Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Bummer ... no-go for Davidson's

((Hugs)) Mia! ((Hugs)) acs! ((Hugs)) Mom2LA ((Hugs)) to Questions, ((Hugs))Zia's Mom, ((Hugs)) to you if you need them and appologies to you if I've left out your name - please forgive, ok? If possible, check in here with your name so I can give you an individual hug, OK?


acs - I'm so glad you feel your needs are being met here. I guess nothing can replace the gathering, but there are other gifted conferences to attend, and I have heard wonderful things about the www.giftedconferenceplanners.org/ "Beyond IQ" conferences.

I know it's natural to question whether a kid who misses the YSP is "that" gifted. But I hope that you'll who don't get accepted get through that stage really really quickly. There's a list in the back of Deb Ruf's Losing Our Minds that shows famous people and her guestimate of their LOG that I would reccomend putting on the bathroom mirror during this stage.

In my experience, for every line you draw on that Bell curve, there are 3 kids that are "oh so close" for every one kid who gets accepted. That goes for your local gifted program, and for YSP! No wonder our School teachers and staff hate gifted programs - how heartbreaking to go through this 3:1 line drawing every single year! It must be so disheartening. Honestly the only way around it is the best way - to have at least 2 programs,(4 would be best, PG-HG, MG, Bright, 2E-and-2Eish, who need a different setting) for kids to move between, and to have a multistage screening process where the last step is 'if the child doesn't appear happy and challenged in current program, try another - if they can keep up, then yes, they belong there!That way Schoolies wouldn't have to feel bad, because for any particular child, there would be atleast two programs they could sit in which would met their needs! Wouldn't that be something! For the Grandchildren!

Given that you've just gotten the "no"s or the "no-for-now"s you may be wondering why I would create a program with all these groups and put HG and PG together? Because I do believe that the only business we have of labeling kids is to met their learning needs, and that HG and PG kids have learning needs that are quite overlaping, and so individual that the program will have to have lots and lots of differentiation.

To put it another way: Most Men are physically stronger that most women. But in every test of physicality there are some women who are faster/stronger/abler than some men. In this analogy one could think of swimming as math, and leg strength as writing. That's how I see the difference between most HG and most PG.

So Yes Yes Yes - Your Child is "That" Gifted. Anyone who is applying for the YSP is most likely dealing with a child who is "1 out of 500" at school. There do exist a few districts where the child would be 1-100 or 1-50, but these are quite rare. So if you hear that they are unusual at school - believe it - even though in your extended families, friendship or work circles they may be only 1 in 50. 1 in 50 is still a pain in the neck when you are looking for parenting advice!

Here's my post from the other thread about my 'mental map' of the gifted world. I would like to add creativity, because a creative MG child may be just as lost in elementary school as a PG one with the ability to challenge themselves.


Smiles,
Grinity