Nicky,

Welcome! I was asking similar questions to family last year, recognizing that DS (now 6) was simply at a different starting point than other kids headed into K were at. I went back and forth -- test, don't test -- for over a year. There are no gifted programs in elementary in our area, so there was no urgent need to test, which may be similar to your situation.

We finally tested this past spring. I will say that, for us, it was helpful in advocating as we planned for the coming year. It gave us -- and the school -- some idea of where he was at, while also allowing us to connect to DYS.

Here are two links i found helpful and are probably part of the reason we waited until after he turned 6:

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/why_test.htm

http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10112.aspx

Good luck!