I suspected my oldest dd now 11 was bright, but didn't think that she would end up having DYS qualifying scores (she was tested in January). She attended a small private Montessori from age 3, until 5th grade when we moved in March. I had her tested to qualify for the gifted pull-out at the local public school not for the academics, but because I wanted to get her used to big public school stuff like eating lunch in the cafeteria. She just barely made the cut-off as a 6 yr. old on the WPPSI.

At that time, the tester was inexperienced with gifted kids (we actually used a tester at the Down Syndrome clinic, so her expertise was with the other side of the curve), and I think perfectionism played a huge role in that score being an underestimate. She is the kind of kid who does not want to answer unless she is positive she knows the correct answer. I would guess she probably overthought some of the questions as well.

I can say looking back, that esp. now knowing her level of giftedness, that we made the sacrifices to keep her at Montessori. It was not perfect, and I see now that I should have advocated for more of a challenge in some areas, but it was a far better fit for her than the public school would have been, even if we had known to ask for a grade skip. Montessori is not the best fit for every gifted kid, but for my dd it was wonderful. Just one option to consider for the future. If I were you I would also start looking into homeschooling as an option.

As far as testing, I also have a younger dd5, who presents totally differently than dd11. She is the definition of psychomotor intensity and it was driving me insane until I started to understand that she needed stimulation because she is so darn smart. I knew that it might not yield accurate results, but chose to have her tested anyway because the price was right and I thought it might be useful. She was 4 at the time, and we did it again at the Down syndrome center (dumb!) but the price was right. She was not very cooperative but her FSIQ was 124 at the time I think. So it wasn't a total waste, it showed me that I am not completely crazy to think she is gifted (and I suspect highly) but it isn't really useful for much.

If you have a kid who would cooperate, and a tester who is experienced with gifted kids, and you decide you might want to ask for early entrance to K for example, it could be worth testing. Also as morgans-mommy said, even if you don't ask for early entrance to K it could hopefully help the teacher know how to differentiate the work for your kid.

I think there is a window with the WPPSI where it is most useful before you might run into ceiling issues. Otherwise you have to wait for them to be 6ish to do the WISC (we are waiting to have dd5 tested on the WISC in the spring, with a tester very experienced with gifted kids and who I suspect will be able to get her cooperation).

All of this to say--I think it is great to start learning and considering these issues now--we sort of lucked out with dd11's school sitaution. I believe that if she had been in the public school (this was a perfectly fine public school for the average kid) she would not have the same love of learning.

Good luck! And check out the SENG website. I bet you will find a lot of helpful info. in the articles there.