I've been wanting to get my DS, who will be 7 in January, fully evaluated by a psychologist who's specialing in gifted kids, for some time now. However, my husband doesn't think it's necessary. He thinks that my DS probably just has really good memory and it is not necessary to evaluate him, since we are not going to use the testing results to do anything. I am looking for your opinions and suggestions on whether a full evaluation is necessary for my DS. What are the pros and cons?
Here is some background about my DS.
He started to show his obsession on alphabets when he was before 2 years old. He learned his alphabets from the apps and videos on iPad. He was able to say the alphabets backwards when he was 3 and started reading. He started writing and drawing the alphabets in cartoon like (like the ones he watched on video) not long after that, and also draws them in bubble letters and in 3D. He got very much into geography when he was 4 and was able to remember all the US states, most of the capitol cities, and draw the US map with states separated without seeing the map by 5. He also knows about many countries in the world (the names, continents and some of the flags).
He loves to draw and build stuff. He enjoys solving puzzles and play Brain Games, both on words and numbers. He often watches cooking shows and loves to help with cooking and baking. He's learning piano faster than other kids (well, at least my DS8)and his piano teacher says that he is very talented if not gifted in music.
He took the assessment test to get into an enrichment program in a nearby University and he's got 99.9% for both reading and math on the KTEA-II brief form test, and 99% on verbal and nonverbal and 99.7% on IQ Composite on the KBIT-2 test.
He's had some social issues before his first grade year. He would pull himself out of a group of kids in a family party and did his own thing. He preferred to talk to the adults and liked to play with older kids. So social skills was our main concern for him. Good news is that this year in the first grade, he has made several friends and started to interact with kids his own age. His teacher has informed me a couple of times that he's doing well socially at school.
He does challenge the authority and always tries to push as far as he can. So he gets disciplined quite a bit at home.
I think a full evaluation will help us to see what his strenghs and weaknesses are academically and socially. I also think the evaluation may help us understand why the way he is and determine how to communicate with him in a way that he would not challenge our authority. What is your suggestion?
Thank you in advance
