Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment What to make of results? Phonemic awareness/memory

Hi all,

I'd really appreciate any thoughts I could get on this.

Long story short, I was in a reading intervention program for rhyming and initial consonants for a little while (I think it was just a few weeks or so, not sure, maybe longer, don't know much about them) when I was in Kindergarten, and I just read that phonemic awareness upon entering school is one of the greatest indicators of later ability. Thing is, I feel like my educational snapshot defies this...

At 6, according to report cards, I was a fluent reader, applied phonetic skills, understood written text and grasped new vocabulary. At 7, the TerraNova clocked me at the 97th percentile for reading while everything else was average. At 9, because I decided I could finish an assignment faster if I skipped the passages and just answered the questions, the teacher thought I couldn't read and had me tested.

I was nearly 3 grades ahead.

At 18, after I scored in the 98th percentile for reading on my GED (I was homeschooled from 7th on and didn't care about school, skipping 12th altogether), I was diagnosed as gifted in reading (above 18.0) and writing (15.6) along with a working memory disorder (13th percentile).

(I've had people tell me that because of the point spread (86-138) that my IQ shouldn't even have been calculated, but that was 102.)

I still have the papers I did for blends and consonants and rhymes and they're 98% correct, and I remember always raising my hand in that class and having to force myself to give the other kids a chance to answer.

What I'm wondering is, were the teachers wrong about me, or should I just chalk this up to my memory disorder or a skill gap? Teachers always said on reports how fluent and strong of a reader I was, and the two just don't seem to mesh for me. If I really was struggling, why are my scores so extreme? I've always felt that reading's come easily to me.

If it helps, I have always struggled with defining predicates, pronouns, nouns and adverbs. The only thing I know is a verb. In some ways my knowledge of that kind of stuff is very spotty.

Oh, and I assume I'm considered 2e?
Thanks so much for your time.

I'm like you in that I recall reading instruction in Kindergarten. In my case, I remember being asked to help kids in the second reading group (slower learner).

I would trust my memory of events if I were you. You probably did have a few weeks of remedial instruction...before they realized they made a mistake. My best guess is you might have had an "off" day when they did the initial eval on you when you came into K. Who knows, maybe you were on the verge of a fever, had a sleepless night or a full bladder...you get the idea.

If you're gifted, you're a quick study. It could be that couple of weeks of remedial was all it took to get you up to speed with the others; assuming you actually were behind. Possibly you weren't exposed to programs like Sesame Street or maybe you didn't have a parent/caregiver read to you and show you the words with their finger as they spoke them aloud?

Whatever the reason, try to keep in mind that testing and conditions vary considerably and sometimes kids "fall between the cracks" of proper identification.

When children are screened for kindergarten interventions, the aim is to err on the side of intervention. No one was ever hurt by a little extra phonemic awareness, right? It's also usually based on a five- or ten-minute screening instrument, which a four- or five-year-old could easily blow off for any number of reasons, as Ametrine pointed out. If you were in for just a few weeks, you were probably there just long enough for the school to reach a scheduled re-screen or progress monitoring date, at which point you tested out. Or if you missed the screening date altogether, for some reason, the school could not, by law, keep you out of school, so they may have played it safe, and placed you into the intervention group until they had a chance to do your screening. This often happens with late move-ins (which can actually mean any time after March of the spring before kindergarten, in some places).

If you have no memory of struggling (rather the reverse), I would chalk it up to the usual adjustments of the first few weeks of school, instead of a significant error.

Hi! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment. I wish I still had the paper that said how long it was for because I don't remember, but I honestly don't think it was long. Maybe a few weeks to a month or two? I have no idea how long that stuff takes, but like like I said before, I remember it being a breeze. I have no memory of ever struggling, and I don't know how much of the aforementioned homework is actually from the intervention versus just regular work (some of it is also from 1st). Also, I don't know at what time during the year this happened, and I don't have any papers saying it happened in 1st at all (1st is when my report card said I was fluent, etc.).

If it was longer than a few weeks, which I don't think it was, how does that change things?

In all truthfulness, I just have a hard time believing that I would go from one extreme to the other, especially with my parents being average readers, if I wasn't gifted and the school was wrong. Also, I read that you can't "make" a kid gifted, so wasn't I born this way? I feel like my brain is just hardwired for language; fluency and pronunciation have always been pieces of cake. My parents think my talent is obvious.

I never watched SS really and I used to beg my mom to read to me and I remember reading ahead of her because she was going too slow. I loved it because it clicked for me where so many other things didn't. It made sense in my head.

Thanks!

Hey there! Thanks for the comments.

I have no idea what time of the year this was done or for how long; I simply remember thinking it was fun because I knew the answers and I can honestly say I'venever felt like I've struggled.

If it was a month or two (since I don't remember, but don't think it was, really think it was weeks), does that change things?

Not really. Schools often have set times for re-screening or progress monitoring, which are usually at 4-6 (or even 8) weeks. The first month of kindergarten and first grade in particular are usually just a wash, as teachers get to know students and figure out instructional groupings. When I used to work in kindergartens, we took into the second month of school for screenings and re-screenings. If I didn't get to you until the beginning of October, instead of the middle of September, you could very well sit in the wrong group for a while, for no particular reason but timing. Expectations for learning and instructional fit are pretty low at that point. As I said, the main exception would be leaning toward overreferring and overplacing students into interventions, as a couple of weeks of it won't hurt students who don't need it, but it might make a difference to those who do.

I think the most likely scenario is that you happened to get a few weeks of fun phonics while the teachers were re-arranging their groups.

Thanks again.

The comments about consonants and rhyming are in the Term 2 block of my Kindergarten report card...so what does that mean or does it change things at all? How long's a term, usually?

Also, my K was half a day.

Oh, and do all students do stuff on beginning sounds, blends, etc? I'm wondering how many of these papers I have are just regular versus intervention...there's even a paper I did in K that says it's for 1st graders that I did in Nov. What should I think of that? I think I started in September...

I really appreciate your help; I'm just trying to figure out what went wrong and what to make of it all.

Do you think it's likely the teachers were wrong? Could it just've been a skill gap that didn't take me long to fill?

Term is a generic word for a school's time period. For example:
- Some schools are on a traditional semester basis (2 terms per year),
- Some year-round schools may operate on a trimester basis (3 terms per year),
- Some schools may operate on a quarter basis (4 terms per year), offering fewer courses (a smaller course-load) for students to focus on at a time.

A school operating on a traditional semester basis could still issue "quarterly" or "mid-term" report cards, showing 4 terms per year.

Using 180 days of school per year, there would be 90 days in a semester, 60 in a trimester, 45 in a quarter. Without factoring in holidays, this would be about 18 weeks, 12 weeks, 9 weeks.

Consonants and rhyming are pretty typical early K phonemic awareness skills.

I really think there probably was no skill gap, nor were the teachers really wrong. You were most likely just temporarily misplaced because they hadn't finished kindergarten screening and placement testing yet, or you weren't in the mood when they did the original screening. It sounds like something more in the nature of a small paperwork issue that was quickly corrected, rather than anything of educational significance.