Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Would you request IQ testing, or wait?

Srry -
DYS info:http://www.davidsongifted.org/youngscholars/
DYS qualifying scores:
http://www.davidsongifted.org/young...holars___Qualification_Criteria_384.aspx

They are 4 points higher than your local school district, but more generous in that a child needs to be high in only Verbal, Performance or GAI to qualify if they have supporting achievement scores.

Great thing about DYS is that they understand that one needen't be gifted 'across the board' to have special educational needs.

I totally know, and still go though this myself!
Part of it is because people always thing of themselves as normal and project their reality onto other regularly - and most unusually gifted kids have unusually gifted parents.

The reason for the mixed messages, I think, is that our kids are rare. So what works well for most families isn't nescessarily going to work for us. And the things that work for families like us isn't going to be talked about at the local school pickup line.

It's really admirable that your teacher tested all the way up to 5th grade. I keep reading stories here of teachers who tested up to a full grade above current and stopped because 'well, we aren't going to do anything about it anyway so why bother?'

Up until recently, most of the focus on 'gifted' has been on 'gifted' as a single group - with perhaps some focus on females, gay, 2nd language, poor backround, or gifted plus LD/ADHD. There hasn't been much attention to the effect of 'levels of giftedness' and the difference that makes, so usually folks will see your gifted kid and start reeling off advice for the local average gifted kid. As if starting Kindy reading at all, vs. 5th grade, vs. 9th grade, vs. college textbook didn't matter at all. Now you are going to think I'm fibbing, because isn't this obvious? But when one considers the shape of the tail on the bell curve, one sees that 2/3rd of kids will be right up against any cut off line one chooses to draw. and the rest will be quite skewed towards the fat numerous middle, rather than out on the spindly end.

BTW that reminds me - see if the tester knows about 'extended scoring' (It was published in 2008, therefore it's still 'new' and often overlooked)

- when the WISC IV was first developed they did their best to (LOL) 'solve the problem' of high LOG kids by erasing their existience and making 160 the hard upper limit. Thankfully this issue has been raised and solved with something called 'extended scoring' - let the tester know that such thing exists, and that you want it used if it's indicated for your dd.

http://www.pearsonassessments.com/N...C-8E4A114F7E1F/0/WISCIV_TechReport_7.pdf

here's the link

Smiles,
Grinity

http://www.pearsonassessments.com/N...C-8E4A114F7E1F/0/WISCIV_TechReport_7.pdf

So, I did reach out to a mom of a friend of my three year old DD who I know has a 2nd grade boy who has been identified in our district (not the same school) and we're going over there for dinner on Fri nite so I can hear more about her experience. I believe he was tested in first grade. So that will be good to hear about.

It is interesting b/c we did have a private (Jewish Day School) option that we seriously considered. It would have been Hebrew immersion which I believe she would have LOVED as well as testing right off the bat in kindergarten, but even still I was not convinced her gifted ed options were as meaty, if that makes sense? It is one gifted teacher rather than one for every school and an entire program lead by the district. You know? So it would have been quite one-sided from this one teacher's perspective. And she had K-12 grade as well. So, it is our fall-back, but I am hoping public will be the better bet for us.