Hi,

I am a newbie here to this forum.

I was wondering if anyone knew of a psychologist in the Baltimore/DC area that has experience working with and assessing gifted children. I see that Johns Hopkins has the CTY, so I know that's an option. Has anyone used them for testing/assessing their child? Or any other psychologist in the area? Any positive or negative experiences to report?

I truly appreciate any feedback/direction that you can provide. My husband and I are looking to have our DS (age 5) tested. By age 2 we realized our son was pretty smart, and many people would say we should have him tested. We didn't think it was necessary at the time, especially since I read many places where testing at that early age is unreliable. I believe that we are now in the situation where testing is warranted. We are receiving reports from his Pre-K teacher of behavior problems, and I know that most of it is probably boredom. (My son has been reading since age 2.5, writing letters since age 3, so everything "academic" they are doing at Pre-K he has been doing for 2-3 years now. In addition, he is off the chart with regard to his math ability, and that's pretty much all he ever wants to do.) I am trying to read anything and everything about gifted education, assessment, etc., etc., and I have to admit my head is spinning! In any case, it's time for an evaluation so we can get my son into an educational setting that will benefit him.

So, if anyone has any good recommendations for a psychologist in the Baltimore/DC that does assessments, I would love to hear from you. Thanks again for any assistance you can provide!

Hi m2gts,

Welcome from a fellow newbie!

We are in MD as well. We just sent our intake form to JHU/CTY for our DS7. Wish I had someone I could refer you to. We had difficulty finding a private psychologist for the gifted who we were comfortable with, so we're now waiting for the JHU/CTY.

Good luck! If you do end up finding someone, I'd be interested to hear.

Hi Mama22Gs,

We were not able to locate any private psychologists either, so we will be using JHU/CTY as well.

Best of luck with your son!

Hi Master of None,

Glad to hear the WISC and WJIII went well.

I'm very interested in the LD tests, as we're waiting for our appointment with JHU/CTY, and are awaiting their recommendations/date. Did you have any input into which tests they were going to perform? Did you know in advance what they were going to be? What do mean by "more educationally oriented" testing might be better? Do you mean tests from the schools themselves? If you're comfortable PM'g, I'd love to hear more....

Thanks much!
~S in MD

Master of none,

Thanks so much for sharing your impressions. I appreciate it. I just sent our forms in and am still waiting for our appointment.

I have to say, all this is so new to me. I've read about so many different tests, my head is spinning! I'll have to go back and review just what the WISC IV and WJ III are. I do have one question (and please pardon my ignorance!), but are you in the room when your child is tested? Or do you get to sit in a different room but can see (like through a one-way mirror) the testing as it occurs without your child knowing that you are watching?

Also, how did you prepare your child for testing; in other words, what exactly did you tell him about the testing/what it was for?

Thanks for any insight you can give!

Wow - we had a great thread about preparing for testing, but it was a while ago, and I can't find it! Anyone remember where it is?

I would advise you to start a new topic with that name, so that parents from other areas might chime in, ok?

Good luck with testing. MON, I'm glad to hear that things went well. I do agree that there tends to be a gap between 'here are the results, I want you to understand them' and 'here are some ideas about what to do with you kid, given you local resources, now that you have these results' - whenever we have done anykind of testing.

Seems like a niche for anyone who is looking for a mini-business. But at least the tests sent me to the library, and eventually to the right kinds of professionals, and finally to some 'interesting things to try.'

Best Wishes,
Grinity

Thanks Grinity, I'll start a new thread on the topic of preparing for testing.

On the subject of psychologists in Md/Va, we are in va., and had a recommendation for a Dr. Ida Sue Baron, in Md. and Va.
I spoke with her and she sounded good, one drawback is she does not work with insurance - you have to pay first and then you submit claims to your insurance.
Still, we are considering her.
http://www.isbaron.com/contact.html

I spoke with our pediatrician because we are concerned about ld as well as getting a better handle on gt. The recommendation was to go to a developmental pediatrician, so we are going to Children's National Medical Center, the Rockville location, for an initial assessment. They have a d.c. location too.
Children's was also recommended to me by the same person who recommended Dr. Baron, and it seems like an ok first step.