metis,
I didn't apply to DYS for my ds because he didn't have qualifying achievement scores and I didn't think there was enough of a benefit for us to bother with putting together a portfolio. Getting achievement scores was very challenging for us in early elementary - the times he was given his tests, other than his first set of testing for an early gifted program - were times that the assessment was addressing the impact of his handwriting and expressive language challenges, so he didn't have accommodations on those achievement tests, and the fluency subtests always had low scores because they were timed and relied on handwriting for the response. As he's gotten older and has taken other types of achievement tests through school with accommodations, his scores are back up where we'd expect they should be based on ability... sooo... right now I'm working on (slowly lol!) getting his college board accommodations in place so he can take the SAT and ACT early, and if he has qualifying scores on them maybe we'll apply. Honestly it's not something that has been a high priority for us because I don't think it would help with advocacy at school at this point in time, and he's not really looking for peers through DYS, he's fairly happy with the friends he's found through school. I have found, however, that it *is* extremely helpful to have the WISC testing, both for advocating at school and more so for understanding his challenges
He did have low scores on the Beery VMI, and also on part of the NEPSY (not sure if your ds had that or an equivalent?). I will have to look up the Beery to see which tests he scored lower on- if I remember correctly he had one significantly lower than the other (I think it's two-part?). He also had and OT eval in 2nd grade which was all average or above but had a large split with some scores high, some only hovering around average or maybe low average.
When you have your ds retested, I'd ask the tester if they are willing to calculate extended norms on the WISC. Our tester didn't offer that, and I didn't know about them at the time! She also didn't automatically offer up the GAI the first time he was tested either, until I asked a question about something and she said "Oh! I can give you a number that isn't impacted by processing speed if you want it!" (duh!)
Best wishes,
polarbear
