Revealing IQ Scores
By Inderbir Kaur Sandhu, Ph.D
Q:
Could you tell me why I should or should not reveal my
child's IQ score to them? I have someone that would really
like to know, but most psychologist advice against this. I
just want to know the reasoning against this, since one of
the number one gripes of gifted kids is that they don't know
what it means to be gifted and that everything about it is
almost secretive.
A: Usually, psychologists do
not encourage revealing IQ scores to children, unless there
is a good reason to, which is not very common apart from
perhaps curiosity on the child's part. Therefore, you may
need to weigh out how necessary it is to reveal the scores,
as in what benefit would it bring to the child. The main
reason against this is labeling; IQ scores are usually used
for placement purposes and helping in identifying best
educational support for different ranges within the IQ
cut-off groups.
Furthermore, it also depends on the maturity on the child.
It can cause sibling rivalry amongst very competitive
children and competition with others as well. Lower scores
may make a child feel inadequate educationally and causes
low self-esteem. On the other hand, it may help a child
understand her/his intellectual capabilities and areas of
strength and weaknesses. Hence, it really depends on the
maturity of the child handling the scores and how parents
explain the scores to the child.
Perhaps, parents can let their children know that there is
really no big deal on what a score may be; you love them
just the way they are. What may be important is that they
have appropriate educational experiences. The scores, no
matter what they are would help parents and the school
decide what the best educational program is for them.
Parents too need to stay very calm about test scores, over
excitement/disappointment are very easy for children to pick
up. That would make them feel that your feelings for them
may be dependent on their scores.
Therefore, if you plan to reveal scores to them, let them
know that you love and value them no matter how they perform
on the test. Having said that, knowing IQ score does not
really help a child understand what it means to be gifted.
IQ scores are just scores for a set of abilities tested that
perhaps helps in deciding suitable educational programs at
school. A lower IQ score does not indicate that a child is
not gifted. Giftedness today is much broader that just IQ
scores alone and it really is no longer secretive. Best
wishes.
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