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The Gifted Development Center (GDC) is an assessment and counseling center that has served over 5,000 families for more than 27 years. We are child advocates and respectful of parents. The heart of our work is diagnostic evaluation of complex cases, as when gifted children have difficulty writing, reading, focusing, finding friends, dealing with new situations, or coping with school environments that do not work for them. We specialize in gifted children with learning disabilities, visual-spatial learners (who think in images), and children who score above the 99th percentile. Around two-thirds of our clients are from other states and abroad. We have developed an international reputation for our ability to diagnose twice-exceptional children and identify exceptionally gifted children, as well as provide valuable recommendations.

Director Linda Silverman is a licensed clinical and counseling psychologist, who has studied gifted children for more than 48 years. She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Special Education from the University of Southern California. She has contributed over 300 books, chapters and articles. She was appointed Co-Chair of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) Task Force on Assessment; she serves on the American Psychological Association Task Force on Giftedness; she organized an International Symposium on Assessment Techniques in the Identification of Gifted Learners at the World Council for Gifted Children; she served on the Clinical Advisory Panel for the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, Revision 5 (SB5); and she has trained psychological examiners in Australia, Canada, England, and New Zealand. Our Associate Director, Barbara Gilman, author of the award-winning book, Empowering Gifted Minds: Educational Advocacy that Works, is also a member of the NAGC Task Force on Assessment.

In his invitation for Dr. Silverman to join the Clinical Advisory Panel for the SB5, Dr. Wasserman, Director of Psychological Assessments at Riverside Publishing, wrote:

Your research is precisely on target in many important respects… Many of the changes we are planning for the Stanford-Binet Fifth Edition reflect ideas you have addressed in your research, including a return to the developmental age-scale format of the L-M edition.

The Gifted Development Center’s highly qualified examiners are well respected within the testing industry. Most have extensive experience with the gifted and remain with the GDC for many years. GDC testers influenced the development of the SB5 and the Woodcock-Johnson (3rd edition). Riverside Publishing Company hosted a three-day “gifted summit” in Denver, July 2000, so that their test constructors, Gale Roid and Richard Woodcock, could learn from the experience of the Center’s staff. We were asked to create items, participate in item trials, devise nomenclature for advanced individuals, and conduct several validation studies.

Four of our examiners are licensed school psychologists who also work for local school districts. Thorough observation by our Associate Director is required of all testers before they are allowed to test our clients. Examiners and supervisory staff always work as a team. We hold regular supervision meetings. All testing is reviewed by a supervisor, who checks the scoring, carefully analyzes interpretation, and edits the reports. Post-test counseling sessions are conducted by two professionals—the examiner and a senior staff member—who go over the child’s performance in detail, interpret the results, and offer recommendations. We train one doctoral candidate each year, usually from the Professional School of Psychology at the University of Denver. The student is primarily involved in providing low-cost services to clients with limited means and testing preschool children from culturally diverse families at the Hope Academy. Many psychologists in Colorado who assess gifted children originally received their training at the Gifted Development Center.

As our clients’ needs have become more complex, we no longer offer standard test batteries available elsewhere; instead, we tailor each assessment to the child. Preceding assessment, parents complete an eight-page Developmental Questionnaire; Characteristics of Giftedness Scale; Introversion/Extraversion Continuum; Short Sensory Profile; and Behavioral Checklist. This information, along with any previous test results, becomes the basis of a phone consultation with a senior staff member. The parents’ questions are addressed and decisions are made about whether testing is needed, when to test, and which tests will best serve the child’s needs. The costs are also discussed. No information is released to other professionals without written parental consent.

We use a combination of tests to determine the full strengths of the child, as well as weaknesses that may be hidden by the child’s giftedness. All children are assessed on the most current instruments, such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Third Edition (WPPSI-III), the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, Fifth Edition (SB5), and the Differential Abilities Scales (DAS). We have been conducting extensive research on the WISC-IV, and are helping to establish the use of the General Ability Index (GAI) as the appropriate gauge of a child's ability to succeed in a gifted program.

When a child attains ceiling-range subtest scores (e.g., 17-19 on the WISC-IV) on any test, we will administer a second IQ test with a higher ceiling, at the parents’ request. The Stanford-Binet (Form L-M) is used only as a supplemental test. As currently there are no alternatives for assessing children above 155 or below 45, Riverside Publishing has given permission for the continued use of the SBL-M, as it is “diagnostically appropriate for children at the extremes of mental ability.” Scores on the SBL-M are not always higher than other tests. However, children who attained scores at or beyond the ceiling of the WISC-IV and other current tests, or who are reading or doing mathematics significantly beyond grade level, may have much higher scores, because the SBL-M extends assessment to the Superior Adult III level. This instrument can be useful in determining the extent of acceleration needed and if the child qualifies for placement in programs for exceptionally gifted students (e.g., in the state of Missouri) or profoundly gifted students (e.g., The Davidson Young Scholars Program). For more information about the SBL-M, please see “Why We Use the Stanford-Binet (Form L-M),” published in The Examiner: Journal of the Kansas Association of School Psychologists, 2002, 28(3), 20-21, at the request of Dr. Jim Persinger, Editor.

Quality assessment is essential for the gifted child. It can determine both the educational needs and the right options to appropriately challenge, but not overwhelm, the child. It must be done with precision and with the needs of the gifted in mind. Gifted Development Center testers, working together for many years with this particular population, have been able to hone their skills to the level of leading the field of gifted assessment. We invite you to come to our Center and experience the care we show gifted children and their families.

* DISCLAIMER:  At the Gifted Development Center, we are skilled at working with the entire range of giftedness, including profoundly gifted, and with children from 3 1/2 through adolescence. We also work with gifted adults. We have expertise in diagnosing learning disabilities. However, we do NOT have expertise with severe attentional deficits, autism, Asperger's Syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Delay, or severe emotional problems, such as manic depression, schizophrenia, etc. Specialists in these areas should be sought, if applicable.