Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment genuine question about my sons results from SB5

Sadly I have been trying to write this post for over 2 hours now but dont want it to come across as..."wanting everyone to tell me my son is SO AWESOME" but I have finally convinced myself that if I cant ask the question here - where can I ??? Anyway - so DD got an FSIQ (SB5) of 142.

From my previous readings I thought 150-160 was profoundly gifted and it was only if he was anywhere near this that we would really need to do anything different with him. So when we got the 142 I thought "eh yeah so hes pretty smart, a bit above average, but he should be fine to just mosey along as he is!"

With more reading I think I am just confusing myself but from what I can work out and reading the report in some areas he is in the top 0.1%, now thats pretty high??!

What I am trying to ask is it reasonable to expect that he will be ok in his class as is and just do a couple of subjects above for example..? Yes he has a pretty extensive vocab, and asks some pretty cool questions lol but apart from that I dont see any real evidence that he is any different? He has LOTS of great friends, all kids seem to like him and generally he seems to be pretty popular.
Of course he is only 5 and am I reading WAAAY too much into it and any real probs wont start until he is older? I just thought that a child who is PG (if thats what he is??) would be different to my little boy.....he seems so normal!
I am aware that the terms highly profoundly etc are not used that much so is 99.7th THAT rare??

Depending on what his index scores are, he might even qualify for DYS. That said, what you will need to do in terms of acceleration depends at least as much on your child's personality and the kind of school environment that he is in as on his IQ, so without knowing more specifics about these factors, we really can't say what kind of a ride you are in for - and those factors can change radically from year to year, so any predictions are really just guesses.

I'd advise reading "A Nation Deceived", which discusses many different types of acceleration options, and which helps dispell some of the myths that parents and schools often believe about acceleration for gifted children, and also pulling out the score report to see if erhaps your child meets the IQ criteria for DYS. That program might be able to offer you some help in planning where to go from here. Remember that your child is the same child you had before you got this score report. Hopefully, the scores will help you understand him better and make sense of some things that didn't really click up until now.

Hi, thanks for replying, and for the double posting? I posted a few days ago and it didn't come up so thought it was lost completely...... and then it appeared lol (I would have to assume the giftedness DOESNT come from me :-) )
I have been doing lots and lots of reading on giftedness and am finally beginning to accept that maybe the tester DIDNT make a mistake lol.
Thanks for your thoughts kcab, the reason we got him tested was he stared reciting a chapter book to me word for word as I was reading to his sister... and he was over the other side of the room lol - it TOTALLY freaked me and my hubby!
He is already in a composite class so is doing year ahead work anyway, so maybe we should be looking at a double skip. I have been reading that to do it earlier would be better?
Aculady, lots of good points thank you - what do you mean indexes? And just to clarify I am in Australia :-) and in a very remote area with a choice of 1 school, which has a gifted programme starting at year 5!!!

Hi rw512411,

I hope it's ok to cross post to another forum here, but there is an Australian forum which you might find of use re accessing 'local' resources (if you haven't already joined). It's http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/giftedfamilies/

This site is fantastic, but sometimes it's useful to have regional connections too

Re the double skip, it is generally suggested to accelerate one year at a time. Given it's only the start of term two (I'm in Australia), perhaps it's worth seeing if you can skip to the higher grade in the composite for this year so next year he can go up to the next grouping? I'm guessing he must be in a prep or kindergarten/grade one composite? Given how few Australian schools have gifted programs, the fact they have one, even if it starts at grade 5, is not the worst thing in the world (it's a better starting place than many of the inner city schools in our capital city!) - it means at least they're ok with the idea (though being ok with it and knowing what it actually means are two different things in our experience). I'd ask for a meeting with the teacher and principal and ask about what might be possible. Maybe he can skip and be subject accelerated in particular areas for example.

Good luck!

Well, if you are in Australia, that makes the DYS program out of the question at this time. I believe they are only serving children in the US right now. The index scores that I was talking about are the Verbal and Non-Verbal composite scores on the SB-V - it is entirely possible that one of them is above the 145 mark, which is the 99.9th percentile cut (and the qualifying criterion for DYS if you lived here in the US).

A full-scale score at the 99.7th percentile means that if you randomly selected a thousand children your child's age, only three would be able to perform as well on that test overall as he did - so it is likely that you are going to have to do some work to find him a real peer group in your small rural school, and it is unlikely to be composed only of his age mates. If the teacher in your child's classroom has 30 children to teach each year, a child like your son would come along less than once every 11 years, so don't count on his teacher ever having seen a kid like him. Finding him some same-aged, equally-gifted peers would be fabulous, but it is the sort of thing that will probably be more likely to happen through gifted association meetings, talent search programs, or special interest clubs.

Hopefully the school will be flexible, and will appreciate how unusual he is. Good luck, and don't be shy about using gifted forums like this one and the other more local one that was linked to elsewhere in the thread to help you feel your way.