Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Have test results - had meeting with school pg3

We had our 6 yo dd tested to see if she would qualify for the district's gifted program (self-contained class) that starts in 2nd grade. I went into it with doubts, dreading it actually, thinking she would be somewhere on the cut off for qualifying. I think I have received the shock of my life to be quite honest. Turns out she is highly gifted and now I'm panicking.

As a toddler she started out very precocious and driven and was amazing everyone with the things she learned on her own and the drive for wanting to learn new things. Around the time she entered pre-k a year early as a 3 yo she started to really slow down and so I began to question her giftedness.

Last year in kindergarten she just seemed to blend in with everyone else except in reading where she is clearly advanced. They primarily focused on reading and writing and she did well except her teacher commented at how she has frustration at times when it comes to her writing output. She can't seem to work the pencil at the same pace as her brain but that it would come eventually. They did very little math (ipad games of 1+3, etc.. at center time) At circle time she would actually turn her back to the class (when the teacher would be teaching something) and apparently be in her own little world. She would never raise her hand, she's rather shy and timid in school. She is not a trouble maker and is a model student.

At home it's another story. She has countless temper tantrums when she gets frustrated and involves screaming, slamming doors, and stomping. She can be very explosive. But she is likewise passionate when she is happy or feeling compassion for somebody. When friends are over she often times wants to do things such as write stories, play school/teach them and they aren't interested which also causes her frustration. She also refuses to play video games or board games b/c she doesn't want to lose. Because of this she also didn't compete the first year of swim team (liked practices but didn't want to race). I finally convinced her it's okay to race and all that matters is that she does her best.

So with that said here are her WISC-IV results:

FSIQ 149 (99.9%)


Similarities 13
Vocabulary 15
Comprehension 14
VCI
124 (95%)


Block Design 17
Matrix Reasoning 19
Picture Concepts 19
PRI
151 (>99.9%)


Digit Span 19
Letter/Numb Seq 15
WMI
141 (99.7%)


Coding 10
Symbol Search 14
PSI
112 (79%)

*Extended norms were used for Matrix Reasoning, Picture Concepts, and Digit Span.


The psychologists remarks during testing were that if she was watched directly my dd would give impulsive responses. But if she pretended to be busy on her laptop dd would perform better and put more thought into her answers. She was shy and took time to draw her out even after the get to know her session which makes me wonder if the verbal portion may have been given first.

Her recommendations are that she move to 2nd grade for math and /or reading. We had a meeting with the teacher but didn't have the official report yet so we didn't give actual numbers. Just said that the psych recommended she move for math and reading. The teacher said that the school doesn't do this (which isn't the norm for the district b/c I have been in schools where younger kids move up for math but we are at a magnet and I guess they can do things how they want). The teacher said she will differentiate for her in the classroom with math using Sunshine Math. She commented how she had a boy last year that she did this for who is now in the gifted program for 2nd grade.

My only concern is that dd will not do more than what is asked, I don't think she wants to stand out from her peer group in the classroom. She will just blend in and fly under the radar. At home she has told me that she wants to do reports... she has told me this past summer without me ever mentioning skipping that she wants to go to 2nd grade instead of 1st. So I feel she is unhappy to some extent where she is at. And I think it shows now that school is back in session and the tantrums have increased in addition to her night terrors, sleep walking and nightmares.

Should I be concerned about the gap between her VCI and her PRI?

And finally do you think I should present the results to the teacher and/or school to show them her ability? Or should I wait and see what the teacher's plan for differentiation will be?


*Oh, and a question about the extended norms.... I understand that means she hit the ceilings on those subtests. But does the score of 19 mean that her score for those subtests were possibly 18 and went up to 19? Or that it is higher than 19 with the extended norms but still only written down as 19? I hope that question makes sense.