IQ tests for children: a parent's guide
Testing a child's reasoning can be genuinely useful — for spotting a learning difficulty, or for making a case for extra support. It can also do real damage if the number becomes an identity.
When testing is worth doing
- A clear gap between how the child talks and how they perform in writing.
- A school recommends assessment for a suspected learning difficulty.
- Applying to a programme that requires documented cognitive assessment.
- Persistent boredom and disengagement in a child who was previously curious.
When it is not worth doing
Curiosity about whether your child is 'gifted' is not a good enough reason on its own. Scores in early childhood are unstable — a result at age five predicts adult ability far more weakly than most parents assume — and children absorb the label long before they can put it in context.
Age matters
Below about six, results move so much between sittings that they are mostly useful for identifying a large developmental gap, not for ranking. Between six and twelve, reliability improves substantially. From the teenage years on, a properly administered test is reasonably stable.
Choose a supervised test, not an online one
For any decision that matters — school placement, a diagnosis, an application — the test needs to be administered one-to-one by a qualified psychologist using an instrument such as the WISC. Online tests, including ours, are not built for that job and should not be used for it.
How to talk about the result
- Describe it as a snapshot of today, not a permanent property of the child.
- Point at the breakdown, not the headline number — 'you are quick with patterns, slower with word problems' is actionable.
- Never use the score as a reason to lower expectations, and never as a reason to raise pressure.
- Praise effort and strategy. A child praised for being clever avoids hard problems; a child praised for persistence seeks them out.