I would love to hear thoughts, opinions and advice from those of you who may have dealt with this before.
Background: DS4 taught himself to read at 2.5, has always blown us away with the math, and simply makes huge leaps in processing data that sort of astound us. We are in a public district that offers 1/2 day K with approx 26 kids per class, no GT programming or identification until 3rd grade and we have sort of figured out that we need to move.
We decided to have DS4 tested in Oct by a tester very familiar with gifted children. DS was 4 yrs 2 mos at time of testing. Here's what we got back.
WPPSI
Verbal 127
Performance 108
Processing Speed 140
Full Scale 122
General language 116
When we got those, I actually relaxed...I mean bright kid, will do well in school, but nothing that can't be handled by anywhere he'd go, right?
Then we got the WJ Achievement scores:
Brief Achievement >99.9% 162 Grade equiv. 2.1
Broad Reading Skills 99.6% 140 2.9
Letter Word ID >99.9% 184
Reading Fluency >99.9% 152
Comprehension 99.5% 139
Broad Math >99.9% 180 3.6
Calculation >99.9% 157
Math Fluency 99.7 141
Applied Problems >99.9% 167
Brief Writing 92% 121 K.3
Spelling 82% 114
Writing Samples 97% 129
Academic Skills >99.9% 161 2.1
Academic Applications >99.9% 158 1.6
We asked the Dr. about the discrepancy and he thinks the FSIQ is not accurate due to DS age. he recommends re-testing in 2 years to get a more accurate picture of the IQ.
Here's my question to all of you...what do I make of these scores? By that I mean, that the Dr. basically flat out said that no regular school would work well for DS, in the Dr.'s experience. He suggested 1) homeschooling, 2) a local private school for gifted children or 3) Montessori for a few years.
So I guess my question is what don't I know. We toured the local private gifted school and although his FSIQ was below their admission minimum, the head of the school offered admission and even suggested starting him now (we are exploring options for fall 2010 when he would be K age). There were definite pros to the school, and we saw a lot of kids there who were like DS4, but the environment left something to be desired and it's incredibly small.
We also toured a fabulous private school that is K-8 with small classes and an amazingly warm and welcoming feeling. They said some good things about challenging him, but I'm just not sure.
So help?!? When you look at all this, what do you see and think? I really appreciate your help.
Last edited by CatherineD; 11/16/09 02:14 PM.
