Hi everyone - I have been lurking here off and on for a while, but still don't know if I should be posting or not as the whole gifted issue confuses me.
My DS is 10 and has always been very bright. He talked in full sentences by 14 months, could read/write (sentences) by age 4, etc. He has always been described as an "old soul" and struggled to make friends early on because he suffered from social anxiety issues.
Our school does not do much for bright children - there is a TLC class for exceptional readers, which he has been in since 1st grade. But, because the school never made much of his abilities, we didn't either. Back in 1st and 2nd grade he took the Terra Nova's and did excellent. In 4th grade they started with the NWEA and he consistently scored in the 99th percentile for Reading and LA, and 97th and above for Math - though, by looking at posts here, I don't know that his scores were exceptional. In 3rd grade they also take the Test of Cognitive skills for placement in an after school advanced learning class for 4th and 5th grade. He was accepted into the program (only 2 kids from each class are selected) but it wasn't until November of 4th grade that I was told that he had achieved the highest score possible, a 141+. (I have no idea why it's "+" - as you may have determined, I truly am a newbie to all this...). He just got his NJ ASK scores back from 4th grade and had scored Advanced proficient for all subjects (that was the only year they take LA, Math AND Science). 3rd grade scores he had gotten a perfect score in Math and this year he missed the perfect score by 4 points). Now that he's in 5th grade he was given the NWEA again the 2nd week of school and again he scored 99th for reading and 97th for math.
We were just given an invitation by his school to apply for the Hopkins CTY program and I have decided to have him take the SCAT. But, at what point do you cross the line from thinking of your child as bright to gifted? I see my smart, straight A, scatter-brained, forgetful child and it's hard to reconcile that with gifted. (I do know that some of those things are traits of gifted children). At the urging of his TLC teacher, he was just accepted into a local Gifted Child Society so he could take classes with them, which he just started last week.
He tells me that he feels "invisible" in school and I get that - he's not the child that needs attention. But, are we not doing enough for him? Should we have further testing done, like an IQ test, so we know what we are dealing with? I just truly find this all a bit overwhelming and I'm not quite sure what is in the best interest of my son.
Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jen
