Please excuse MY inability to describe things. I am the least verbal person in the family. I am a visual artist and have always dreaded having to express myself with words!
Hi Robin,
Hopefully, you will find a tester who is very familiar with gifted kids, and is used to their 'little peculiarities' - such as likeing to know everything in advance. Not all children test acurately, at any age, but the vast majority do - so I wouldn't worry about it. If it's a lower than you thought score, well, you can monitor and try again later. If it's higher than you expected, then trust it, ok? In the end, if he can work several grade levels above what his local agemates could do given the opportunity - he's gifted.
BTW - I wanted to point out that you expressed yourself very well in the above post. My guess is that you suffer from one or several of the key struggles that Gifties face.
1) We think that if we have to work really hard and struggle with something, then we must not be good at it.
2) We have no usable frame of reference. My guess is that you are able to express yourself verbally better than 90% of the population - however - in your family - you are the weakest. Since we all have a little part of us that wants to deny how different from the norm we are, we see ourselves as 'average' or 'below average' when we are well above average.
3) It is very hard to communicate with people who don't share enough common experience to get what you are trying to say. I suggest that you try a scientific experiement and post a bit here - my guess is that we will read your signal loud and clear. I thought that I was 'bad at talking' in elementary school because the words that came naturally to me were incomprehensible to my first grade classmates. I taught myself to be 'more verbal' by consiously forcing myself to use simpler language. Now as I type, I can hear my inner voice saying the word 'incomprehensible' just before I type it, and then hear my inner voice saying, 'hey - don't use that word, it's 'bad'' and the hear my inner voice saying 'hey -- you are on the gifted board, folks will know what that means, go ahead' and as I type it, I feel a small sharp pain in my chest, but I am brave and type it anyway. That's years of self-monitoring.
((Good thing I've got lightning fast processing speed, yes?))
Anyway - I don't know you, but it's just a guess, and i figure, if it doesn't apply to you exactly, then it probably applies to some of your family members, yes?
Anyway - Welcome Dear!
Love and More Love,
Grinity
