Test:

WISC IV and WIAT (partial), age 8 years 2 mos

Test was given by school as required part of assessment for fine motor/OT issues.

We had wondered for years about our child, because he seemed HG to us, but his school didn't seem to think so. They grouped for math last year (one of their few deviations from the 'heterogeneous classroom') and DS wound up in lower groups.

After the test, he got OT, but no accommodation for giftedness. It confirmed our impression of our child, helped us understand that his strength is verbal but he is also gifted in math (just less so).

I thought with concrete "proof" of his smarts I would be able to get the school to differentiate for him, but they really don't seem to recognize that DS needs more. The school's lack of response prompted us to contact a gifted testing expert, who looked at his scores, took a detailed history, and advised us to get him out of this local "great" elementary school by next fall and begin applying next fall for some private schools for the gifted that are in our area for the following year. (We have already missed the boat for Fall '08 for private schools). I had to laugh when the gifted testing expert asked if I had heard of DYS and recommended we apply for DS. I told her about this board!

DS begged not to go to the school in K, and we kept sending him there because each year, there seemed to be some hope on the horizon that they were going to accommodate his needs, and it just never came to fruition. We were about to throw in the towel after last year, but then we thought the test scores would make the school see the need, and he got assigned to a "star" teacher this year. This star teacher told me at the first parent-teacher conference that we needed to give our third-grader help at home to help him learn his addition and subtraction math facts! The IQ and achievement tests meant nothing to this teacher. The teacher now says DS is "excellent" in math-- but only because he's seen the results of the "predictive assessments" (i.e. practice tests) for the state NCLB exams, and DS did really well on those.


bk