Opps - our posts crossed.
As for YSP - my standard advice is - fill out the application and submit it. Only the YSP folks know exactly what they are looking for - for the exact reason the oversimplifing is so dangerous.
Is your son interested in listening to chapter books, fiction or non-fiction? Does he make up stories? The weirdest thing of all about my DS's late reading is that he is much more of a verbal guy than a mathy guy - with his vocabulary hitting the ceilings as well as his "comprehension" which is about being able to verbalize "why things are the way they are." ((shrug)) Human beings are complicated!
Interesting that you mentioned reading as "boring" - I noticed that in my son also - he hated "baby books" and books with cartoon animals in them. I used to joke that until there started to be early readers with weapons and spacecraft in them, that he wasn't going to be reading. No one used to laugh actually. If you are handy on the computer, you can always try the old - "Here son, I'd like to make a million dollars from writing a book for children who are just starting to read, but I'm stuck on ideas. Will you stand next to me as I type, and give me some good ideas?" You may be able to get somewhere with that approach. Then you can publish you results here and say that the other gifted children loved them and are begging for more. I tried to avoid lying to my kid, but I'm certianly not above a little creative advertising.
As for "what the tester meant" you can either ask him/her or wait for Dottie - I don't have a clue!
Best Wishes,
Trinity
