We finally decided to have DS tested after his Kindergarten year in Montessori (his first year in that program). He did the WISC-IV today and is also going to do an achievement test and personality test, I believe, later this week for a full assessment. We just want to really understand him and at least have some "back up" when talking to the school. BUT I am really nervous that the scores will come back not reflecting what we know in our hearts (on one hand that seems crazy but on the other, I need to prepare for that possibility).
We are sure our son is gifted - perhaps EG but I am still trying to wrap my head around all of this stuff. I'm just so nervous that the results will not support our observations, I guess because of some of the issues he had in Kindergarten. His teacher was questioning whether or not he would be able to do what he is supposed to do in the Lower Elementary room as a first grader (in terms of following directions, completing the work, etc). I think what she was trying to tell me describes asynchronous development but she clearly didn't know anything about that and I didn't either until I started researching gifted kids and behavior issues.
The issues in my mind basically boiled down to 1) he talks - a lot 2) he likes to do things his way and gets frustrated with others if he gets interrupted doing something he NEEDS to finish 3) does not like having to do work that he already knows how to do 4) didn't seem to know how to interact with the kids well (this has improved quite a bit during the year but I still think that he jabbers on a lot about stuff the other kids don't care about and they zone out) - he tended to hang with the younger kids at first.
I did the Ruf Assessment online and he came back at Level 3 which I shared with the teacher via email but she never responded to that (he won't have her next year anyway).
Anyway, my plan was to take my sons scores to the head of the school and discuss which of the two lower el teachers would be the best one to take on DS this fall
After all, he will have this teacher for the next 3 years. Overall, we have been really pleased with the curriculum at Montessori. Although they made DS go through all the phonics books he could have read when he was 2, they did have him reading chapter books too (about 2nd - 4th grade level, I think) and at one point, had him writing one or two sentence summaries of each chapter! Clearly, this was a better choice over the public school we are zoned for. I also saw his notebook where he was multiplying a 4 digit number by a single digit. In Kindergarten!?! I love it
OK this turned out way longer than I intended. Thanks for hanging in there. I just love reading this forum where there are parents and kids just like our family. People who understand!!
I'll post when I get the scores. Don't know how long it will take to get them.
