good points everyone. I guess my concern is how to use the information. Take the magnet school for highly gifted, for example. GAI 133 (for DS) whereas full scale IQ was more like 126. The 133 score probably shows his ability to understand the material, but the 126 probably shows his ability to actually perform the work. In a few years, assuming his scores stay the same, he could get into the program based on 133 but does he really belong there? Or are the deficits going to cause a child to struggle so much that it's detrimental to them? Also, his strength is in non-verbal, not verbal and there is a discrepancy there as well.
I was just talking to another mom about this this morning. Her 4th grader is in the gifted magnet school and we were talking about DD and her ADHD and speed issues. I'm pretty sure DD is bright enough to do the work. But maybe not in a timely fashion. So is that the best place for her if the majority of the kids don't have discrepancies or weaknesses like that? If not, than what IS the best place for her? The normal classroom where she would do grade level work for the most part?
blackcat, I think the answer to your questions is going to depend on the interaction of quite a few variables: your child's personality, the nature of your child's challenge, the actual program, and the attitude of the teachers and program staff. A key to your child's success, no matter what program - is going to be accommodations (and remediation where it is needed). Once you have a good set of accommodations in place, and your child knows how to use them, in theory I would expect they should be able to be placed in a highly gifted program. I can't speak for all kids but I can speak for my own 2e ds, and he's happiest (and has done his best work) when he's appropriately challenged *intellectually*. He does spend more time on homework than neurotypical peers - not because he doesn't understand the concepts but because it just takes longer to slog through all the output of what he does know and understand. He is a-ok with that, however... and he's become very adamant that he does not want to be stuck in classes that are slow-paced. I've also seen over the years that the times that he was able to break through and do his best work in the areas he's most challenged with were... when he had apprpriately intellectually challenging assignments. Just assuming he needed to start at square one and work through very remedial work really didn't work well for him.
polarbear
