DS is 3, and I am considering getting him tested just so I have some answers. Are there even tests offered for a child this young? He turned 3 in February. And if so, how do I find a legitimate tester?

The RIAS can be used with children as young as three, and so can the SB-V and the WPPSI-IV. But testing at this age can be unreliable, because children this young are not always cooperative, and many highly or profoundly gifted kids still just don't have the stamina at this age to keep testing up to the real limit of their capability.

Why do you want your son tested? This could help people suggest a test or say whether testing is advisable.

I wonder if at an early age, a structured interview of the parents about the development of their child is a good alternative to an IQ test. The tester may spend only an hour or so with the child, but the parents will have spent tens of thousands of hours with him or her.

I just want to figure out where he is and what to do. I dont think he is profoundly gifted. I think he is definitely a level two, and possible a level three (according to the Ruf book). But I know that I am not a professional, and I dont like to depend on my diagnosis. I just want to make sure I am doing the "right thing" especially going forward and determining the best schooling options. We dont have a lot of choices where we currently reside. Honestly, I feel a bit overwhelmed.

If there are few options available where you live, what do you hope to accomplish with testing at such a young age?

I would expect that if you aren't in some city where there are lots of competitive programs that testing now isn't going to help you much. Just make sure you get him well grounded in basic and continue let him progress at whatever speed seems right for him. If there is a problem that you see then I understand looking for testing, if there is a requirement for some program then I understand testing, but it kind of sounds like you don't have a real need for it at this point.

You might find this recent thread useful:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....8278/Re_At_what_age_can_you_test_fo.html
and do have a general browse around too. And don't feel put off this board by people asking why test - there are plenty of people here who understand feeling overwhelmed, which seems to be the underlying issue for you!

Jai,
I think if are feeling overwhelmed it's important that you reach out and seek support, for your sake and for your son's since you have to be his foundation for many years.

I don't really know what to tell you about the tests. There are tests for preschool kids. If you really want that, it's your time and money and if this tester doesn't administer them, just keep looking. It will mostly likely NOT be the first round of testing for your son, so my advice is "get assertive" as soon as possible. I am speaking from experience here!

If your state has a gifted association, or if there is a university within a few hours or so with an early child development department or psychology department you could reach out to them to see about an intake type meeting. Or look over at the Hoagies website for testers.

Also, if you have the opportunity start getting out into the world with your son, like museums and preschool music classes. Sometimes you get bits and pieces of good advice or insight from people when you're not expecting it, and it helps make up for all the other discouraging encounters you might have, or just feeling isolated. It will also help your son to connect to adults that might possibly understand him quite nicely.

Good luck : - )
Bzylzy

Thank you all. I was just wondering if testing would be helpful, and tell me, I don't know--maybe something useful. We are not completely isolated in terms of school choices, we just aren't in a major metropolitan area (which is where I grew up). We have public schools and private schools, including Montessori andone Reggio-inspired.

And we do take classes and our own personal "field trips.". I am wondering (which I posted on another thread) if enrolling him in preschool would be helpful (which I think) or harmful (which my husband suspects).

I find this forum extremely useful. Thank you all again.

Jai, if it was me, I wouldn't bother testing yet - but that's mostly because I think it might add to a sense of confusing and/or feeling overwhelmed. Your child is really young, and if the test results come back lower than you anticipated you might find that his results are potentially skewed because he didn't feel like being tested or was distracted or whatever, and if his tests come back sky-high you also might find either yourself or others questioning are the results really valid? We've had both happen to us with our EG ds and our possibly MG dd. Both were first tested when they were 5. DS' test was fairly accurate, as he's had other IQ tests in over the years and the #s have always tracked. BUT - when we were advocating for a change in placement for him in school in the early years we had school staff who believed that his high scores weren't necessarily accurate because he was young when he was tested. At the time, the thing I wished that I'd had in addition to the testing (and possibly in place of it) was a record of his accomplishments as he grew - ideas that he'd expressed, models that he'd created, etc. Having a portfolio of the proofs in "real life" of his giftedness would have helped more than the IQ tests in advocating for him as he went into school.

