Educational Testing
In
our under-funded public schools, educational testing
is often difficult to obtain. Educational testing basically consists
of assessing a child’s academic and innate cognitive abilities.
If you believe that your child may be mentally deficient or suffer
from a learning disability, attention deficit, or other handicap,
the public school system is obligated by law, to evaluate your
child. If the educational testing reveals significant deficits,
the school district is then obligated to provide the appropriate
remedial services. Unlike public schools, private schools are
not obligated to evaluate the child.
The
most common test in an educational testing protocol is called
the Wechsler Intelligence Scales. This piece of educational testing
is an intelligence quotient (IQ) test which assesses a child’s
innate and learned intellect. Another standard instrument used
in educational testing is the Wechsler Individual Achievement
Test (WIAT-II), which essentially assesses the child’s school
learned knowledge. Other tests may include the Rorschach, Thematic
Apperception Test, Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt test, and the Minnesota
Multiphasic Inventory (MMPI-II).
When
these two components in the educational testing protocol are compared,
any significant differences (defined by California State Law as
being a standard score discrepancy of at least 22.5 pts) between
IQ and school learned knowledge would qualify the child as having
a disability. Any disability then qualifies for the student for
specialized services (e.g. special education, tutoring, small
classroom size, individualized instruction, etc.).
Goleman
defined a new type of intelligence which he termed “emotional
intelligence” or EIQ. What Goleman essentially found is
that the most successful people don’t generally tend to
be the smartest, but tend to be the people with the best social
skills. People who can delay gratification and who are good at
dealing with others, are essential for both professional and personal
success. While there are currently no standardized tests to assess
one’s emotional intelligence, researchers are realizing
how overvalued traditional IQ is and how undervalued emotional
intelligence seems to be.
We firmly believe that if you have any doubts about your child’s
intellectual ability or suspect a learning deficit, we'd be happy
to evaluate them using an educational testing battery.
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