Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional testing on very young children

hello everyone.
i have a 29 month old son who is receiving OT, early intervention, and speech therapy because i panicked when he was barely speaking at 2 yo. right after he turned 2, however, not only did he start speaking (he has not stopped talking since by the way) but also reading among many other things. his therapists all believe he may be gifted. how young should children be tested, should they even be tested, what are the benefits of testing, what is involved in testing, where do i start? thank you all.

I have a son who is going to be 4 in 2 months. He didn't start speaking until almost 2 and I was also concerned. Now I wish I could get him to stop asking questions ALL the time! LOL I am having him tested this fall because I want to get him into a program. I would suggest reading everything you can and "feeding" your son as much as he can take in. My son loves letters, puzzles, books, songs that you have to play along (wheels on the bus et. al.) and musical instruments. He does not have great fine motor skills so we make letters with finger paint. If you can figure out his learning style it makes it easier to teach him. I wasted a lot of money buying teaching aides that didn't fit. If he is anything like my son, he will guide you. Good Luck!

thank you both. we usually just follow hi lead. whenever i read to him, he always wants me to spell out the letters of words that interest him. it's amazing to see how this little guy just figures out certain words, he mostly taught himself how to read. i think i will wait to have him tested. thanks again.

My recommendation on testing: age 6 or when behavior starts to become a serious problem (due to probably boredom).

Both my kids got tested at 5.... LOL

Mary

Rocksea,
here's a parenting tip for that stage when they are always asking questions.

Almost every "WHY" can be answered with one of the following two words -

Nature

or

Custom

One you explain the terms and give some examples, you can use the short hand to give a basic answer to lots of things, and then see if you child actually wants more, before heading to Wikipedia.

It worked for DS10 around age 3/4.

Smiles,
Trinity

I just remembered something else. We watch a lot of his favorite videos with teh close caption feature on. He likes to read along with the wiggles. He sight reads words up to 6-7 letters but he is getting better at sounding out bigger words.

Ohh and thinks Trinity I will try that tomorrow...

Nancy