Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Where to find gifted testing?

I have done more reading on the SB-V and I am beginning to see the benefits of it to my DD. How do I go about finding a psychologist to administer the test privately? I would like to find someone locally (we are in Ohio) that I could speak with and to administer the test if necessary.

Jeni

There is a gifted conference comming up in Ohio, link here for more info - that would be a wonderful place to network!
http://www.oagc.com/?q=fallconference


If you are near enough to Pittsburgh, check into http://www.cmu.edu/cmites/index.html

Best Wishes,
Trinity

Also read some of the other posts here about finding gifted testing -

this thread is particularly good:
*** Link no longer working ***

One of the key questions you have to ask yourself is - do I need to travel for a useful assesment, or is the local one, "good enough?" The best way to decide is to fill out Ruf's Estimated Levels as best you can - Level III or higher NEEDS really specialized testers. Also, if you are Level III or higher, attend the local gifted conferences, but prepare yourself that your DD may not sound like the other kids. Our local state gifted association does occasional Saturday enrichments that are terrific - and they work especially well if DS is able to register with kids 2-4 years older than he is. Thats the nature of Level III gifted, they stick out even in room fulls of Gifted kids.

Best Wishes-
Trinity
Hey, I think OHIO has really liberal grade skip policies, as in, if you have the Iowa Acceleration Scores, you get the skip, Yes?

Thanks Trinity,

I saw a few articles on the Ruf's estimated levels and DD is somewhere between II and III in my opinion. She hit the milestones of level III but also has a few of the II qualities. I will look into the fall conference. Our local school district also has a gifted parents group, which may be a good resource.

As far as grade skip around here, many kids are started in Kindergarten early, but beyond that grade skipping is not commonly done. Acceleration is more common among gifted kids in specific subjects. Our school district offers "enrichment" services to all kids with teacher recommendation rather than achievement testing up to 5th grade. Not sure how it changes after that, since DD is our oldest and in 4th grade. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Jeni

Golly Jeni -
Your discription of your school's gifted program sounds heavenly to me. Sure, there are better, but at least if they are already used to starting kids off with Early Enterance, they are used to having young for grade kids running around. I susupect that if 2-5% of the classroom is early enteranced, you wouldn't need to have many kids gradeskipped. Perhaps that's why it's rare?

I would reccomend that you start provisionally thinking of your DD as a Level III - no lines up all the way down the line! I have a terrible memory, but my best guess for my own son is Level III, and he is in the YSP. I would definitly be very picky about who you choose for testing, as there is like 100 Level II kids for every Level III kid. ((I'm making this up - anyone can help here?)) So a local person could say, Oh my - I see Gifted Kids all day long, and still be clueless about your child. If you are with in 4 hours of Pittsburgh, I would explore the CMU resource, and see if they have testing. If she really is Level II - rejoyce! You'll be able to met her needs much more readily, and she's on her way to a wonderful life.

Find a tester who has lots of experience in the 99.9 range. LOL - you can always ask them what they thought of the recent Time Magazine article as an ice breaker!

Best Wishes,
Trinity

Trinity,

I agree that the early entrance was a life saver for DD. It is not done very often, because many parents around here choose to wait a year later with their summer birthday children even when the cut off is end of July, I think. So from the beginning DD has had children well over 1 year older in her class. Last year DD turned 8 and the same week another child turned 10. But at least they were open to the idea after testing her, which was wonderful.

As far as CMU, I wonder if they would test DD even when we live in the area for the Midwest Academic Talent Search? I know CMU doesn't test Ohio students for the Explore test, they refer to Northwestern for that. Maybe the IQ test would be different, since they are closer to us geographically than Northwestern. Thanks for that thought, I will be reading their website more, there seems to be a wealth of information there. Thanks again.

Jeni