Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Test Results - gifted or not?

So we finally got our daughter's test results, from last fall (she was almost 8). She was initially referred for ADHD testing but they came back with an assessment that she was gifted, rather than having ADHD. The written report they provided has me now questioning their previous assertion of her giftedness, she definitely doesn't qualify for DYS and I'm not sure she'll get into CTD if they average the scores out.

I have the results of around 15 tests here, I'll give the WISC-IV as a start:

Verbal Comprehension 126/96%ile
Perceptual Reasoning 133/99%ile
Working Memory 123/94%ile
Processing Speed 88/21%ile
General Abilities Index 135/99%ile

She scored 18 in Matrix Reasoning but only 7 in Coding.

Any thoughts are gladly received!

I took a quick look back at your original post about your dd - you'd mentioned there that the psych who assessed her recommended sending her to a school for gifted children, and she was testing to get into a public gifted school. Did she get in? If she did, send her! She doesn't have the scores required to get into DYS, but that doesn't mean she's not gifted and it doesn't mean she won't thrive with accelerated work/pace at school. That's my first piece of advice.

My other bit of advice, fwiw, is to try to figure out what's up with the low coding score. Did you the psych have any thoughts behind it? Did he feel it was a valid score? There are quite a few of us here who have kids with large discrepancies in processing speed subtests vs the other WISC tests, and sometimes that discrepancy is an indication that a challenge exists that your child can benefit from either accommodations or therapy etc. Dysgraphia is one of the possible reasons, but there are others too. FWIW my ds with developmental coordination disorder and dysgraphia has a very large discrepancy in coding vs his other subtests, and he absolutely needs accommodations in school *but* he thrives in accelerated classes and is bored to tears in grade-level regular paced classrooms. He's doing really well in school with access to his accommodations (laptop, extra time on tests, etc). The two things that are his largest challenges are organization (which is improving with maturity and a heck of a lot of work) and it takes him longer to complete his homework than it takes kids who don't have the low processing speed bottleneck. It's really important to recognize though that the bottleneck and slow speed are in the *output* not in thinking/reasoning ability - and that's what you need to take into consideration in putting together a plan for school subject level.

Back to your original question, yes, your dd is gifted. But I find it helps to not focus on the term as much as it helps to look at your whole child, how she's functioning in school, is she having challenges, figure out why they exist and then figure out how to either work through or around them etc.

Best wishes,

polarbear

GAI at 135 is absolutely gifted - it is 2.3SD above the mean. Remember, DYS cutoff scores are for the profoundly gifted. Most gifted kids aren't that "severely" gifted. This doesn't mean that they aren't truly gifted or that they don't need special programming.

Low processing speed can be a flag for a number of different issues, including problems with attention, visual scanning, and fine motor control. Determining which of these, if any, might be a problem for a given person requires looking at more than IQ numbers, although subtest scores can sometimes be useful in givng an idea of where to start.

Did they use any other evaluation instruments that may have included fluency measures (especially written fluency) or measures of motor or visual-motor skills?

She is doing great academically in school, it's socially where she falters. She also has a lot of trouble with organization, time management and remembering/following instructions, all of which the dr relates to her low processing speed. She also has poor fine motor skills.

Some of her test results:

WJ-III Achievement
Reading fluency 126/96%
Applied problems 134/99%
Writing fluency 119/90%
Writing samples 106/65%
Brief Achievement 137/99%
Written expression 113/80%

WJ-III Cognitive Abilities
Pair cancellation 105/63
Visual matching 97/43%
Decision speed 114/83%

Beery VMI-6
VMI 121/92%
Visual perception 111/77%
Motor coordination 98/45%

The report mentions that there are clinically significant indicators for ADHD, but because she is doing well in school it should be ruled out. The recommendations he gave mostly revolve around developing her social skills. He also suggested having her take outside enrichment classes at CTD, as well as allowing her to pre-test for each new unit of work in the classroom and allowing her to skip areas she already is competent in. He didn't give any real recommendations on how to deal with the processing speed unfortunately.

We had her tested for the Chicago Public Schools gifted schools last year and while she scored just over the minimum required, she wasnt offered a place, I presume because they don't get too many 2nd grade spots opening up and there were better scores ahead of her. I had her test again this year, I believe they get more spaces in 3rd grade so there may be a chance for her. I didn't get any of the report back in time to ask for any accommodations in the testing unfortunately. I will be sending a copy in to them though, in the hope that they'll give it consideration.

We live in a small single school district right now, and while they do have enrichment within the school (she's been in reading since day 1 of K and in math since this year), they don't really have an official gifted program. A downside to living in a wealthy suburb is that almost all other parents in our situation go ahead and send their children to one of the private gifted schools rather than keep them in the public school, something we can't really afford to do. The school district in the next town has a more established program, but it's still pull out rather than dedicated classrooms. The only public gifted schools in the state are the Chicago ones and the private ones start at $17k p/yr, which is about double our mortgage.

kikiandkyle..
district 54 in Schaumburg has a self contained gifted magnet which begins in third grade. Also, in the Elgin area and Palatine there are schools that aren't 17k but closer to 10k.

Are you talking about Quest and DaVinci? Their sites say they are both $17k. The only private schools I've seen for less as religious schools.

She is a couple of points off qualifying for the magnet in D54. Do you think it's worth applying anyway?

There is the elgin academy and einstein academy both in elgin. For some reason I thought Quest was around 10k. Guess I read that wrong.

There is no applying to district 54 magnet. They invite the kids. They don't take outside testing either. We are in d54, ds6 , with the scores we have from private testing, should qualify when he is old enough.

Elgin is $15k for k-4, but Einstein is $11k which is a bit less. Still, a lot of money.

D54 might be worth looking into, although I'm not sure my husband would agree with moving in the hope that she makes it for 2013-14. He works in Lake Forest so it's quite a trek, at least with CPS he could commute fairly easily.

How have you found them so far outside of the magnet? My younger one is only coming up to 2, but he's showing a lot of the same signs she did already. If I'm going to have two gifted kids to educate it will definitely have to be public!

I'll send you a pm

Those scores are definitly gifted...only a tiny percentage of gifties qualify for DYS.

Read the DSM on ADHD....google it.....there is nothing there that says a child hs to have poor school performance to have 'real' ADHD. Talk to your pediatrician about the social and organizational difficulties and ask dor a second opinion. Many doctors will do a chart review of testing done else where. Adhd can cause slow processing speed but so can several other challenges. Read a few books on girls with adhd and organizational stratagies for kids with adhd.

Read Friends Forever by Frankle ro figure out how to coach her.

Take a few days of notes to notice exactly which organizational issues are having the biggest impact on her daily life. Teaching organizational skills requires time and patience but it can be done.

Love and more love
Grinity


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