Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Portfolio suggestions for a 2E, please?!

I need portfolio suggestions for the DYS application. My son is 6. He's homeschooling at a 4th grade level, but his WJ scores ranged up to 7th (qualifying him in one area). He maxed two subtests of the WISC but his GAI was 3 points too low because he has Asperger's and didn't understand some of the comprehension-type questions (situational) and because he has physical delays which caused him to be too slow/clumsy on other areas. We were told his actual IQ is likely 160, and that we might be able to test again in 2-3 years after more therapy. (He's been in various types of therapy since birth.) His handwriting is at the level of a 3-4 year old. Most of his assignments are either oral or computer-based (mouse, not typing). I really have very little to actually show what he's doing. I could video him reading a chapter book, but that's not very impressive. All I have are a barely-legible English test (90% A, 5th grade level) and a computer print-out showing which skills he has mastered in his online math program. I just don't know what else to do, really! Please help!

I have two twins with significant fine-motor delays for who just received acceptance into DYS after applying with a portfolio. Of course, I don't know how any particular component of our portfolios was received, just that the totality sufficed.

I did video tape my children reading and discussing what they read. I thought the videos of my 6 year-old reading markedly out-of-age material illustrated giftedness.

I did include worksheets with poor, significantly delayed handwriting. My son especially cannot generate enough force to make pencil visible, so he did all his math worksheets in pen. To be sure, 3s and 2s were backwards, etc., but I hoped that the worksheets still would substantiate my children's level of work.

I also videotaped my daughter doing math problems orally as well as both of them discussing science concepts we had learned. I understood that it is fine for children to explain a concept they have studied.

I hope that helps, but again, I don't know how well received any aspect of our portfolios were, just thought in the end the committee felt they had enough evidence.

Do you have any drawings or scribblings that he might have done over the years? It doesn't have to be schoolwork.

We sent drawings that DS had done (incomprehensible as far as the art went) where he had labeled all the parts of a "mousetrap" he made up, and a couple of notes he had written to us and the neighbor girl about various things, and scribblings of math and numbers because everything he did had numbers, and a Frog and Toad story he wrote, stuff like that.

His art and his handwriting were horrific, but these were all things he had done when he was 3 or 4 or 5, when most kids aren't doing things like that. Between that and his WJII scores, it was enough. We didn't even have an IQ score.

i'm sorry, but could you plz tell me what DYS means?

also, a portfolio?
i was told to keep all my 5 yo sons artwork for a portfolio, to help him get identified in the fine arts, but i know you are referring to this DYS...

thanks for your reply... can't wait to read what DYS means!
cc

Hi cc,

DYS refers to the Davidson Young Scholars program (http://www.davidsongifted.org/youngscholars/).

For information on acronyms often used in the gifted world, you might want to check out this thread:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....3990/List_of_Common_Gifted_Acronyms.html