Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Made the call to have my son tested

I am new to this idea of my son being "gifted". My now six year old son has always been curious about things and I, in turn, have answered his questions or probed his thoughts further.

This year (Kindergarten) he has just been exploding in growth and curiousity. He is just eats up work books and books of all sorts. Asking to learn division and eating up just everything around him.

I have talked with the principal and she said that she would like to potentially advance him a grade next year. But the testing would not be to mid-year. (Classes at the Montessori school he attends are multi-grade - so I think it will work wonderfully).

I want to know now, however, if he is truly gifted. I think this will help me help him and help advocate for him or garner the appropriate resources for him.

So in the end of May or beginning of June he will formally be assessed.

Nervous about even having it done in the first place. Nervous about what results would mean.

I consider myself of average intelligence. I have always surrounded myself by smart people and have always engaged in intellectual conversation and activities. But, I have never thought of myself as exceptionally bright. Yet, I have a biological son who just eats up information about birds, and pyramids, and pirates (historical), and you name it. Is it not giftedness - is it just his Montessori upbringing or just normal childhood.

Has anyone had these crazy thoughts when initially testing your child? Any thoughts or advice would be great.

You will still have the same wonderful kid you have always had, testing might mean that you have more informations about what his educational needs are, and more support to try and met them.
Read www.hoagiesgifted.org to learn more about giftedness and the testing process. We have some wonderful old threads about how to prepare the child for testing - can anyone help dig them up?


This is quite nomal - people tend to spend a goodly percentage of their free time with people who are similar to themselves in many ways, including intelligence. So you are average amoung your self selected group, not exceptionally bright by comparison to this group in any way. Depending on the job, your work environment may be like this as well, making it even easier to fall into the 'false denominator' logic trap.

If you think back to your education, ask yourself if you or your relatives skipped grades, or when to the 'top groups' or when up a grade in certian subjects. If you attended a public elementary school in a 'rather typical' neighborhood then you might remember waiting around for the slower kids to catch up and or trying to over read into the questions that seem misleadingly simple, or special games you played with yourself during classtime to keep yourself quiet and well behaved during the long school day. Of course, you may have attended a private school with a skewed denominator right off the bat.

Welcome home dear,
Grinity

Grinity nailed it in regards to your assessment of your own intelligence. Sometimes, people don't realize the range of intelligence out there simply because they generally surround themselves with people of similar intelligence.

In regards to having your son tested, being someone who performs the testing (school psychologist), there's absolutely no reason to be nervous. Like Grinity said, you will simply just have more information about your child for your own assistance in making the determination of what's best for him. Having him tested certainly does not lock you into any decision. You know more about your own child than any professional will tell you. You are the expert. Everyone else is simply there to help you make the most informed decisions regarding his schooling.

Glad you made the call to have him tested. Dug up one of the old threads about testing:

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....w_to_prepare_for_the_test.html#Post61370

Thank you, both! I'll take a look at the link and I have been perusing hogaies gifted for a few weeks. I will probably post more leading up to the test and then after.