IQ tests, schools, psychologists, books

In talk shows, on TV, in the press, on blogs, forums, Facebook groups and others, the subject is so rebatted-a series of TF1, HPI, even has just been devoted to it-that manyfamilies end up being caught.Suddenly, it is the crowd in specialized establishments."We had to double the number of our high school classes," says Nelly Dussususse, director of the Georges-Gusdorf school in Paris, who welcomes students with exceptional capacities.

In reality, the proportion of people with an extraordinary intelligence cannot, by definition, not increase, since the test results are statistically calibrated compared to the arbitrarily fixed average.By convention, for example, the share of the population with an IQ greater than or equal to 130 is - and will always remain - by 2.3%.

For real high potentials, this fashion is however good.For the past twenty years, it has made it possible to considerably advance the knowledge of the child-and the adult-gifted, to dismantle a pack of received ideas about them, and to recognize situations of discomfortIn which the owners of an overly agile brain sometimes struggle.Above all, she aroused the creation of an entire ecosystem, supposed to support these little geniuses in their education, their professional career and even their emotional life.An ecosystem that can, we will see it, prove to be very profitable.

The first to take advantage of the situation are obviously the test suppliers.Have you ever heard of WPPSI-IV, WISC-V or Wais-IV?Protected by licenses, these tests, established according to the ages according to a technique developed by David Wechsler in the last century, are authoritative worldwide.In France, they are marketed by the leader in the publishing of psychometric assessments, ECPA by Pearson."These are the only ones that the general public knows," says Delphine Bachelier, the company's clinical projects coordinator.Sold around 1,800 euros for a lot of 25 (for WISC-V) to thousands of psychologists and assessors, these tests are almost as juicy as the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine!

In recent years, the national education services, which pass them for free, can no longer meet demand."We have 400 children in academic or psychological difficulties in the waiting list when we can only assess a hundred per year," sighs child psychiatrist Sylvie Tordjman, head of the National Center for Aid for Children and Adolescents with High PotentialFrom Rennes 1 University and the Guillaume-Régnier hospital center to Rennes.

Suddenly, it is the Liberal Psy Firms that take over.And at home, the service is not free.The rate range can range from 250 to 600 euros in the Paris region, an expense not reimbursed by social security and rarely by mutuals.Admittedly, for this price, the Divan pros, some of which ended up specializing in the niche, are not content to lock up the guinea pigs in a room with a pen and a stopwatch: as a rule, they pass an interviewPreparatory to identify the personality of the "patient", observe the way in which he behaves during the tests, and tell him about their conclusions during a consultation in good and due form.But the case is still very lucrative.

Moreover, the shrinks do not always give themselves as bad.Some of them only take a few minutes to announce the results, and tend to store their customers a little too easily in the gifted category.Created forty years ago, the National Association for Intellectually Early Children (ANPEIP), which brings together hundreds of volunteer parents, is offended by these bad practices.And it regularly addresses warnings to professionals who present themselves on their site as "approved" or "labeled" by itself to bait the barge."We do not have a partnership with any shrink, and we do not award the label to anyone, insists the president, Frédérique Cluzeau. When parents contact us, we are content to refer them to professionals recommended by several families."

To escape any criticism, some practitioners have come to communicate the overall test scores - and even downright refuse to pass them if the first interview with parents and the child is not conclusive."Rather than announcing to the person that she is gifted, which could fascinate him or scare him, I prefer to tell him that she has high intellectual and cognitive capacities," said Stéphanie Aubertin, a shrink betweenParis and Le Vaucluse.

Once the diagnosis of high potential has been established, many children and adolescents continue their education in a "normal" establishment, with more or less happiness.Although national education has appointed specific referents by Academy, trained by specialized teachers and implemented a handful of "appropriate arrangements", they are indeed, for the most part, treated exactly like the other students.This is why many families prefer to enroll their offspring in specialized institutions.

No reliable census for the number of establishments of this type is available, but there are undoubtedly several dozen everywhere in the territory.Classes to 15 students, sometimes multi -end, faster learning rhythms, time jobs filled with language or art workshops, specially trained teachers ... Despite an elitist image that is difficult to break, and annual schooling costs that oscillate4,000 to 8,500 euros in the private contract, these structures are quickly filled, like the Georges-Gusdorf school.Suddenly, it gives ideas to some."We are regularly contacted by project leaders who want to create a school and want to integrate our network," said Catherine Viès, at the head of a structure of 40 students, near Toulouse, which is part of the tree -based network foundedOver ten years ago.

The gifted are not content to bring a large test supplier to life, an armada of shrinks and more and more specialized schools.They also represent a royal vein for publishers, such as Odile Jacob or Albin Michel.In the form of testimonies, trials based on a clinical practice or on neuroscientific research, the opus devoted to them very often make a tobacco, even ten years after their first publication.

