Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy What tests should we look for?

Jill-
Re: learning differences an excellent book that addresses every concern you've listed is "The Mislabeled Child" by the Eides.

Dysgraphia (handwriting problems) is explained very well in that book and they connect it with giftedness in the chapter called "the Midas Touch". It seems the kid's working memory is so loaded with ideas and processing creativity that the body doesn't allot or have room to allot time to developing automaticity in handwriting. For my son, the 2nd grade year really brought these problems into light. This, his 3rd grade year, has seen regression in handwriting ability :^(. It's a bit heart breaking, but we are finding alternative methods of written expression and in those areas his written expression is usually 6th-8th grade!

I'm pretty certain your son will qualify for SPED services, although your district might need you to educate them on the IDEA2004's laws in the area of 2E. SPED then needs to be a strengths based process for your son, if you should chose that route. Then advocate from both perspectives. We've been doing that this year. Our son has an IEP. We've gotten his disabilities accomodated (scribing, learning keyboarding -- that we've taught, using tape recorders and bullet writing as well as remediation in language arts and writing, etc). We managed to get him placed from the lowest ability cluster to the highest to begin addressing his learning needs from the gifted aspect. Hopefully next year will see a grade skip.

The rote memory issues can be indicative of a lot of things, including giftedness.

Sometimes kids with auditory discrepancies will score high in perceptual reasoning or analytical reasoning but low in the verbal areas. Dyspraxia, which is my son's official diagnosis (among other things:^( ), see scores the other way around with the verbal high and the perceptual low.

Processing speed issues can affect the other scores (for example he may need to take extra time to think through all his ideas to get to the answer the tester wants) , although a lot of psychologists and test administrators don't understand that. So, it is very likely your child's scores in the high area are even higher if the timing factor is removed. The WISC can be performed untimed, but most evaluators won't do that.

RE: spelling, my Mite, now 9, was a horrible speller. We finally added spelling to the IEP and now the teacher has to go over the errors Mite makes and allow him a shot orally. His spelling went from 40%ish on the pre-tests to 90%ish!! In other words, he can SPELL he just cannot handwrite what he knows. So, now we practice everything orally and noticed he has improved even in his written spelling.

This is getting rambly long; so, I'll stop now.

Grab that Mislabeled Child. It will really enlighten you. Read the section on "Gone in 60 Seconds", then "Handwriting or HandWringing" then the "Midas" section. It all becomes so clear why a highly gifted kid will stumble in handwriting and other areas.

Cathy � thanks for the touchpoints info. Oddly enough this is a little like the solution I came up with recently. We made index cards with dots representing the few +/- equations that just never stuck and another set of cards with dot grids for multiplication facts that he didn�t know quickly. Then he used the visualization technique I found for spelling words. He had his all of the missing facts down cold in less than 2 weeks with about 15 minutes a day of practice. He simply needed a picture to tie to the fact.

Part of my frustration with the school right now is that I had to spend hours looking into learning styles to help him find a way to get the material memorized. He hates flash cards, probably because he hates speed drills. But cards with a grid of dots made complete sense to him. I fully agree some material just needs to be memorized, but surely the school should be aware that massive repetition is not the only valid memorization technique. When we talked about memory, I asked him how the school said he was supposed to learn the facts. He said, �You just do it a lot until you remember them.� I asked if that works and he said, �No, I just get bored. The pictures are cool though because they work.�

Willagayle � thanks for the book info. My local library has it and I�m going to pick it up this week. The tester mentioned auditory issues because of the higher perceptual and analytical, and also because the digit span was so different from the number � letter sequencing and arithmetic areas in the WISC. He also mentioned that DS7 finished some block design questions outside of the time limit and became anxious and quit answering items because of the time limit. DS7 also missed easy items and then answered much more difficult items correctly on a couple subtest, so the tester thinks some of the scores underestimate his abilities. As I understand the exam, they stop after the child answers a certain number of items incorrectly within a time limit. The tester was aware that the time limitations impacted the tests, but never mentioned an untimed option.

My kids are not big on flashcards either. They especially didn't work for DD8. She just got fast enough in her calculations that it didn't matter that she didn't memorize them. I tried flashcards with her for several frustrating weeks, until I decided that it wasn't getting her anywhere (except frustrated!)

DS4 does arithmetic in his head by visualizing items to count. He visualizes the counting, too and counts silently. You wouldn't know that he didn't just memorize it. He once did a calculation like this and told me the answer. When I praised him for figuring it out, he said, "But Mom, I cheated because I just counted the dots in my head!" He also thinks sounding out new words is "cheating" because he didn't just read them instantly.