We have not had her take the WISC because she is excelling in school and very happy there (vs. DD9 HG whom I post about here all the time!!), and if all is well - it just didn't seem necessary. BUT,DD10 is very unhappy that she is not AIG L.A. like her best friend and her sister
You've said you haven't had her tested with the WISC because she's very happy in school, yet you've also said she's unhappy about not being in AIG LA? Sounds like not all is happy? Do you feel like the wanting to be in AIG LA is driven more by having a friend and a sister in it or because she's doing really well in LA and needs/wants deeper/higher level work? Note, fwiw, even if she *doesn't* indicate she needs deeper/higher level work or maybe isn't doing brilliantly where she's at - if that's the case - doesn't mean she doesn't need more. If your schools are even remotely like the schools in my area, even a child who is truly at the 80th percentile in ability most likely would thrive on a higher level of challenge than the average classroom offers.
One thing I saw happen frequently in our elementary schools was that students who were openly and obviously either frustrated with school or having behavior issues due to poor academic fit - were tested for gifted and id'd when they met the benchmarks - so if a previously unidentified gifted student acted out or was *obviously* not happy with their classroom fit, even if there scores weren't quite what they needed to be, they were id'd and given gifted services. However, there were also students who were quiet, went along with the status quo, didn't want to stand out, or simply had given up thinking there wouldn't be more challenge - weren't necessarily recognized as gifted or weren't tested because they weren't having issues or causing issues in the classroom.
I personally am not a fan of the CogAT for gifted id. My ds, who's a > 99th percentile kid on the WISC in verbal, only scored in the 75th percentile on the CogAT in 5th grade. He's had multiple innate ability tests over the years due to being 2e, and his verbal scores are very consistent, so it's not a situation where he had one fluke high score on one WISC. Yet, in our school district, the initial gifted program screen is the CogAT *verbal* section, so I can't help but wonder, especially having seen the large # of people who post here who've had mismatches between CogAT and WISC/WJ-III Cog - are there quite possibly other kids out there who have *only* been screened with CogAT and weren't appropriately id'd as gifted?
DD also has unilateral hearing loss. Would this affect ITBS and Cogat testing?
I would think it would impact testing *directly* only if the questions were read out loud to her... but... I wonder if it might not have somehow impacted her developmental growth in reading as she matured, so that she might have some slight challenges that aren't obvious? Or her scores on verbal tests might be lower than they should be due to early reading development lagging behind ability due to the hearing loss?
My gut feeling is that - you have a child with hearing loss, a child who is hoping for more challenge in school, and that same child has a bit of unevenness in her CogAT scores - not necessarily year to year as much as verbal vs nonverbal on the most recent testing. JMO, but I'd consider private WISC testing to better understand her profile - even if she's not id'd as gifted or you don't uncover any significant issues, it will give you good insight and information on her strengths and how she learns.
I will add that DD is not a fan of writing; She is definitely a "math" girl.
I would wonder a little bit re - how much of this is due to a true skew in abilities vs how much is personality vs is any of it related to hearing loss?
As an aside, since some of you follow the trials and tribulations of our DD9 story, DD9 and DD10 are not genetically related so that research about siblings and similar IQ's is not going to apply. It's more "nurture" than "nature" in our family.
I'm also parenting chidden who aren't genetically related. Part of the challenge is not only differences in ability, but differences in personality. You've got one gifted dd who stood out and "screamed" (figuratively, not literally lol!) that she needed "more" - but it's quite possible that your older dd also needs "more" and simply isn't showing the need in the same way. You've been such a wonderful advocate for our younger dd - I'd take some of that advocating energy and really think through - would further testing help your older dd?
I don't know the answer, but those are just a few thoughts to consider -
Best wishes,
polarbear