With 100,000 to 250,000 copies sold, sometimes for a single title or re-editions, a trio of women, Jeanne Siaud-Facchin (the psychologist at the origin of the word "zebra" which recently integrated the Larousse), Monique de Kermadec and ChristelPetitCollin, trusses the first places of this jackpot.It is enough to pronounce the name of one of these three specialists to fill the conference rooms and attract crowds to signature sessions.To make the most of the windfall and multiply the works, the publishers cut the problem into small slices, parenting, education, sentimental life, professional career ...

Last niche that is popular at high speed: the decryption of hypersensitive people who "do not enter the boxes" - even if it is not always for an excess of intelligence."In four years, with about fifteen different books, we have sold 150,000 copies on the subject," rejoices Karine Bailly de Robien, the associate director of Leduc editions.Proof that small houses also take advantage of the manna.

The organizers of conferences or salons, physical or online, also rub their hands: psychiatrists, therapists, specialized speakers and coaches with more or less assertive notoriety flock to tighter ranks each year in front of an eager audienceinformation.In the fifth edition of her "Congress Deedance", which is aimed at "talented emotional", Belgian coach Nathalie Alsteen has, for example, gathered no less than 35,000 people online!Admittedly, the participation was free, but 2% of the spectators still split 497 euros to obtain the right to review the various interventions, and take advantage of bonuses from previous congresses."A hundred people had brought candidates to intervene, but I only had 15 places," said the organizer.

L’engouement pour les gros cerveaux booste aussi le marché de la formation des professionnels. Pour 700 euros, la société Cogito’z & Développement, créée par Jeanne Siaud-Facchin,propose par exemple des modules répartis sur deux à trois jours, pour aider les psys à mieux "comprendre" et "accompagner" les malheureux embarrassés par la suractivité de leurs neurones. Le dernier en date, consacré au bilan de compétences et à l’accompagnement professionnel, apporte un éclairage sur les "spécificités, les forces et les difficultés du haut potentiel dans le monde du travail". Tout un programme… Cogito’z & Développement, dont Acadomia est devenu l’actionnaire majoritaire il y a un an et demi, travaille, entre autres, en partenariat avec un réseau d’une bonne dizaine de centres indépendants de psychologues et d’experts, en partie spécialisés dans le haut potentiel. Une foison d’offres de ce genre, plus ou moins sérieuses et plus ou moins chères, circulent sur le Web.

Is that all ?Not yet.Because a new field of lust is looming on the horizon of this very profitable business: the business community.More and more leaders of companies and HR services, in charge of recruitment, career development or coaches' referencing for example, are starting to be made aware of the question of gifted.And a dozen internal networks of employees have been formed in recent years around high potential and "cognitive diversity at work", as with Orange, Schneider Electric or Airbus.

For the moment, professionals specializing in this niche are still very few, but it may change very quickly."It has really developed for three years," observes coach Fabrice Micheau, founder of HPI Talents, one of the pioneers in the sector, who abandoned the more general market to devote himself to that of the company.According to him, around 5% of employees are gifted, and a large majority of them would ignore it.Although offensive and frantic research of visibility on LinkedIn, rare are still the companies which, like his, manage to draw a correct income from this activity.

We see it, everything is good to take to make your butter in the small world of big heads.The International Mensa Association, counting in France more than 4,300 members carefully selected on their performance at an qi external or house test, is even "overwhelmed with offers" - often from gifted.And the ideas are sometimes a little baroque.Thus the social network Atypikoo, rather oriented towards friendly and love meetings and which had been free for two years, he decided to charge the 14,000 members registered in the category of "neuro-Atypiques".Those who seek a soul mate with high potential will have to go to the checkout.

In this creative frenzy, it is not always easy to make the difference between serious initiatives and those which are the incompetence, doubtful or downright scam.Personal development advice uttered by gurus with dubious references, bogus training piloted by self -proclaimed neurotherapy, tinkering on a corner of the table by charlatans ...

In the absence of regulations, a sublimate of hazardous proposals circulate on the web."These drifts can be dangerous, warns Jeanne Siaud-Facchin. So-called experts from high potentials will go and assert adults in search of meaning that they are gifted, and that is why they are in difficultyOr "out of step", when this is not at all the case. "

Siegfried Cey (the pseudonym of a former marketing consultant who has become a neurotherapist), the boss of the University of High Potentials with whom we started this article, swears that he is not of this cause.In a video posted in September 2020, he assures that he is not "an endoctrine guru", and insists with capital on "the solutions" and "mutual aid" which he brings to the gifted people who trust him.

The unchanging distribution of intelligence

Even if the general level rose (which is not the case), the proportion of high potential in the population would remain the same: Qi tests are calibrated so that it remains stable.

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