Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment What testing should I use?

Well, I didn't go through the full process, so I can't be hard on the school administrators, except insofar as they let that teacher do what she did. It was clearly a classroom in crisis, and even the teacher admitted it. In her words, "There are a lot of behavioral problems in the class." Uh-huh.

We certainly considered going to the principal, but DH and I walked through all the possible outcomes, and since we didn't want grade skipping at the time (a possible mistake on our part, I think), we just didn't see any way it would work for us. Try to work with the teacher? CLEARLY that wasn't going to be a success! Try to change teachers? Unlikely to be successful, unlikely to be helpful, and would be a lot of work, with the only result being our being labeled "THOSE parents!" No thanks!

If you get a teacher who makes clear that she has no intention of working with you from the outset--will see any action taken by you as a personal attack, in fact!--and then rule out grade-skipping, and going to the principal starts to seem pretty pointless...

Well I decided to call a local psychologist who is very well known and lives in our area with GT children and she happened to pick up. She asked me all about my DS and really seemed to get what I was talking about and was not surprised the reactions that I have gotten to him at times by his previous preschool and other people. Anyhow, she told me that what she would recommend is getting him tested by her in the spring and doing the stanford Binet, the WIAT, the Bender visual motor gestalt test, and the Torrance test of creative thinking. She says she would meet with the parents (DH and I), see him probably on 3 different days, observe him for half a day at school, and also will be available to attend a school meeting in the future if needed to advocate and help us. It sounds like exactly what we are looking for! It's pricey though since insurance doesn't cover it...but I think it would be so helpful (so sadly we may have to do away with our first attempt to go away since having children as we were going to go away in the spring for our 10th anniversary). DH and I have discussed it and I think we are going to do it. He just wonders if we should wait longer until he is older...and if it is "really necessary" I don't want want to wait until he is already having problems and is labelled by the school as a behavior problem.

What do you think?

Michelle

Is it a package deal, or can you just do the SB5 and decide if you want to do more?

In general, I think testing is great (if money is not an issue). We haven't regretted having DS tested, in fact it has opened some doors for him and helped us understand how to advocate for him. We found the information very useful and even decided to have DD tested as well.

Same here. But we had DS tested at 5.5-6.5yo, not 4yo. I think I'd prefer to wait if you can, just because I think it gives you more options for testing and a truer read of the child.

But if you need the numbers now, then I think you have to get them now. I'm with Cathy A that I think I'd start with less and add more if you need it, unless she's giving you a tremendous package deal on it all. You may not need so much, and there's no reason to pay for all that if you don't need it.

If you can manage it so that you can BOTH have him tested (perhaps to a lesser extent) AND go away for a little time alone with your DH, then that would be my vote! Never give up a weekend/week/month away if you don't absolutely have to!

I am assuming it is a package deal. she said that she really wants to get a good comprehensive read on children (not in those words) because it's important to really understand each child. I don't know if I should quote it on here, but I guess it can't hurt since I haven't mentioned who is doing it. She quoted $1600. I definitely want him tested....just not sure if I should do it at 4, of course he will be 3-4 mo. away from turning 5 if we test him when we were going to.

Michelle

I too would say see if you can get only part of the testing since he is so young. DS6 was tested at 5.3 and it was the best thing we have done regarding his gt. It was a real eye opener not to mention qualifying scores to DYS.

Prices depend a lot on the area where you live. We paid $1,500 for WPPSI and WJ-III only and even though the psychologist dealt with gt kids she wasn't any of the known/published/highly recommended people. We live in quite expensive area though.

It was well spent money. It probably saved us a year of Montessori tuition. We might have given Montessori one more shot next year (different group and teacher, he would be on the youngest) if it wasn't for the scores.

$1,600 is really not a bad price. Just don't be surprised if you are told after the testing that you would get more accurate results at the age of 6 or 7.

I did just email her with a few questions. She really does seem great, even asked me to call and check in and let her know how his preschool is going this year. I asked if we could do a little testing now and more later. I also asked when she felt would be the best time to test him based on the info I gave her about him. She could just say now...but I don't see why she would really care if we waited so hopefully she will give us honest feedback. I guess I will see soon enough. We actually were going to put DS in montessori this year, but it fell through as the school decided not to offer a primary program and they didn't let us know that until april of this year...so we hadn't looked into anything else. I guess the good news in that is that the pre-k pgm we are putting him in is about half the cost so we are saving more money each month...maybe to use on testing I guess.

Are there things you can supplement his preschool? First, physical classes like gymnastics, or concerts for preschoolers? Special programs at the museum?

Ren

Actually the preschool I chose for him may turn out to be great, and may be horrible..only time will tell. It sounds and looks great to us. It is a program m-f 9-12:30pm. They have 4's and kindergardeners there. My understanding is that they have structure, but don't have much academics (like they don't say 'today we are going to learn the letter A'). They do some themes, they play together, they go out to the park together, etc. They have a trampoline, a ball pit, air hockey, board games and computers. They have other stuff as well...but the above are what my DS is most excited about. Some friends say that he probably won't do well there because it doesn't have the academic piece as much....but he needs the social skills now. Also there is no way I could find a preschool that could academically stimulate him because of the academic stuff he is doing. If he were moderately gifted this probably would not be an issue, but we can't change that. We chose his preschool because it was affordable and the staff there were truly great. I could tell that they really care about children and started playing with him right away. I don't think they would really supplement things at all. We just kind of decided we will try and supplement things outside of class. We take regular library and museum trips, I think he would like to do t-ball and/or soccer at some point, and he may be interested in piano lessons in the future. Who knows?

I agree that a more academically oriented preschool wouldn't be right. We looked them and thought they were wonderful but in hindsight, we realized DD was ahead of the curriculum.

The preschool sounds good for his social and play skills and just fun. What I meant, can you supplement? DD goes to ballet and gymnastics and group piano. We take her to Very Young People's concerts, ballet performances for young people. We take her to the Discovery Room at the museum where they have programs for young people and the young people intro to art at the Metropolitan Museum. We go to the zoo and aquarium a lot.

And we find that she likes playing with a mix of kids, usually older and discover new ways of playing. She went next door the other day and the mother told me the older girls were playing Monopoly, she shook the dice for them, asking about how to play, why they did things.

Everything can be supplemental, but I look for options for her curiousity.

Ren