Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Just starting to look at DYS program

Dottie, If I remember correctly, on an earlier post it was mentioned that it's easier to get a higher composite score than a higher subtest score on WISC/WIAT (don't remember which was being discussed). If so, how can that be? Isn't the composite some sort of weighted average of all the subtests? Or did I remember the post wrong to begin with? Just wondering how the composites are calculated. (the post I'm referring to was in a discussion of YSP's having changed its minimum score requirement from subtest to composite. I thought I read this made it easier to reach the minimum - but it doesn't make sense to me). Thanks.

Dottie said, "Does that help? I'm not sure why DITD went to composite scores, though surely ANY score in the 145+ range indicates a child with very unique abilities!" Yet another example of why you'll never be on their admissions committee! LOL!


There are sure a lot of ways to look at these numbers; I, personally, have made myself crazy teasing them apart and recombining them to get different answers. It's ironic to me that if DYS accepted the composite of the GAI on the WISC-IV and single scores over 150 on the WJ, DS would qualify in two areas instead of *none*. But enough whining....

Thanks Dottie, no eyes glazing over here. I admit, though, I am not the statistics or numbers pro.
DD7 is taking her WIAT the week after Christmas. I plan to print off the DYS chart showing what they are looking for.
She told me DD7 will be testing for about three hours and will have the entire WIAT administered.
I guess there is no chance something will be missed then, we'll just see if her scores are where DYS is looking for them to be.
I'm actually looking forward to knowing where DD7 is in terms of her knowelege.
DD7 knows nothing about DYS. We told her the test is just to see what she knows so she won't have to keep doing things at school that she already knows.
She said, "Great, I can't wait to take the test."

Thanks! I'm glad the tester uses the WIAT because I'm easily confused!

Thanks for the welcome. My son is in K in Montessori, his 1st year there. I believe that it was a better choice than our public school but it's far from great. They use elementary material and he does at the very least 2nd grade math there but it's more practicing of what he can do than learning anything new. His LA could be much better than it is (they do 1st-2nd grade). They pretty much admit that they are not equipped to handle him and believe there must be something better for him. I sure could use DYS help.

We had him tested to be give his current school better idea where he is and also to look at different schools and see what they have to offer. It was a pleasant surprise that he got scores high enough to apply to DYS.



It sounds like our home My son actually begs for math problems saying that he is too bored and has nothing to do. Your son sounds like he could do really well on the test. I think lots of gifted kids know the concepts but cannot do the calculations or whatever boring task is asked. My son's test didn't go as high as I think it would. I don't know exactly what they tested but I asked him if there were questions about such and such and he said no. I guess he ended up on some gaps in the for him easier levels.

To be honest I think it would be nice to get achievement test done once a year just to get an idea how he is doing but then I would probably obsess about the number even more than I do right now. It's amazing how quickly you move from "Wow, that's a great score." to "It makes me wonder why that score is lower than I expected."

So LMom,
It's great that his school is so open. Where do you get Math problems for him to do at home?

Do you want to switch him now?

Does his school have an older classroom?

Have you thought about a gradeskip for him?

Are there any other school that are possible?

Is homeschooling a possibility?

What is his personality? Does he just love his classmates? Love going to school? Act out? Work independently?

Is he reading? What kinds of books does he like to read/listen too?

Smiles,
Trinity - Who is in the process of changing her screen name to "Grinity"

We mostly come out with our own problems, usually during dinner Lately he has been doing a few problems in Singapore Math which I use as a reference. My husband and I are very good in math, we can support his math for long time college levels included.

I don't think we want to switch him in the middle of the year. His school goes higher and next year he would be in the 1st-3rd grade class. The grade span gives me hope that they could support him for another year even though his math will be out of that range. We could try to grade accelerate him right now but he would have to go full day and he is really against that. I need to sit down with the school principal and talk about it. It should be easier now when we have the numbers.

There are other schools we want to check but they are far from where we live. We will go and have a look though. There could be something else we are not aware of.

Homeschooling is a possibility. He loved his play based preschool last year but he doesn't care for his current school. He is ok in school but he acts out at home if his brain is not challenged. He works well independently and is self driven when it comes to things he is interested in. I guess on the paper he looks like a good candidate for homeschooling, I am just not sure we can be together all the time. We need breaks from each other.

He reads. He has been reading chapter books since the age of 3. Language is his relative weakness, mostly vocabulary. He is bilingual which according to the psychologist, is a reason for his relatively low numbers in this area. She expects his general language achievement and VIQ (his VIQ is still in gifted range) to go up and be more accurate around the age of 7.


LOL

There is a lot to be said for half day kindergarten! A 1-3 classroom can be a reasonable match, depending on the kid, with Afterschooling in his strongest area at home. Too bad they won't let him atten the 1-3 room now, the same hours as before, not like he'll be missing much, right? Maybe when the principle sees the numbers you can agree together that a half day for socailzation and mombreak is just perfect for the next few years! Afterall, the schools are always saying how important social development is, right? Kids really seem to like being able to come home at the end of the day with enough energy to be able to do their own thing.

((high five)) on the bilingual!

Smiles,
Grinity