Gifted Institutes' Testing Practices
Gifted Institutes' Testing Practices and Autorization
At Gifted Institute, we take great professional care and value the utmost transparency when interacting with children, adolescents, and their families. We focus on combining professionalism, development, and ethical responsibilities to create a practice that always takes the well-being and safety of children into account.
Gifted Institutes testing practices are different from the practices of other Danish organizations that work with giftedness. It has come to our attention that questions have been raised which could cause misunderstandings about the validity and quality of the Institutes’ work, including our testing practices and the use of WISC-V. We therefore wish to clarify how we work, and how Gifted Institutes’ testing practices are assessed by the relevant Danish authorities.
We are aware that concerns have been raised about whether the testing itself can only be performed by a psychologist. This assumption is understandable, but it stems from a misunderstanding. In 2024/2025, the question has given rise to an inquiry within the Board of Psychology, who, after a thorough investigation into the Institutes’ practices, have no objections to Gifted Institutes’ protocol.
Gifted Institute highly values the relational approach. To many children, especially gifted and twice- or multi-exceptional children, the way they are understood is of crucial importance; both for their experience and for the validity of the test. Internationally, it is a common, well-documented practice for test administration to be undertaken by professionals, who are specifically trained in executing the test and working on the relation with children and adolescents. We therefore always employ testers with in-depth professional experience and education regarding test administration. Furthermore, our testers are also educated in relational development and observation. This approach makes it possible for us to ensure the utmost academic and relational quality of the interactions between our testers and the gifted children and adolescents with whom they interact.
Test administration and test interpretation are two separate tasks: It requires one set of skills to create safety, calmness, and rapport in the testing environment, and a different set of skills to analyze, assess, and convey the test results. At Gifted Institute, the technical psychological interpretation and evaluation is always undertaken by an authorized psychologist. Furthermore, the professional psychologist responsibilities, supervision, and the final interpretation of the tests is also the domain of an authorized psychologist. With this authorization comes both rights and responsibilities, including supervision by the Board of Psychologists, who ensure the authorized psychologists perform their work in accordance with the appropriate rules and best professional practices.
We appreciate that an independent authority, the Board of Psychologists, has had the option to examine the Institute’s methodologies, and can confirm that the practices we use are in full accordance with the current regulations. This helps to create calm and transparency in a debate where uncertainties can easily arise.
In association with the Board of Psychologists’ examination, a phrase was identified in an information flyer, which could give rise to ambiguity. This phrase was, of course, immediately rectified to ensure that there is no doubt as to what we offer and how the Institutes’ testing practices are organized.
Documentation of the Board of Psychologists’ verdict can be found here: