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Expert Q&A

	By Adolph Brown Psychologist

Last week, my 7-year-old son was tested for the gifted program at his elementary school. He is a first grader, and my husband and I both think he is very bright. His teachers agree; he was one of only 15 first graders to qualify to test for the gifted program.

We got the scores back today and he did very poorly on the test. His dad and I decided to go ahead and tell him he did not make the program. He cried, and I felt terrible.

It didn't make sense for him to do so poorly on this test. This past fall, he scored near perfect on the Iowa Basic Skills test. Should we have not agreed to let him test for this program at such an early age? I do not want him to have test anxiety from now on.

It is unlikely that the experience you have described, by itself, will lead to a lifetime of test anxiety. The most important thing now is how everyone involved reacts to the situation. As far as your son is concerned, your presentation to him should be that it's no big deal. Everyone has a tough time on a test sometimes. And he's in a wonderful program with a teacher who thinks he's terrific. (It wouldn't hurt if the teacher gave him a few extra reminders of this, to boost his spirits a bit!)

That having been said, there still is the question, ""What happened?"" There are many different types of tests and many kids do not do equally well on all of them. A study conducted in a middle school looked at who was identified as ""gifted"" via standard tests and by more ""performance"" or portfolio-type assessments, which consisted of work samples of various kinds.

The results showed that some kids excelled on the tests, others in the portfolios, and only about half on both. So, with the help of the teacher, you should take a look at the test itself and see if perhaps there was something about the format that was more difficult for your son than the Iowas. (I would not ask him about it, though. As far as he is concerned, that test is over and done with and in the permanent past.) Another possibility is that, although he did well on the Iowas, the greater challenges of the more recent test did not allow him to shine. In other words, he might not be as ""exceptional"" as his early scores might have suggested. And finally, there is the possibility that his attitude toward the test might have led him to not perform his best. From what you are saying, it is possible that he might have even been overconfident, with people saying that he would do great, he did so well on all the others, etc. But also possible is that he was indeed nervous because he was worried about not meeting your expectations.

So, your task is to try to get a handle on what happened and to do so in a way that does not send a double message to your son. As far as he is concerned, the test is over, it was no big deal, and your confidence in him is not shaken. See how he approaches future tests. Notice carefully the patterns of his test performance. Try to watch your own expectations for him and make sure that you keep things relatively ""even"" -- don't try to boost his confidence too much by telling him how super smart he really is, and don't try to shield him from disappointment by saying the tests don't matter. Play it down the middle and see what happens. Above all, highlight his strengths, be sure to let him know you love him for all the things he does, not just academics, and see what happens. If he does show fear of testing situations, stomach aches, headaches, nervousness, etc., contact your school psychologist or guidance counselor sooner rather than later. Early intervention can indeed head off serious test anxiety.

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