Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Testing preschoolers/asychronistic development

My son will begin preschool this August. By then, he will be 4.5.

Do preschools do any testing of their student's level of ability? Is that test done at the beginning or end of the year?

He's reading second grade level chapter books and doing simple addition and subtraction, can count into the hundreds, tell time to the quarter hour, etc.

I'm wondering if the preschool will suggest early Kinder enrollment instead? My gut says they won't (because it will mean a loss of his enrollment fee per month).

A problem with going into Kinder early is he's physically behind most five year old kids. So staying with preschool either will or will not help with that development. My worry is that by the time he begins Kinder at 5.5 years old, he will be even farther along academically, even though he is physically on par with an average Kindergartener.

Has anyone a similar child who is now older and can tell me what to expect?

What country are you in?
In the US most preschools don't 'test' kids, in part, I think, because they expect preschoolers to be 'all over the place' developmentally - which can work in favor of our kids.

I would say that it's entirely possible that Kindy would be a better fit for your child, but if you think so then go directly to your local Kindy and tell them your concerns.

It's also possible that preschool and kindy (especially if it's a half day program) will work well for your child, and skipping 1st is the way to go, if it's needed at the time.

Do monitor your child carefully, because spending long hours with kids who are at a very different place developmentally for your child, and teachers who are expecting your child to be quite different from who he is, can be very hard on certian personality-types of kid.

He probably will be even farther ahead academically by 5.5 years old, I'd say it is more of a 'promise than a threat.'

We keep hoping that the early developers are just 'early' and that if we wait, that soon the other kids will catch up, as they did with their other milestones. This must happen sometimes, but I wouldn't plan on it.

My guess is that if he's physically behind his 'intellect-mates' I would try and get physical therapy or occupational therapy, as it will be easier to 'catch him up' or hothouse him physically than it would be to 'slow him down' mentally.

If OT and PT aren't possible, and your son isn't also 'below average' for his agemates, I would try hothousing at home, with a book such as:
http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Activities-Grades-Physical-Education/dp/013673054X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b

or
http://www.amazon.com/Out-Sync-Child-Has-Revised/dp/0399532714

Being competent physcially takes lots of practice and experience, and it can be sort of boring for some GT parents and kids to do the repetitions that it takes when there is so much else fun to do in the world. But if I had it to do over again with my DS15, both of us agree that we would be 'less child led, and more Adult high expectation' in the physical activity department. He's promised me to take the theoretical grandchildren out to play catch every single day after work, G-d willing.

Hope that helps,
Grinity

I hadn't thought about pushing him physically, since I'm not really sure knowing how to ride a bike or skip rope is really all that important a life-skill. As for swimming, he WILL be pushed on that because I DO consider that a safety skill. It's just not my parenting style to force things when I figure he will eventually do them. (Which explains why he was a late potty-trainer, I suppose!)

Interesting your son said that, though. Maybe for boys (stereotype coming) it's more important to be able to keep up in that department. I'll ask my husband his opinion on it. OT/PT is an option for him, but knowing DH, he will want to push our son more before we go that route.

We're in the US. My confusion over the testing comes from reading on here about I.Q. tests for little ones. I didn't know if that is given by the schools upon entrance or exit. I will definitely consider going to a psychologist for a test before Kinder if he keeps up his mini-leaps in ability.

Thanks for your insight and the book recommendation.

Ametrine

I think most pre-k's don't test because they don't need the information. Our DS 5 just finished a "very academic" pre-k where they did worksheets and pseudo-book reports and there was a huge range of abilities and knowledge. They helped the kids with their letters and numbers. The fact that my DS reads books ranging from 3 to 6th grade depending on subject was not really relevant to what they did with them. They had no problem with him reading when he had free time but they virtually ignored it as they considered it their job to teach him social skills. In retrospect he was SOOOOOO bored by the end but we had no way of knowing that when I signed him up(at 2, started at 2.5) and nowhere to send him once we knew what we were dealing with. We tested privately first for information. Then he was tested to get into gifted schools for K. But there is no skipping where we are so we are stuck. And he got into an excellent gifted program and he is likely still really far ahead in reading. I am a bit concerned but am hoping that as a gifted school they will be more amenable to teaching to where he is.

Pre-K was really good for DS in terms of writing which my posts from just last year show him delayed. He is not now. Just the fact of regular repetitions of writing his name and the expectation of drawing etc really helped. I don't know how much my DS would care about the physical differences resulting from a skip as they are already apparent. There were kids in his class who could climb trees and DS couldn't or wouldn't yet was the same age. But I agree with Grinity about practice and exposure. DS always ran so pathetically, the kids in class would lap him he was so slow, regular soccer and regular swimming and he is much stronger. He lives so much in his head that he would never choose the physical first but does enjoy it once doing it. Still I wouldn't stop a skip over it if the disparity really requires it.

Testing is great for showing you what you may or may not see, some of us used it for confirmation we weren't crazy, others to understand differences, others just to get into programs. Still others didn't test because there was no need to validate it that way.

If he has never been in any program, starting with pre-k isn't a bad idea even if he is ahead and then perhaps seeing if a K skip is possible. Rather than focusing on this from the pre-k side, you might want to start researching your area for options. It might help you see what you need to do, who you need to talk to and what options are available.

Just some thoughts,

DeHe

The evaluations we were given from our son's PreK teachers were things like: Can Identify All Letters, Can Count to 100. Can Write Upper and Lower Case Letters, etc. They did not evaluate anything beyond what they considered very good for most preschoolers. Of course they realized he could read and knew an awful lot, but they didn't much care to challenge him. Eventually we got a Gifted and Talented Consultant in to do some grade level testing for him in order to see what he was really capable of. This was important because now everyone understands what type of work he can do and we're all on the same page. He is doing a grade skip with subject acceleration next year. Eventually the school may have requested an IQ test, but we decided to do it on our own so it was on our time table. We found it helpful to know the score so that we could have a better grasp on what sort of accommodations he might need. It was also an eye opener because he scored higher than we thought (feared?) he would. I think it was good information for us to have, and it was useful for application to DYS as well.

My son had some periods of struggle during PreK. He became aware of the differences between him and the other kids. Sometimes he enjoyed their activities, but he often acted out when he wasn't challenged. Your son may not do that depending upon his personality. You could talk to the K about early entrance (if that's a possibility where you are) and find out their general policy, and then you should also talk to the preschool teachers and see what their classroom is like and if/how they would be able to work with your son at his level.

Some ability testing may be helpful for you to make your decision, but ultimately much of it will be his personality and your feeling on what will be the best fit for him.