Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Define MG, HG, PG?

I was going to say in my second post, but didn't, that the informal distinctions work for some kids, but not so much for certain personality types. I was a HG kid who would have looked MG based on Pru's and Grinity's thoughts, because I was a compliant people pleaser as a child. It never occurred to me to tell my parents that much of my instruction was boring. They knew of my giftedness and put me in a strong program, but I lacked the tools as a young child to realize what was missing and advocate for something better.

Although I thought the intent of my original post was to help me clarify my posts in this forum, I think a deeper reason for the post is my desire to make sure my compliant and wants-to-be-really-good-at-everything DS6 gets what he needs. He has a big spread in WPPSI scores, and I see critical thinking and math/science skills that are high, and reading skills and processing speed skills that are a bit lower, making it difficult for me to figure out what he needs and what's too much. Hurried response, but that't the gist of my thoughts.

LMAO Pru! Ain't that the truth!

Until now I've yet to use the e-mail button, didn't see a use for it. I just e-mailed Pru's definition to the hubby since he's said before "your definition of gifted must be different than when I was growing up." ((i.e. gifted=state spelling bee champion = what special needs?)). He just thinks the boy's normal, just smart, but normal. He just thinks the boy will go to school, if he's well behaved, like a normal kid, and the teacher will see how much he knows and let him teach the class. (I guess, like a normal kid?)

Yeah, I think the chart is fun but not really "on" for my kid. She did/does indeed excel in school, but struggles internally. She has tested MG...though I just had a discussion with her teacher (she attends a gifted school) that suggested that she is significantly outperforming many of her peers, despite being only 3 points over the program's IQ cut-off score.

Talking about special needs. Here's one of my old friends, Jon Pennington. He's now a poster child for bipolar disorder. He basically remembers *everything*, which makes it nice when you talk to him. He always remembers me.

The bipolar diagnosis explains some of his more interesting features.

"Though his own post-competition life was slightly rocky, Pennington warns off anyone looking for scandal in the lives of Spelling Bee winners. "There aren't any... living under bridges or cracking under the pressure. I haven't heard any horror stories, like the cast of Diff'rent Strokes or child stars gone bad. They seem to be average people. The only thing that tends not to be average about them is they tend to be smart and have very large memories and usually have more degrees than the average person."

Nevertheless, it took Pennington nine years to get his postgraduate degrees at the University of California-Berkeley. During that period, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which he believes may have prolonged his academic quest. "That was one thing I didn't even know about myself when I was in the National Spelling Bee," he says. "I'm generally quite open about it. It shows that many people with bipolar disorder are high functioning professional members of society. I do all the things I need to do to keep it in check. I keep healthy, take the right medicines and try to live right. I guess we all have our crosses to bear, everybody's got their 'something.'"
A member of three national Quiz Bowl championship teams, he also spent his years at Berkeley running a website that kept close watch on political conservatives. Now, with his Ph. D in sociology, he's a federal contractor in Washington working for "a minor agency" in the Department of Defense. But, he says, "I'd prefer to be working as a statistical consultant to help the Democrats retake the White House."

www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1624100_1624098_1623359,00.html

I say my son is EG, only because hoagies says he is. LOL!


But, he also refuses to go to school, so he is by Pru's definition as well.

Hell, nine years isn't too bad for a PhD in my book!

I was hoping your friend might have been the winner the year that I competed in the National Spelling Bee, but it looks like he won in 1986---I was there in 1984. I bombed out on my second word, though. (Didn't study even a little.) He might have been there in '84, though--the winners often compete for a few years before they win.

I don't know if he was there in '84, although he probably was there.

I think he finally got annoyed with not winning and simply read the largest dictionaries he could find (including my father's). Since his memory was basically perfect, he won in his last year of eligibility.

We even had a special ceremony in our elementary school for him and watched him perform on the Johnny Carson show.

Spelling was never my thing. I lost on the first round in my elementary school because I couldn't remember the word chute. I will now always remember the word chute (which I spelled shoot).

Hoagies Gifted Education Page addresses levels of giftedness and provides a chart summarizing comparative equivalent score ranges from various assessments:

https://www.hoagiesgifted.org/highly_profoundly.htm

I prefer the term "superior" due to its disambiguity.

(100-114) Mildly Superior
(115-129) Moderately Superior
(130-144) Highly Superior
(145-159) Exceptionally Superior
(160-174) Profoundly Superior
(175+) Supremely Superior