Re what to do now - expose him to all kinds of different things - museums, art at home, take him out for nature hikes, talk to him. Let him watch PBS or the Discovery Channel or interesting videos you find online. If he has a passion, fuel it. Take him to the library. Read to him - read read read and read again to him, even if he is reading himself. Read big books, classics, complicated things. Don't limit yourself to reading children's early reader books. Ask him lots of questions, ask him for his ideas.

Then when he's taking his nap ;0 do your research - look into what educational options are available so that you'll be ready when the time comes.

Last thought - seriously, don't over think it. You'll do FINE by trusting your own instincts. It can feel overwhelming raising a gifted child, but it can also feel overwhelming raising a non-gifted child. I think for most of us the overwhelming feeling comes in because we want so badly to do things right, to give everything we can to our kids whom we love beyond measure. Ultimately it's simply loving our kids that matters the most to them and is what they will remember forever, and it sounds like you are already doing a great job with what really counts

polarbear

Hi Jai,

I wanted to respond because I posted something similar recently inquiring about testing for my almost 3 year old daughter-- I also feel worried sometimes because I suspect she is very bright and want her to have a better schooling experience then I did! I got similar (very nice) responses on this board about waiting to test, which I'm going to follow. What has been working well for my daughter is a more play-based preschool. That way, she's playing and socializing with other kids and it doesn't matter so much that she can already read and spell words, etc. Other thoughts: I second the music class! My daughter loves that (probably because it's both fun and involves words). For a kid that appears to be gifted verbally-linguistically I also say exposing them to a second language if you can is a lot of fun for them. My daughter loves being bilingual.

I completely, totally, identify with the wanting to test, though. I just want to "know" and get ahead of this. But I doubt my child would cooperate and there isn't a really compelling reason to do so right now.

I love polarbear's comments about instincts and loving our kids.

Feel free to contact me further if you want to commiserate.

I'm waiting on testing until closer to school since I can't imagine my DS2.5 being even remotely compliant now. I just finished Deborah Ruf's 5 Levels of Giftedness and found it helpful, especially for ideas about what types of things I should notice/write down (sort of like starting a portfolio as polarbear suggested). You are not alone in feeling overwhelmed. If you do test, I'd love to hear how it went.

IF you have a gifted child and put him in a regular preschool you are pretty much asking for problems. The typical preschool is going to subject him/her to an environment where often the teachers do nothing except babysit or if they do try to teach things they often teach for the dumbest and that is going to upset a gifted child. So if you do it be ready to have him/her start hating school or worse still picking up very ad habits. With our oldest child we avoided schools as long as possible, with the youngest we decided to try them... the youngest scored higher on the same tests but her language usage fell dramatically, mostly in picking up very poor grammar that we now have to push her to avoid. If we could redo it we would have kept our youngest out of schools as long as we did her older sister.

Interesting. My DD is 2.11 and has been enjoying her play-based preschool a lot. She is a very social only kid, so I think that she loves the "dramatic play" aspect of things and is good at getting older kids to go along with her elaborate story lines. She also loves the range of sensorial materials available at the preschool and the music and art. She doesn't seem bothered by the fact that she can read and the other kids can't or is the only fluent bilingual kid in the class.

Maybe I'm missing something (and we haven't tested her, obviously) but I do suspect that she's quite gifted (spoke well by 8 mos, good sentences at 12 mos, hundreds of words vocab by 15 mos-- and with bilingual input), speaks like a much older kid in two languages, and can read now. Maybe my DD is happy because she doesn't have a sibling to play with at home and she's very social? Maybe it depends on the kid?

I re-read your posts, Jai, and it sounded like you were doing everything I suggested already. I would trust your instincts!

Berkeleymom, I sent you a message last night, did you get it?

Okay, now I am nervous. This is what my husband fears. The preschool class is ages 2.5 to 4.5/5 ( the older kids don't meet the age requirements to start kindergarten). I purposefully looked for a school that didnt group by age. The lead teacher told me that some of the children in the classroom are reading. It's a Montessori/Reggio inspired curriculum. Do you still think its a bad idea?

Just saw your post and sent you a message, Jai!