Hello all, I'm looking for some advice to help plan for advocating for my child in the future. DS 3 has always been ahead of the curve with both family and strangers commenting on his advanced abilities. I've been cognizant to prepare for a future of advocating for his education as my husband's family has a history of giftedness and trouble with the public school system. In the cases of my husband and father-in-law, both were labeled as trouble makers and poor students until their needs were met with grade acceleration/a move to specialized private school. At not quite 3, our son is already showing a tendency to act out and hide is abilities when he's not feeling challegened. I want to do what I can to document his abilities as a record of his academic needs in order to prepare for the advocacy he will need in the future. However, I'm uncertain about what kinds of information/evidence to record. The "milestones" don't seem as straight forward as they were in the younger toddler years. What kind of information do you think is appropriate to record and do you have any tips about how to keep it all organized?

It is wise to plan ahead.

I would suggest as a starting point to keep a list of books which he has read. These will show not only reading ability, but also his developing interests.

You might also list any activities he participates in, such as events at the library, museums, etc.

If he has strong interests for a time, such as dinosaurs, planets, anatomy, etc, you might make a list of these and the time period they spanned.

A ring binder is a handy way to keep this information... advocacy information could be added to another tab in the same ring binder, so that everything is in one place.

Later, you (and he) will pick and choose from your master list, deciding which accomplishments/achievements to share for different audiences.

I would suggest getting your hands on your local school districts learning targets for 4K - 3rd grade. When you observe mastery of a skill, check it off with the date and keep a piece of evidence.

I wouldn't list activities, because the school might come back and say he's not advanced but has benefitted from "enriched environment". The reason you'd hear that is hot-housed toddlers typically regress to the mean by 2nd grade -- and districts save money on GT programs by withholding them until 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th grades in order to weed out the kids that will regress to the mean.

I would find out what measure of reading your local district uses, and communicate his reading level in their terms. Rather than an exhaustive book list, state "DC reads at approximately Lexile XXXX, as demonstrated by this list of books he has read in the last month" Even better, use readtheory.org website for free reading comprehension tests and corresponding grade and Lexile levels.

If your state has public 4K, start looking at the enrollment specifics for early enrollment, check out Kindergarten and 1st grade enrollment requirements too. Elementary years tend to be the most difficult for academic match - and I think the most damaging too. Start figuring out the loopholes and local educational system, shadowing schools, attending school board meetings, volunteering in the school too. The more you understand about the inner workings, the better an advocate you can be. I think knowing what they can and cannot accomodate helps before you start asking for modifications of their program.

Please note there is a large difference between a master list which you begin preparing now at home to document your 3-year-old's self-directed learning, and what you may later choose to selectively share with different audiences, during future advocacy efforts.

Honestly, many schools are uninterested in a parent's assessment of their child's abilities. Keep a record if you feel a need to watch progress, but the schools aren't going to use this information to assess placement. They may be likely to disregard it in fact, as a typical parent assesses their child's reading for example at a much high level than the school, and this is even the case for NT kids.

When you approach school age, it will be time to decide if you want to do early entry, regular entry, or skip K into 1st. This will depend a lot on non-academic aspects of your child. With the knowledge of what you hope to achieve, find out the legal requirements for your district (no early entry possible, for example) and see what you can work out (private school workaround). Find out if objective testing (IQ/achievement) will be helpful is achieving good placement.

My kids' school tests them regularly in school and have always come to me surprised by the high results. They didn't need me to tell them my three-year-old's reading level, with either kid.

In general, our advocacy has been most successful when the teacher sees the child's abilities and when the test results from the school's tests show high results.

Thanks for the feedback! This gives me a lot to think about.

There are benefits to documenting your child's out-of-school learning. This factual history may come in handy for applying to Davidson Young Scholars, applying for some activities and summer camps, etc. (For example, there are 8 questions for parents to answer listed in the DYS Application Checklist PDF.)

Meanwhile, if this thread is morphing from tips for documenting giftedness to tips for advocacy, you may be interested in this roundup of links on Advocacy.