Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Testing

My husband are currently thinking about testing our dd6. She started k this school year and was ahead and frustrated. When we moved we went to homeschooling with k12. They put her in first grade math and the teacher we work with was impressed with her reading but not ready to advance her though she had been in first grade reading with her last school. I know she is advance and has been early on most if not all things. She was my first and I had no clue she wasnt average till her brother came along 3 years later, as her younger sister (a year)was similar.

My question is can I go through the school system or would it be better to go through someone else? Money is tight but if we go back to public school in the future I want to ensure we have done everything to ensure they will work with us.

If you are in Phoenix they actually have an excellent self-contained gifted program. (well according to my research anyway). I would really try to find some way to have her tested privately though and I would see Dr. Paul Beljan. (just google him for his contact info.) I think it is worth paying for his expertise, and better to know what you are dealing with to get the best fit before going back into the school system. Good luck.

We are in Southern California, about an hour south of LA. Thanks for the advice though. I dont even think her current school does test because they promote student guided learning. They did have her do a test when we moved her into the school but it was just with the teacher to see where she was.

I am worried if we move out of this school though that she will lose some of the things that they have let us do to challenge her. We are possibly going into the Army, which will mean moving who knows where by next school year.

She still has to do Kindergarten science which is to easy for her, but we make it more educational because we are her teachers. We get to use it as a guide and go from there. They allow her into first grade math and she will be doing second starting next school year. She may get bumped up on reading if she keeps going. They only didnt change that because she needed a little more work on digraphs and trigraphs everything else she knew. She was already passed kindergarten reading and the teacher said she could probably have her continue but my dd hates to read for long periods and she didnt want to make her keep going.

I would prob. encourage you to keep hsing if you can...I like the Well Trained Mind accelerated learner forum for hsing support (in theory! I have no actual hsing experience!)

Thanks. I want to but I dont know what our options will be in the future. Plus her 5 year old sister while as advanced in her own right as my dd6, she does well if not excels in a public school setting so far. Every day I do school my 5 year old who starts k next year joins us and most days my 3 and 2 year old do to.

DD5 was in preschool before we move and was reading there but until today she refused to read for me. So I am thinking about finding a public school for her. If I do that my oldest is going to want to go but she is not a good fit at school. I still dont want her to feel left out.

I would suggest testing if you can swing it, especially due in part to the fact you said your family may be heading the military direction. Moving around is not optimal when you have a gifted child as some of the places they stick you (we are Army), educational opportunities are minimal at best and you need all the backing you can find to get through to administrators who tend to care less because they know you are short termers in their area.
As for having one of your children go to public school and keeping another in a homeschooling format, we will be doing exactly that next year. Our 5 year old twins will be heading to 1st grade in the fall and they have no problems in the public school system. It could be faster but they are a good fit no matter where they go. Our oldest (DS8 going into 5th grade) is an out of the box, bad fit with public schools and will be homeschooled through a virtual school and other side subjects of our chosing. He is all for the idea however because hes tired of the bad fit at school so we don't have the issue you seem to have with your daughter wanting to be at school if your other daughter goes.
Good luck, but maybe look into testing at a local University with a grad student possibly? That will at least give you an idea of what you are looking at but not with the huge price tag that comes with some of the more specialized psychologists who test gifted children.

Thank you I hadnt thought of the grad student path. My dd loves that she is learning now and able to do her own thing. But we are with K12 through a charter school now and I know not all of them are as flexible so if we move we may have the same problem as with a regular public school. Maybe she will get over the idea of public school after a bit more talking I dont know. She does like school better now, but ever time we talk about my second dd going to school she crys and says she wants to go too.

How do you find a grad student?

We called the psych department at our university. Our school has a location where they offer services to the public. Our son's tester was a grad student working under a professor, so the report is signed by both the student tester and the professor. Testing is also recorded with video.

We had a good experience.

Disadvantages are that you don't have someone with a lot of experience. Price is a major advantage

I'd throw my 2 cents in and advise to ask ahead of time which tests they use. I learned this "the hard way" when we had my DD tested in Kindergarten.

Use the tests listed on the DYS acceptance criteria as a guideline for what type of tests are more widely accepted or known, and make sure you ask if they do a written report!

We are going the grad school testing route, too. (Haven't done it yet, but just spoke with them on the phone to get the details.) Just to give you an idea, our state university charges a $500 flat rate for IQ, achievement and developmental testing. If they uncover any issues that point to the need for further tests, those are included in the flat rate. They give a full written report which is co-signed by the grad student tester and their supervisor, who is a licensed psychologist. I found the info by looking on the University's website. I tried psych departments and education departments and eventually found it.

Every other place we looked was $1500-2000 for the same tests and any additional tests were an additional fee.

Hopefully it will be a good experience. Fingers crossed...