Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment how to approach kindergarten year?

Our DS5 also starts kindy in the fall. We had him tested on SB-V when he was 4, because we were thinking of early entrance. He turned out to be PG. We took this report to the school district's gifted coordinator, even though gifted programming doesn't officially start until 3rd grade. She acted as a liaison for us, and set up a meeting with the school psychologists and the principal. They wanted to test him for achievement on the WJ-III, which they did a couple months ago. They also hand-picked a teacher for him who wants to have such a kid in her class and is flexible in style. They plan to give him something different when the other kids are learning how to read and early math (still haven't figured out what that will be, but we're meeting again before school starts).

For us, it was very important to talk with the school before kindergarten. I think it's important to have everyone on board in really understanding how far ahead your child is and that he'll need something different, whether differentiation in class or going to another class for part of the day. The other nice thing is that the principal agreed to meet with us on an ongoing basis to make sure things are working out.

There are lots of variables of course - how willing your school district is to work with you, what your state laws require, the personality of your child, the particular teacher you get. But advanced notice to the school will assist them in finding the right teacher and programming for your child, I think.

Also, it's good to have the principal on board, since your child will likely need something different throughout school, not just kindy.

(And of course we don't know if any of this will work - but i'm still glad we contacted the school early, because they seem so willing to try to help us. And we got a free WJ-III out of the deal.)