Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Siblings/Girls overlooked?

I have two children. My daughter is seven and in the second grade. She was an early walker at just under 10 months, early talker, and was singing the alphabet song at 18 months. She was able to write her name clearly at 3, and simple words by the time she was 4. Her preschool teacher was sure that she would be accepted into a gifted program once she started kindergarten. In kindergarten she took the Naglieri since all K students in our district take it as a screening tool. She scored in the 93rd percentile,and did not qualify. The following year she was administered the Naglieri again and scored in the 79th percentile and was basically dropped from being considered for the gifted program. My son on the other hand was slow to walk at 13 months, didn't speak very well at all until he was almost 4, however he scored in the 95th percentile on the Naglieri and then moved on to take the WISC on which he scored GAI of 130 with a PRI score of 137. He was immediately recommended for the gifted program. Anyone else have a similar experience with girls getting overlooked for gifted programs?

I don't think this is a girl being overlooked, I think this is using a non-verbal test to try to measure a child who may have verbal rather than non-verbal strengths. Your son clearly has non-verbal/perceptual strengths and is relatively weaker in verbal domains (PRI 7 points higher than GAI). It might be worth it for your daughter to get outside testing using the WISC-IV to see if her VCI and/or GAI would qualify her.

BTW, my second grade daughter reads at about a fourth grade level with comprehension. My son on the other hand, reads at a barely average level. So, does the child who has strengths in the non-verbal sections have a clear advantage over children with more verbal strengths, OR is this a matter of a high achieving child vs. a gifted one?

The Naglieri is a more of a non verbal test so is really geared toward your son's strengths. I would not categorize your daughter as non gifted just because she did not do well on that one test. Our former district uses the Naglieri as a screener test and you only move on if you do well enough on that test. I don't know that I would have trusted that test as a true indicator of where my DS was - he did not have to take it because they had already administered the WJ cognitive prior to a grade skip. We later had DS tested with the WISC for application to a gifted program and his VCI was 20 points higher than his PRI and although both were in the gifted range it was clear that his greatest strength was verbal not perceptual.

Similar here.

DS7 is clearly HG even to strangers we meet at the mall. His WPPSI FSIQ was 142. (results of WISC this weekend are pending).

DD5 acts like a very average kid -- easygoing, content with whatever goes on in her classroom. Her FSIQ was 148 on the WPPSI. I didn't even think she'd make the 130 cutoff for the gifted program at our school.

Are girls just less intense about learning than boys? Is it simply a temperment thing with my 2 kids?

Part personality, part gender:

http://www.educationaloptions.com/resources/resources_rufs_tips.php

My unscientific, anecdotally-informed opinion is that it's probably more temperament than gender, because as a toddler, few things would make my daughter angrier than not getting an answer to her question.