Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Would testing help ?

I'm usually in the minority on this board about whether to test, but I recommend testing based on your original post. Those of us with MG kids in particular may not be quite so sure about whether they're really gifted or not, especially if they're our oldest, and especially if they're a fairly compliant kid in school. For me, testing our DS before kindergarten made a huge difference in my confidence to advocate for him when he entered elementary school. Based on your original post, it sounds like you would be much more comfortable advocating and pushing for your DS's needs if you had testing to inform you first, and that alone would make it worth it, in my mind.

rachsr - We sought out a Dr to help us figure out what was going on with our son. For us, that was a psychiatrist, and he referred us to the counselor/therapist. You can probably start with your pediatrician. You might also be able to call your insurance (the number on the card) and ask if they cover behavioral health.

I'd also try to figure out what more the school would do for him if you had IQ test results. It may or may not be worth spending the money in terms of getting actual accommodations from the school. For us, I suspect that dd13 would have gotten all of the accommodations she's had including a grade skip even if we didn't have IQ test results, but I've been a lot more comfortable with the bigger type of interventions such as skipping a grade knowing that her IQ is high as well.

Is there any possibility of subject acceleration at his school where he goes to a higher grade level for some subjects?

Re unraveling kids, my dd13 fell apart on us in 1st grade. For her, b/c she was younger (i.e. -- not a 3rd grader), she cried in class, told us she wished she had never been born, and generally fell apart emotionally. Actually 3rd grade wasn't a great year either and I do recall her holding it together better in class (no crying), but she got a lot of stomach aches that were so bad that she kept going to the nurse's office and there were a few times when I picked her up from school and she started just shaking in the car.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply . We contacted a local university psychology department based on a recommendation. They do Gifted asessments for a reasonable cost so we will be taking that route.Thanks again!

Yes Coll You have understood me well. I am an engineer so having hard numbers to back me up will make me very comfortable if I will need to push for changes at school :-)

I am very glad everything worked out for your DD. MY DS hasnt really had severe reactions like your DD its more like not doing his work at school, not paying attention, not wanting to go to school etc. If I didnt have the test scores I would have attributed it to laziness :-( Maybe it has to do with where I came from.

Rachsr: May I also suggest that you volunteer in your child's classroom, if you have the opportunity? It's quite an illuminating experience. There are a number of reasons why your son may not be doing his work in class. It's helpful to see it from a classroom perspective.

That is a very good suggestion. When dd13 was in third grade, they had a number of teacher changes near the end of the year and dd stopped doing her math work and was missing things I knew she knew. I went in and observed from the back of the classroom one day. Dd was reading a book on her lap throughout the entire math period and, when called on, didn't seem to know the answers b/c she had no idea what the teacher had just been talking about.

I try to volunteer but our school does not encourage it much beyond 1st grade. I am infact one of the "Room parents" for DS's classroom.I wish I could go in more often to see what he does. The only time the teacher needs us is for fundraising or arranging specials(about 4 times a year) like during the Holidays time when the kids made ornanments.
This is what I observed then.They had a small activity during this event - the kids had to sort the several trinkets they got and graph the results. DS took his own sweet time to examine his trinkets and by the time he slowly took out his pencil to start writing down what he was supposed to almost all the other kids were done with their work and it was time to pack up.
I should add that DS knows how to draw Bar graphs. Last week he got back home 2 sheets of unfinished class work. One was a reading sheet and the other was a simple math sheet with word problems for multiplication and divison. He had done 2 of the 10 problems. When I asked why he didnt finish it at school, he answers " Its so easy mom here let me tell you the answers" and proceeded to rattle off the answers. Asked him why he couldnt finish it in school and he said he ran out of time. So its more like he is lacking the motivation to do the work rather than not knowing how to do it. Reading too its the same thing - he got his Lexile level 2 weeks ago and it was 890-1015L which is supposedly above 3rd grade level but he didnt finish his classwork that is at 3rd grade level.
I keep reminding him everyday that his teacher cannot give him challenging work if he cannot finish her usual work.He is a people pleaser so he does respond positively to his teacher when she reminds him to finish his work.
We have an appointment next week for his testing but the more I think about it I have come to realize that just testing him will not help. I need to work harder to get him excited about learning again.I still need to figure out how to do that. Researching forums like these have been very helpful. I really do appreciate all your advice :-).