Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment curious...how well did scores match your estimate

Well you know my 2yr old was doing 8yr old puzzles, so it seemed really safe to give 4yr old puzzles for 2nd/3rd birthdays right? And maybe insulting to give the crazy easy ones :-)... Interestingly my third child is not nearly so advanced with puzzles (or maybe just doesn't have the interest to develop the skill) but is more advanced than her sisters were with lego...

ljoy, my kid stands out in her GT program. She's in a FT gifted program where all the kids are 130+. She's just not a lot above that. I dunno.

I have one that goes here given the direction of the posts. As I said, I knew my daughter was smarter than me but just not how much smarter than me especially what that meant compared to other kids, especially because I didn't really accept my brain for myself.

Last year, I did a camp at my church that including a mix for Mind, Body, and Spirit for kids 9-15. For one segment, I decided to do a Logic Puzzle since I had shown one to my daughter and she picked it up easily and enjoyed them. I took one as a guide and changed it to fit facts about the Minor Prophets (since I figured it was something they wouldn't know already anyway without solving the puzzle). The kids were pretty much all Honors or Gifted kids that made As and Bs at worst. I figured since she, at 9, could do the 4x5 puzzles. Surely, at least the 14-15 year olds could partner with the younger ones and do a 4x4 puzzle within a whole hour. Nope, epic fail! She and her partner who was 11 figured it out first, and I had to give 5 more hints before anyone else finished.

Thanks, ultramarina and MumofThree. Good to remember both that numbers aren't really comparable between tests of different eras, and that what a test measures and what a human observes aren't always the same.

I have an older DD who is MG and my younger DD is above and beyond her older sister. So I know that younger DD would be in PG range. The WISC IV confirmed it.

She has no 2E issue and synchronous development academically (Math, reading and writing) and I was able to compare with her older sister. So it was easy to see and guesstimate.

I thought that my son might be mildly gifted (130is range)- he did most cognitive tasks earlier than the typical milestones with a strong grasp of mathematical concepts. Turns out he is highly to exceptionally gifted. FSIQ 141, GAI 146.

Chalk us up in the clueless category! We also thought gifted meant "genius" or "prodigy". We thought more along the lines of Doogie Howser or a 3 year old that knows all the states and capitals or can tell you everything about every dinosaur that roamed the Earth. To us the probability of being gifted was very rare and it was not how we viewed our girls.

We knew both girls were smart and very inquisitive, but we didn't really compare them to other kids. I read the books on appropriate age development and basically ignored them because both girls were always ahead. The pediatrician would ask about some of those same age developments and we would tell her the girls had already hit the markers. She would ask how many words they knew, or have the girls jump on one foot or draw a picture of themselves, etc, then she would tell us we were doing a good job and to keep it up. We just patted ourselves on the back and kept going. We did a Parents As Teachers program with our 1st child, which runs from birth to 3 years of age. The lady would bring in blocks for DD9 to play with and we would let DD9 put together a jigsaw puzzle to show her. She also told us we were doing a good job and to keep it up. We didn't waste our time and do this program again with our 2nd child. We thought when the girls starting reading around 3-4 years old it was because they both went to pre-school for 2 years. We thought most, if not all, the kids were reading at least by the 2nd year of pre-school. Now we know that we were just assuming this and we were wrong.

DD9 was tested at the end of 1st grade, after she just turned 7. We weren't even looking at IQ necessarily, but were trying to get answers regarding her behaviors in school. When the testers explained where her IQ was at on the bell curve (which we also knew nothing about) and how she hit the ceiling in several sub-tests we were floored. They told us they hadn't seen anyone her age score so high on the memory sub-tests. Now that was something we could believe because sometimes it seemed like she had a photographic memory. DH and I just always joked that we had to make sure we followed through on what we said since she would definitely remember.

We had hoped to get DD7 tested at the end of last school year, but we got stuck on a waiting list and will hopefully get her in sometime during the 1st semester this school year. DD7 is very different from DD9, but now that we know more about what being gifted is like, I would say DD7 is also up there somewhere. I also wonder about possible stealth dyslexia or slow processing speed with DD7 because she gets it, but sometimes it takes quite a while and she is still turning letters and numbers around. I will have to post again once we get her results to see how close my estimate is with her.

Looking back, we had several indicators and several people that should have clued us in, if they had any idea about giftedness themselves. We just didn't even know we should be looking in the first place.

While not Doogie Howser, my 3/4yo did know all the states and capitals and could tell you everything about zillions of ocean creatures. I don't think he will test much above 140 (just basing this on comparison with his sister and where she tested). Some kids are just more into the whole "knowledge sponge" thing, I think.

On what scale is 130+ "mildly gifted" and 141 is "highly to exceptionally gifted"?

He still has time to become the next Doogie if he wants to!

I totally agree about the sponge thing. All those incessant, infernal questions they ask us about all the time - they actually absorb and recall the answers. Ahhhmazing! LOL!

You probably understood that him knowing all those things is unusual, since you had his older sister to compare to, right? That helps you come up with the 140ish estimate. What did you know about giftedness prior to your daughter?