Over the weekend, my son asked me if he could take gifted social studies next year because he is bored in his classes and thinks he can handle the more creative and faster-paced curriculum in social studies since it doesn't have as many barriers to performing well due to his dysgraphia/dyslexia. We talked about the fact that his last IQ test missed the gifted cut-off by a few points and that to try to qualify he would have to go through all the tests again and might still not get in. He says he's game. He says he thinks the regular ed classes are harder for him because they're so heavy on workbook and textbook work rather than projects and deeper learning. He made a map in Halo over the weekend of ancient Athens after learning about Athen in social studies. The teacher wouldn't give him extra credit since it wasn't on the teacher's approved list of projects - sigh. I'm worried if he doesn't find some way to get past the frustrations and disappointments of poor grades due to the learning disability in order to start showing his abilities, he's going to check out or start down the path of misbehavior.
While the diagnostician in 2010 said she felt the test results weren't indicative of his actual intelligence and thought he was getting skewed results, she was also unwilling to put him in gifted or conduct more thorough tests because she didn't think he was ready for gifted. She was very resentful for having to test him in the first place after she'd given an initial no to the request.
I had a chat with the Special Ed chair about my son's request, and she agrees that if we test him in the district, the bias of the diagnostician will likely not go in my son's favor. So we are going to first try through insurance and then will pay out of pocket if we can't get it covered privately.
So here's my question -
If you were me and were going to put your kid through the entire battery of tests, what would be on your request list for either specific tests or barriers to screen for? If we're going to put him through this again, I want to make it thorough and get all the information we need this time.
I believe he has a working memory issue and would like to have that screened, but I'd love to hear your feedback of what to ask for.
ADDED NOTE: I spoke with a private diagnostician who says that the cutoff in our state for students with a diagnosed learning disability is 120 on the GAI, and my son scored a 119 with gifted scores on two of the subtests. She said one more point and he would have automatically qualified and that the diagnostician then could have advocated for qualification. UGH. She believes retesting is merited and said she is open to requests, etc. if I have specific thoughts towards testing. We won't test until summer so that he isn't trying to deal with school and testing at once.
Last edited by ABQMom; 02/28/12 10:43 AM.
