Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments How does one decide what enrichment to provide?

As a newbie, I have been soaking up the posts here! My question is, how do you figure out what a child needs? My child will get AIG services next year - but what level is appropriate? Our daughter is 8, scored 99% on Cogat and Iowa and 143 on the WISC 4. Does that mean she could do 4th grade work? 5th grade? How does one know? And no, she is not content in class. Says she is bored and everything is easy.
Thanks!!

Well, first you need to figure out what your AIG program offers before you can figure out if your DC needs more. AIG services can vary considerably from school to school. If you are thinking of requesting acceleration (subject or grade) beyond the AIG program (or as part of it) then the school may also need to assess your DS using year end tests. Beyond the issue of ability, there is also the issue of interest. Sometimes the student may not want to accelerate in a certain area due to lack of interest, etc.

The "what level is appropriate" question is one that NO single snapshot like a CoGAT can answer.

Furthermore, a lot of testing that produces grade levels as results-- is age-normed.

What that means is that "5" means that this is the 50th percentile (that is, the center of the distribution) for 5th graders TAKING the same instrument (which would presumably be well below level for most of them).


I mention that because while a 7yo that scores as "11th grade" in a reading test is certainly out of the ordinary, it in NO way means that they are ready for reading instruction to regularly be at 11th grade level. It probably DOES mean that instruction with other more typically developing 7yo's is likely to be frustrating and not meeting the child's needs well, however.

The only way to know what IS appropriate is to trial a few things that are harder until she begins to experience genuine challenges.

Generally from IQ you are talking about pacing rather than placing. With AIG next year, for now letting her be picky with her book selections at home and ideally also at school should be helpful. There are some fun and challenging math sites she could explore. One of the nice things with a smart kid is given enough leash, they can often self-select and self-moderate more accurately to their needs.

Agreed! Some kiddos may ask, research, obsess and pester until their curiosity is satisfied. Parental help is needed for managing resources, which may range from frequent trips to the library, to visiting museums, to computer usage, to lengthy discussions, to hands-on activities and experiments/exploration. Parents may find it challenging to keep up with a gifted child as the child's voracious appetite for learning and for discussion/processing of what has been learned may tend to outpace what a parent is able to provide.

As one example, a child may talk non-stop about comparing animals which walk on two legs, and those which walk on four. This provides a parent with an opportunity to brainstorm on resources which may help a child absorb whatever it is the child is looking for. Providing opportunity for the child to choose books about animals, classification of animals, and/or books showing anatomy including the skeletal shapes of different animals... a visit to the zoo, looking at taxidermy specimens at a local museum, may appeal to the child. Building a puppet with jointed limbs or constructing a realistic model of an animal from kit, or an imaginary animal from legos or craft supplies may be fun. Looking at animal and nature websites may appeal to other children. Endangered animals? Mythical animals? Robots? It may be different for every child.

Many parents become aware there is a difference between affirming, nurturing, and supporting a child's interests and curiosity -vs- pushing/hot-housing. For some families, this is a bright line... for others, a fine or fuzzy line. Some questions to consider: Is the activity child-led and/or child-requested? Are resources offered for the child to choose among? Is the child free to stop and/or change direction when their interest wanes, it is no longer fun, or their curiosity is focused on another topic?

While some may see this type of learning without performance goals or outcomes as indulgent, it may help a child to build a sense of internal locus of control or owning one's own education.

"figure out what your AIG program offers" - I have an appt. with the teacher next week. She has been wonderful so I hope that she can fill me in. It will be very interesting to see what she has to say.
"trial a few things that are harder" - yes, that is what I am hoping!
We have her in Chess, Chinese school, and band, all of which are more work than school so she isn't sliding by in those classes. She chose to be in all except Chinese - she was born there so we expect her to take the language.
We definitely are not pushing along. Our girls are self-motivated enough!

Clubs and extracurriculars are great. They are somewhat different than the enrichment or enriched environment which a gifted child often needs in the home to address their strong curiosity and voracious appetite for learning... as these traits do not turn off when school, clubs, or extracurriculars end. For some gifted children, clubs and extracurriculars do not substitute for enrichment but rather provide their curious minds with more questions and therefore ramp up the need for enrichment.

This has been the hardest thing for us to figure out. Since we homeschool, we started by trying things here and there and making them more complex over time.

Now I do it largely a different way - I ask what interests them and teach/find that at a higher level and let them take in as they will. (we can always add in more info later that they missed).

We also do a lot of activities, clubs and workshops/classes as they indicate particular interests.