IQ Test Results; How Much to Share?

I got the IQ test results this week.  I spent quite a bit of energy thinking about whether or not I wanted to post the numbers.  The actual IQ point numbers.  And I wanted to, for several reasons; I don't want to hold back anything that might be relevant, informative, or helpful to another mom of a little Fragile X kid.  I didn't want to just do this blog thing halfway -- I wanted to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly. I strived to be truthful.

Yet I was uncomfortable with it, for some unknown reason.

So I have decided not to publish the actual numbers.  I don't want a therapist or teacher who reads this to, even subconsciously, use the number to assign expectations, and lack of expectations, on the boys.  I don't want it to define them.

However, while I won't divulge the number (and my boys did get identical IQ scores!), I will say that in the description of what the numbers mean, the boys' number fell within the range of "moderate developmental delay".  Not "profound" or "severe".  This I found encouraging.  "Moderate", to me, says somewhat minor.  Not "extreme", but just "moderate."  I can live with this.  I can work with this.  I can attach great expectations to this.

I can also be assured that this IQ result is an estimate, based on how few of the questions the boys actually gave an answer to.  I was there, I know what they can do and what they can't, and I know that just because they had trouble answering some questions doesn't mean they didn't know the answer; it may just mean they weren't capable of focusing.  They couldn't settle down enough to take a test.  It would be like me drinking a pot of coffee and then trying to sit down to write a blog post.  Not that I have ever done that before.

I am further convinced it's an estimate since they got exactly the same score, and I witnessed this test -- AJ was a lot more cooperative than Zack was.  The tester barely got a glance and a snort out of Zack.  And yet Zack scored the same as his brother.  Clearly an assumption was made that Zack would have responded the same.  I don't have a problem with this assumption, it's probably true.  And it's one more reason not to attach a great deal of importance and attention on the final "score."

So that's it.  The great IQ test experience is over.  And not nearly as traumatic as I imagined.