How Can You As A Parent Benefit From IQ Tests

Until very recently, very few parents would seek to subject their children to IQ tests. At that time, most children who got to do IQ tests usually did them on the insistence of their teachers and other school authorities, and this usually occurred when the children in question exhibited some form of learning difficulty. In those days - indeed as today - the results from the IQ tests were not always encouraging.

The end result of the tests was often painful to the child and to the parents - regardless of whether the child's IQ test score turned out be exceptionally high or exceptionally low, which were almost always the cases where learning difficulties were observed. If the IQ test score turned out to be high, the child would be termed as gifted, and often taken from home to a special school for the gifted. And if the child's IQ test score turned out to be very poor, the verdict would be (essentially) that the kid was daft, and that was deflating both to the ego of the child and the parent.

Today, we have many parents voluntarily taking their children for IQ testing if only to know what their prospects for academic achievement are. We have even had cases where some children have actually requested to have IQ tests administered onto them - maybe just for fun or as a more serious undertaking, to know what their potential for academic excellence were.

And regardless of whether the IQ test is administered to a child voluntarily or on the requests of the school authorities, you can use the information it yields to plan for your child's future. A kid who scores very highly on their IQ tests might be the right candidate for a more challenging curriculum than what is ordinarily offered, if they are to be kept from the boredom that could result from unstimulating work, and if the potential they have is to be exploited. Similarly, if the kid's score on IQ tests is low, it might be an indicator that they need supplementary educational programs to bring them at par with their more 'gifted' counterparts.

For your child's own good, don't read too much into IQ test scores. See the IQ test score as a predictor of academic potential, rather than as a measure of intelligence - which is impossible to measure. If your child scores low figures on their IQ tests, take those figures as an indication of lower potential for academic excellence (which can, at least in most cases, be made up for with supplementary academic programs) rather than as a verdict of daftness.

And as you look at IQ test scores, remember that intelligence, unlike what was previously thought, is not a static thing - and can change (rise or fall) with time - depending largely on environment (how the child is nurtured). Take it into account, also, that some children are late bloomers, and a child who scores low figures on their IQ tests scores can later grow into an accomplished scholar.