Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional 49 point span between PSI from GAI

My second son, (currently age 9.5yrs) has always been a bit �sensitive� and anxious. In Kindergarten, halfway through the year, he refused to continue going to school.

He was doing great academically, easily learned to read at age 6, and was beyond his classmates in many of the academics. Yet, his teacher seemed to be tough on him in particular, (raising her voice with him, etc to �toughen him up�), noting he was too sensitive. She refused to send him to other classes (1st grade) for reading (at the suggestion of the counselor and VP, to avoid being bored), stating she felt he was too immature.

He was getting sick at school (threw up quite a few times) and was terrified of his teacher.

I worked with the VP and counselors, they offered to switch his teacher, but the damage was done, and he begged and pleaded not to go back to school, and I just couldn�t make him.

Luckily I was in a place where we were able to start homeschooling.

Around age 8, he was having some panic attacks and anxiety so we started going to counseling to help him deal with it. (Not a big problem but I wanted to stop it from becoming a big problem, as I have dealt with a panic disorder since I was 19).
His panic attacks, they determined, involved his anxiety around 3 things. "Space, time and death".

His counselor suggested we have him evaluated to rule out any " issues" disabilities or whatnot.

So (About a year ago now), we took him in for an evaluation. To my surprise, they had given him the WISC-V, which i now understand is an IQ test.

We were called in to discuss the results.
She said he has "extremely high cognitive abilities".
The assessment said we should "reevaluate his school arrangement," and be sure if we put him into school, that he is in a school with a gifted program track.

Considering we are still homeschooling, and very relaxed, (Self-Directed, unschooling pretty much) part of me is worried now we aren't "doing enough" for him.

Especially since seeing the discrepancy in some of his scores. Should I have more testing done? Are there issues I need to be helping him with asap? Here are his numbers. Does this mean anything to you?

(FYI, he is happy and thriving. Acts like a "normal" kid, loves to read ALL THE TIME, watch his videos, play with legos, draw, play with friends. )

Oh, and should I try for the Davidson Institute? I'm not sure it would be a good fit for us considering we are so very self-directed with our homeschooling. (not following a curriculum)

VCI: 142, 99.7%
Similarities: 19, 99.9
Vocabulary: 16, 98
Visual Spatial: 135, 99%,
Block Design: 16, 98
Visual Puzzles; 16, 98
FRI: 144; 99.8%
Matrix Reasoning:19, 99.9
Figure Weights: 16, 98
WMI: 107; 68%
Digit Span: 9, 37
Picture Scan: 13, 84
PSI: 98, 45%
Coding: 9, 37
Symbol Search; 10, 50
GAI: 147, 99.9%
Ancillary Scales:
CPI: 102, 55

I appreciate any and all advice. Thank you for your time.

If your son is happy and thriving, then you are probably most of the way there now, and undoubtedly doing a great job.

There are lots of homeschoolers on the forum who can talk to specifics, but I'll just throw in a general observation. One thing I've heard parents comment on over and over is that when they start providing their child with advanced, challenging curricula, they just cannot believe the speed and gusto with which their child devours it. A common refrain is, "It never occurred to me to give her something at that level before, but when I did, holy cow!"

So one thing you can do is make sure your son has exposure to such materials and the opportunity to find out what floats his boat. These kids can often respond incredibly differently to complex materials than they do to standard classroom pablum, so it's best not to decide, for instance, that they don't like math if all they've ever seen is a Pearson textbook. Give them a little AoPS for a while and see what happens when they experience a topic taught in all its beauty by people who love it - it's quite a different experience. There's lots of threads here on resources for different topics if you're looking for ideas.

Welcome!

First, good for you for recognizing early that the behavioral and physical health symptoms were really stress-related, resulting from his educational situation.

Second, with regard to the range of cognitive scores, unless you see IRL concerns beyond what might be typical of any young child, the particular areas of lower performance do not need to be causes for concern. Quite often, GT learners will think and problem solve (GAI, composed of elements from VCI, VSI, and FRI) at a much higher level than they produce routine tasks (CPI, composed of the WMI and PSI). None of his scores, even the weakest ones, are actually below average. The simplest and most innocuous interpretation of his scores is that he is a very bright young person whose handwriting is no better (especially no faster) than that of his peers.

The variation among the GAI-contributing domains is not of a magnitude typically considered significant. (And it is even possible that the VSI scores are slightly affected by his relatively slower processing speed, and thus mildly low estimates, as those are both timed tasks.)

Sounds like you are doing a fabulous job supporting your son's growth in many ways!