Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Who does testing in southeast Virginia?

Hi - I'm new to the boards, just trying to learn all I can. We have suspected for a long time our DS (almost 6) is gifted (taught himself to read at 2, knows all times tables, now reads at a 3rd or 4th grade level, etc). He is in Montessori Kindergarten this year and has had a couple issues with behavior (not sitting still, not paying attention to instructions even though he knows the rules, etc.). I would like to have him tested so I can talk with the teacher and have something to back me up when I say he is gifted.

Anyway, Google has not been my friend. I can't find anyone in southeast Virginia who does testing except for the College of William and Mary. They want $1000 for a huge comprehensive assessment which I don't think includes any of the standard tests I've heard about (I'm still learning the gifted lingo!)

I emailed the state gifted group but didn't hear back. I would call the public school except my son isn't enrolled there.

If anyone here can point me to some resources, I would appreciate it!

Id make an appointment now for a WISC 4 the day he turns 6. You don't need any test right now though.

Have you sat down with the teacher? If so...what happened?

Testing is great if you aren't sure but with your childs milestones it is not really a question of if only of how unusually so. Teachers usually aren't interested in test results.

What grade does you sons school go up to? What grade level material does the school stock? If they don't go past 2nd grade you may be waisting your efforts.

Montessori has a lot of strengths but the typical weakness is that a teacher who isn't herself quite bright will tend to dogmatize the developmental timetables and only see the bits of your child which match the preconceptions. I see this as the risk any group of people with a quite good model of reality run. Myself included...if my only tool is a hammer then everything starts looking like a nail. That's human nature.

A good place to start is an hours worth of silent observation at the back of the classroom on the pretext that you are concerned with your sons behavior. The you can meet and share your observations.

Id also recommend reading Ruf's book - 5 levels of Giftedness.

Smiles
Grinity

Thanks for the reply. I'm afraid I don't know where to get the WISC 4 after searching for hours so hopefully someone can clue me in

This particular school goes up through age 12 - he is in the 3-6 yo room right now so next year he would be in the room with 6-9 year olds. We liked the Montessori model because we knew he could work at a different level for each subject as need be and the teacher basically has an individual plan for each child.

At the P-T conference I heard DS can do everything in the room but he still needs to go through all the "work" since he just started there to learn all the Montessori materials (which I get - he is not stuck doing the "baby work" all the time though - he is doing fractions, etc. too). She was more concerned for his emotional and social development - he seems to play with the younger kids more, gets bossy, he talks back to the teachers sometimes, gets fidgety in circle time, hyper-focuses on activities sometimes, etc. I don't really know what advice to give her (which she asked for) because he has just always been like that and I don't really ever see him interact with other kids much (I feel like I would be a distraction in the room if I observed)

I've sort of decided this first year is for getting familiar with how they do things there (although he is learning new stuff too). I think when he gets into the older classroom it will be better.

I just don't want declare that I *think* he is gifted and be one of "those" parents - I'd rather have a test to back it up but I can't figure out where to get one

I feel like we don't have many other options as the public district we are zoned for is completely out of the question.

Thanks again.

Oh and thanks for the tip on Ruf - I see now she has an online test which looks like what I need more than a formal IQ test at this time.