Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy 1st grader evaluated at 4th to 6th grade.

Welcome Lily1972,

Whether or not you find a Catholic school which will accelerate is going to depend on the actual school. The religious-backed private schools in my area (a long way away from you) do not accelerate and, as you said, provide the same curriculum to all students for elementary through middle school. That said, they also tend to provide a more rigorous and academically challenging curriculum that our local public schools, so they do often attract intellectually gifted children. If you are open to considering a non-Catholic option, you might want to check into other private schools in your area.

I'd also suggest not over-worrying simply based on test scores. Your ds is a very bright child according to his test scores - but scoring at a "5.8" grade level, for instance, on the WJ-III does not mean exactly the same thing as saying "your son will fit in perfectly if we put him in a 5th grade 8th month class today". What it means is that his score is equivalent to what the average (50th percentile) 5th grader (8th month of school) would have scored when taking the same test. So yes, it means he's reading above grade level, but no, it doesn't mean he needs to actually be in 5th grade at this point in time. I hope that makes sense! (And I hope I described the scoring correctly).

Chances are that there are going to be at least a few other kids in his grade level at school who are also reading as far ahead, or who are capable of working ahead in math. One way to help provide your ds enrichment, if you can't change up anything through the school, is to offer to volunteer in the school once or twice per week working with a group of children who are able to work ahead. That's just one idea for providing enrichment, other ideas include working with your ds outside of school or finding a mentor or camps or classes that will give him intellectual challenges in the areas he finds interesting.

Re the psychologist's comment that your ds is profoundly gifted intellectually, typically the term "profoundly" intellectual refers to a specific range on the IQ scale (I am not going to quote it for the WISC since I might be off - I'm sure someone else on here knows the range better than I do :)). You'll notice the report for Full Scale IQ you were given says "Very Superior Range" - that's an example of the verbiage that is used to describe the number ranges on the WISC. "Profoundly" gifted (for the WISC) would be a higher score. It's possible your child had a score in the profoundly gifted range in either VCI or PRI etc - these are the categories that are combined to give the FSIQ - but the FSIQ itself isn't "profoundly" gifted. BUT - it's just a number. You clearly have a very bright ds, and chances are he's going to be bored sitting through a day full of academics geared for the typical child. You'll most likely have to advocate for him to find appropriate intellectual challenges.

The thing I wouldn't recommend is going to a school and hoping for acceleration etc based on telling them your ds is profoundly gifted. Having achievement test results and examples of actual work samples that demonstrate mastery of required curriculum typically makes for more successful advocacy in my limited experience. The WJ-III is a start - but again, in our experience, it's not as helpful as having some of the other achievement tests such as ITBS, MAP, etc.

Hope some of that helps!

polarbear

ps - I think that your ds' WISC score will qualify him for Mensa, but I don't know for sure - you can find the info on the Mensa website, and it will also list what you need to send in as proof of the score.