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My daughter is going into the 5th grade in the public school and has just been identified as gifted by the WISC-IV. She has been telling us for a few years that she is not challenged in school. She has always done very well in school. Does anyone have any experience with gifted programs that the school can provide for her or requesting for enrichment progams? I want to present them to the school but not really sure where to start. 5th grade is the highest level in this school so she is unable to skip a grade and we did not want to do this to her for social reasons. Thank you!

The answers to your questions will depend on a few things including where your dd falls in terms of level of giftedness and what types of options your school has/is willing to offer.

My youngest is just finishing 6th grade. In 5th grade, her school offered a pull-out GT reading class that replaced her regular reading class daily and subject acceleration to 6th grade math. Since, like your school, 5th was the highest grade in the school, the subject accelerated math class was taught by the GT coordinator and she took maybe 10-15% of the 5th graders into her math class and taught them the 6th grade curriculum rather than the 5th.

Her school offered an unusual amount of GT programming for our area, though, which is a major reason she was choiced to that school. Also, the GT coordinator/teacher was very intelligent and a good teacher, which counts for a lot in my book.

I'm doubting that a school would offer that much programming for just one child, though, or if they do not have a GT teacher or another teacher to teach a separate group, it will be much harder to get something like that implemented.

Do you know if there are other GT identified kids in her grade? Could they group these kids all in the same 5th grade classroom? Can they regroup the classrooms for certain subjects? For instance, could all of the advanced readers go to Mr. Smith's class for reading even if he isn't their homeroom teacher?

What, if anything, do they offer now for GT ided kids?

Thank you for your response. I just heard back from her 4th gr teacher and she responded "there are definitely no gifted program for elementary level. We are suppose to differentiate instruction so that all children at all levels can learn at their own challenge level". With that being said how come my DD has not been challenged at all? Haven't they seen how bright she is? So frustrating. The teacher did also tell me they have never had anyone test for giftedness in her experience. This was suprising to me!

So now I have a child who has been identified as gifted and sooo shy. She is so shy and embarressed by how smart she is she hides her books so no one can she what she is reading and is afraid to raise her hand in class so no one will know how smart she is.

We have her in the online program at John's Hopkins and has taken Greek Mythology and looooved it and is now enrolled in Spanish for the summer and is thrilled! She loves the extra work. She loves to be challenged and to be with kids who do too. She says to me "mom they are like me".

So with all that said, I just don't know what to do. I don't think the school is going to offer much. The psychologist that evaluated her did recommend Private school for her with a higher level education, but we really didn't want to go that route especially because of the cost but also because she has made some nice friendships. I guess we will if we have to though.

Does anyone have any experience with this and can offer some recommendations? Thank you!

I understand if you don't want to post scores publicly, but it might help to have a better idea of how atypical your dd's need are for your community.

On the WISC, what did her profile look like? i.e., did she come out moderately gifted (a FSIQ or GAI around 130) or highly gifted+ (upper 130s into the 150s)? Did she have a lot of spread, which might still indicate a highly gifted child even if the overall number did not? i.e., were her scores all over the place like 18s and 11s or did they all cluster around, say, 13 or 14?

How much time have you spent around other kids her age in your community and/or volunteering in the classroom? This might give you an idea of how much she stands out and how hard you are going to have to advocate/how much of a sacrifice you're going to need to make in terms of looking at different schooling situations.

For instance, while we live in a reasonably educated community with a lot of kids in GT programming and who have GT ids, my oldest has stood out as very, very different from these other kids for most of her schooling. She read dramatically better than most, if not all, of her classmates, used very atypical vocabulary in comparison to others, wrote "better than I do" according to most teachers she's had from 2nd grade on, was unusually intense and had interests and an attention span that made her appear weird and caused her social challenges in elementary, etc. This is one kiddo for whom we've had to make a lot of sacrifices and for whom just getting harder work or subject acceleration in her strongest subject was not good enough.