Hello,
I'm new here. And but for me and my wife's recent experience regarding my daughter's first day of pre-k(3), I doubt I'd be visiting this forum (so in a sense I'm "happy" the incident occurred). Briefly, we believe our daughter is gifted. Around the age of two my daughter started reciting the alphabet backwards. She currently spells about 10-15 words (e.g. "Momma", "auntie", "numbers", "letters"), can count up to 200 (and back to 0), and knows her +1 addition table up to 1 + 10 (possibly beyond--I haven't questioned her). She can count by 2s, 3s and 10s up to any number within her knowledge, but more impressively, she's a quick learn regarding any number interval. But her limitations are as impressive. Her speech and vocabulary skills are below average; she doesn't play with dolls or engage in much imaginative play; and with the exception of the four children she's known all her life, she doesn't play with children--which brings me to this forum (courtesy of her pre-k(3) instructor's actions).
Last week, during Zoi's first day of pre-k (solely daddy daycare up to that point), while playing on the slide, the instructor claimed she tried to jump off the top of the slide. After restricting her from all play, Zoi threw a tantrum. Based on the tantrum, the fact that the instructor was unable to redirect her attention, that Zoi did not engage in eye contact with the instructor, and that Zoi spent the remainder of her time in class "counting", she seemed to suggest Zoi may need "testing" (no specific testing was suggested). We plan to have a pediatrician who specializes in developmental issues see her, but we'd also like to have a gifted determination made as soon as possible.
Whew!
So my question: at (just turned in June) three years, what avenues are available to us insofar as gifted testing is concerned? Apologies for the long message.
