to them soon

In playgroup, dd, who was very verbally advanced, was operating on a completely different level to the other children and found thing very difficult socially. Her type of play was much more complicated than the others were capable of and she tried to direct them all into doing what she wanted e.g. "you pretend to be x, y and z and you do this and I'll pretend to be a, b and c and you (different you) pretend to do this etc etc" the playgroup workers said they had to keep intervening as before she'd got to the end of her first sentence the others had glazed over and wandered off ...

fast forward a few years to year 3 and although she was still advanced compared to the others the gap wasn't so great that they couldn't relate to each other and she now (just finished Y5) has a lovely group of friends most of whom are operating at around the same sort of level as she is

that was to ChazDingle

thanks for comment. I'm not sure this is the case with DS as i wouldn't say he's verbally advanced for his age, prob about average but not behind as playschool suggests. And thinking about it although he does tend to talk to older kids he doesn't have deep and meaningful conversations with them, its just, hello, how old are you, are you my friend that sort of thing. He just doesn't seem to bother with kids his own age, its a mystery really. He doesn't really do much pretend play although has started doing abit recently, he more into letter and number puzzles, electronic toys and that sort of thing

basildonbond nothing useful to offer to OP but your description of your DD totally resonated with how i feel my DD currently is playing/learning and I found it really helpful to hear how your DD was doing in Y5 since my DD is only in Y1. Many thanks. And I am also staying very aware that other DC may well be catching up and overtaking...