Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Help for a Kindergarten Mom

I would give it a few weeks, and then talk to the teacher. Then give it a few more weeks, and see if anything changes. If not, contact the gifted coordinator and start the ball rolling. Don't wait too long. I contacted ours in mid-Februrary, and the GIEP was done the last week of school (in June.)

I just noticed you are in PA. They are required to test your son if you request it, and if he meets the criteria, they are REQUIRED to give him an GIEP. Google the state law.

We waited until November to talk to the teacher, at the first teacher conference. At that time, she said that she would try to give him some differentiated material, and she did, but it wasn't enough. (I know it was different because he has a twin, and it was much harder than what his brother was doing.) However, his attidue about school, especially reading, became worse and worse, as he was not put in a reading level anywhere close to his real level, and he was being forced to read 4 of those level 1 books each night. (He was bringing home books he had read at age 3. It would have been funny, if it wasn't so sad.)

By February, I set up a meeting with the reading teacher and the regular teacher, and discovered that they weren't going to do anything because "he was already exceeding the required reading level for the end of kindergarten." They were literally going to allow him to stay at the same reading level (group) all year. He was really upset by that point, as he saw the other kids moving up 2-3 levels over the course of the year, and he couldn't understand why his level never changed. I literally went home from that meeting, cried, and then got on the computer and found the contact information for the gifted teacher at the school and requested IQ testing. (My state requires schools to provide an IEP for gifted students, but the K teacher had said "there was nothing they could do in K." ) The teacher was not happy with me, to say the least, but they did the testing and he was found to be EG and at a very high level of achievement. The gifted coordinator and school psych agreed that he needed "more."

Oh, how I wish I had done something the first semester. K was very damaging to my son, and it never really became "better." Once they saw the reading achievement test scores they did move him up a level in reading, and stopped claiming he wasn't comprehending, only decoding, but the damage was already done. He was incredibly anxious when tested for reading by the end of the year because he couldn't understand how he kept failing the tests. They never told him what was expected or worked with him, and he was already comprehending at such a high level that he didn't know they expected him to retell every page to be able to pass, and neither did I, until February. Once they told me, I told him, we practiced a few times at home, and then they retested him earlier than they had told me they would, and he passed. They tried to retest him again at the end of the year to move him up a level, and he was unable to finish the test, twice. I am hoping that having a summer off will allow him to take a reading test without becoming physically ill.

We do have a GIEP in place now, and I have been instructed to discuss any concerns with the gifted teacher, not the regular teacher, LOL. The K teacher absolutely hated me by the end of the year, as it made her look bad when I set up the testing because K was having such a terrible effect on my son. I was always very polite to her, but she thought we were "pushing him" by trying to get harder work. She thought he should just "enjoy K" and "go with the flow" but when it came out in the GIEP meetings and discussions with the gifted teacher that he only showed anxiety symptoms at school, it really made her look bad (unintentionally).

Thank you everyone for the great advice. I decided to give it a few more weeks, but at the same time e-mail the teacher to better understand the timeline of assessments and grouping.

NoSoGifted, we are in Central PA and purposely moved to our current school district because of the Gifted Program. In preschool, I became acutely aware that DS was ahead of the curve and did a lot of research into the area's gifted programs last year. I'm excited about the gifted program at this school, but am still not sure how to get from the first day of school to placement in the gifted program.

No, we haven't had DS tested, but both his father and I were in gifted programming in school and he is performing 2-3 grade levels above K. I like the advice to send in/bring along examples of DS work at home to demonstrate his capabilities to the teacher. We meet with her tomorrow, so I'm gathering together some examples.

The teacher indicated that the class will be separated into reading groups this week, but they do not separate out for math. She plans to give him extra 2nd grade math worksheets. Not sure how I feel about extra work. I know when I was in gifted, I thought the extra work was more a punishment for being smart than an advantage.

Trying to be patient and support him as best we can. Last week he asked if he could see cells with an "electronic" microscope. My sister is a biology teacher at a local school so we are planning a family field trip to look at cheek cells under the microscope.

Thank you for sharing your story. This is exactly what I am hoping to avoid. I'm afraid of the negative outcomes of ignoring and not challenging my DS on his level. I can only hope to learn from experiences like yours and know that, though many have warned me to wait, I also should not wait too long.