Gifted Testing Process: How It Works

Start with the contact form on this site or a phone call. I will ask a few quick questions about your child's age, what is prompting the testing (school referral, ALP qualification, private school application, grade acceleration, or your own curiosity), and any timeline you are working with. This first conversation is free, and many families decide during it whether gifted testing is the right next step or whether something else (a school referral, a comprehensive 2e evaluation, or simply more time) is a better fit. There is no pressure to schedule.

Once we decide to move forward, we choose the right assessment for your child's age — the WPPSI-IV for ages 2 1/2 through 7 or the WISC-V for ages 6 through 16 — and pick a testing date that fits your family's schedule and any school deadlines you are working toward. You will receive a short prep email beforehand with what to bring, how to talk to your child about the appointment, and simple things like a good night's sleep and breakfast that help kids show their best work on testing day.

I come to you. Rather than asking families to drive long distances to a single clinic, I meet children in their own community — typically in a private study room reserved at a local public library. Libraries work well for cognitive testing because the rooms are quiet, free of household distractions, climate-controlled, and familiar enough that most kids feel comfortable within a few minutes. I serve families across the Colorado Front Range and surrounding communities, including the Denver metro area, Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland, Greeley, Colorado Springs, Castle Rock, Parker, Highlands Ranch, Littleton, Arvada, Westminster, and the surrounding towns. When we schedule, we will pick a library location that is convenient for your family and confirm room availability before testing day.

We meet at the reserved library room at the scheduled time. After a few minutes of rapport-building, your child works one-on-one with me through a series of standardized cognitive tasks — things that look and feel like puzzles, patterns, and conversational questions. Total testing time is usually 90 minutes to 2 hours, depending on your child's age and pace, with short breaks as needed. Parents are welcome to wait in the library during the session. Most kids leave saying it felt fun and were not aware they were being tested, which is exactly the goal: relaxed kids produce the most accurate cognitive scores.

After testing day, scoring, interpretation, and report writing happen behind the scenes. You will typically receive the written report within 1 to 2 weeks. The report includes your child's Full-Scale IQ, all index and subtest scores, percentile rankings, a plain-language interpretation of what the scores mean, and any relevant behavioral observations from the session. It is written in a format that schools, gifted coordinators, and other professionals can use directly — no separate "school version" needed. If you would like, we can also schedule a short review call to walk through the results together before you share them with your child's school.

Once you have the written report, the simplest next step is to share it directly with your school's gifted coordinator or building school psychologist. Colorado districts routinely incorporate cognitive scores from a licensed school psychologist into their Advanced Learning Plan (ALP) decisions, gifted identification reviews, and acceleration discussions. You do not need to choose between private testing and the school's process — the two are designed to work together. If your child's school has questions about the assessment or scoring, they are welcome to contact me directly, and I am happy to coordinate with the team supporting your child.