Is 89 a bad IQ score for a 6 year old child?

Answer 1

First, IQ tests are designed so that your score takes your age into account. This means that (ideally) a person exactly as smart as you, but older or younger than you should get the exact same score. (So if a person exactly as smart as you, but 30 years old took an IQ test, they should also get 107).

Now for the main part of your question. A score of 106 is less than one standard deviation above the norm (average). This means you scored higher than approximately 60% of people. So, for every hundred people you meet, on average, you are smarter than 60 of them and 39 are smarter than you.

You should be careful though if you took the test off a website or some other place online it is most likely not accurate. The only way to get a real IQ test that is reliable and valid (meaning, it measures your intelligence accurately) is to get professionally tested through a mental health professional using a carefully researched and designed measure. For someone your age the most likely test they would use is the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-R) which is used to test intelligence in children aged 6 to 16.

And remember, IQ is just a measure of one kind of intelligence, and your results can be affected by things such as ADHD or learning disabilities.

Answer 2

An IQ score is a statistically derived number. It is not a measured quantity in the same way that height or weight would be. IQ scores are normally distributed, with a standard deviation of 16 for most tests. This means 68% of the population should fit within the range of 84 - 116. 95% should fit within 68 - 132, and 99.7% fit within 52 - 148.

Note that since IQ is a derived number, age is taken into account. A six year old and a twelve year old who take the same test with identical answers would not receive identical scores.