Hello! I'm turning to the experts on this forum to help confirm if my child counts as "gifted" or simply very talented.
Public/private school admission is not an issue, as we homeschool, but I do need to negotiate with after-school academic program coordinators, and in a couple years, CLEP proctors and college admissions. I don't want to throw the word "gifted" around if my child does not in fact qualify, while I'm trying to lobby for early admission or skipping levels.
My 11 yo DD began reading at age 3, not exactly independently, but she identified the word "box" spontaneously all on her own, and so I took the cue and began her formal instruction. She completed 1st grade at age 4 and is currently chugging through freshman high school algebra and chemistry. Her 2 siblings study at a similar level or one year behind. I had her take the Stanford Binet in Sept and the Stanford + OLSAT in November. To be totally transparent, the SB was not independently proctored - I just bought the online version for her and sat her down at the computer.
Her SB gave her an overall IQ of 143: her 2 highest categories, "visual" and "knowledge", were 145, and her lowest category, "innate", was 125.
Her OLSAT gave her only a 119 SAI, in the 88th percentile. However, the Stanford academic portion was in the 95th percentile for the complete battery: Reading 98th, Math 96th, Language 95th, Spelling 83rd, Science 96th, Social 97th, Listening 96th, and Thinking Skills 99th percentile. She told me that she ran out of time on the OLSAT portion and could not get to all the questions, but the academic portion is of course untimed.
The Stanford+OLSAT rates her AAC (academic achievement score) as "high" because it considers that most kids with her OLSAT score would not have scored so high on the academic portion. Likewise, the Stanford Binet considers "innate" intelligence her lowest category, while her high categories are mental skills that are learned. So I'm questioning if my child is gifted, or if she is simply a very bright child who has been extremely motivated under a custom school program. I want to advocate for my child, but I don't want to claim she's more than she is.
I'd be very grateful for any feedback!
