Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Questions Regarding Testing Middle Schooler

Good Sunday morning,

I posted the other day regarding my dd12s ACT scores and wondering about testing. I then deleted it as I wasn't sure what questions I wanted answered, as opposed to "someone please tell me exactly what my child needs, in detail, year-by-year to meet her intellectual and emotional needs." Obviously, that question, well, can't be answered in an online forum. I got the ACT results and I had a little anxiety attack. So, the general thing is that she meets DYS criteria in all areas but math. Not really concerned about that as she hasn't learned much and we as much told her to do what she could and not worry about it at all. After all, this test was just to see where she was at, not to prep her. And it was to help her overcome any anxiety about standardized testing. Guess I don't need to worry about that.

I was here a few years ago as a result of dd's school issues and trying to decide what to do then. We decided not to do any testing and just try and find a decent educational fit for her, which was NOT the school's GATE program. In looking back, clearly even though it was a gifted program, it wasn't really doing much at a significantly higher level.

Back to the point, now we have decided that testing is absolutely essential to determining dds schooling going forward. We know we are going to keep her where she is for 8th, as it is as a whole an academically accelerated program and she has essentially had a grade skip. Unfortunately, it is still very easy for her and she is frustrated by her peers. She does have friends, though, and she has no desire to change schools right now. But, high school is something we need to evaluate on an objective basis with real information/tools for that decision making. We have the ACT scores, now for IQ and/or other achievement scores. As for DYS, perhaps that will be a resource we can rely on as well, but no matter if or if not she meets this program's criteria, I need tools for advocacy and a knowledgable psychologist to help guide us.

We found on Hoagies a link to some psychologists and there is a psychologist about 5 hours away from us in Georgia. We are in a small city (Mobile, AL) and I am wary of using a local tester due to dd's unique personality - giftedness and ADHD and likely OEs.

So here's the question - is it worth it to go that far to get the test? What tests should I be looking for for primarily verbally gifted learner? WISC IV alone or something that helps with verbal ceilings. I seem to recall something about one of those, but can't remember what that test was called. I looked on Hoagies again but can't find it.

Thank you much for your time,

Sky

Thank you for your response. I took some more time with the Hoagies website and found that actually it is the WISC IV that is statistics indicate has a more verbal bias, so we'd probably go with that one. She was previously tested and tested as moderately gifted before, when she was six, but we the results were not representative as she couldn't get our child to complete some of the tests.

I don't know if she is a YS. I generally under-estimate her, but truly I'll be surprised (well, maybe not super-surprised) if she hits the 145 level. I mean, that's 99.9%. And I'll be so okay with that, too. I just would LOVE the guidance provided by the education counselors. But we'll see.

Last question - Is it worth travelling for or should I have a local psychiatrist complete the testing? If anyone has any insight into that, I'd appreciate it. I am going to look into a local tester as I met with a psychiatrist who had a recommendation to day. But if it is truly worth traveling, I'd like to know. And if anyone knows of anyone from Louisiana, AL, MS, GA, or FL panhandle, let me know. Perhaps I'll post about that in the regional area.

Thank you again for making me feel welcome. OH and, the advice about asking DD - I will definitely sit down with her and have a focused talk about what her ideal education looks like. It is so nice that she is now older. I hadn't really thought about asking HER and I feel like a dolt. Another reason to be appreciative that I took the time to post, although it makes me a bit nervous to send this out into the Internet, especially when I only get views and one response - makes me think that I OVER estimating my daughter's abilities and that ya'll are thinking "yeah, yeah, another wanna-be." Yes, I have issues, I realize.

Hi
Personally, I would drive for an experienced tester. We tested DS12 on WISC-IV after DYS level results on ACT. It really was helpful on a personal level to understand him better. He did test above the DYS criteria on WISC-IV and I came to really understand how my idea of "normal" is really off. He seemed pretty normal to me.

The schools may or may not embrace the information. We actually found ACT scores had a bigger impact on the willingness to do more for our DS. The schools are familiar with the test. If your 12 year old is out performing their seniors it is meaningful information.

I would make sure any tester you choose would use extended norms and GAI. If you have any 2E concerns that experience is also important to know about the tester. Our tester would not calculate extended norms for our DS even though he met the criteria by a long shot. I didn't think to ask before hand because it never occurred to his scores would be that high. Our DS has scores that has hit a ceiling but ultimately we don't know exactly how high it would go with extended norms.


I was really glad we tested and it put a stop to me second guessing my perception of his ability.

Good Luck

Thank you. It does seem that testing is vital at this point. We did not do further testing 3 years ago because it would not have affected our decisions. However, going forward, I believe having the full picture will help tremendously - and I agree that finding the right tester, especially given our conundrum child, is needed, even if we have to drive a bit. I just don't want things to be up in the air, inconclusive. I want to know, for sure. That is another reason for wanting to ensure we have the right tester. I don't want to second-guess the results by going to an inexperienced tester, especially now that I have learned more about the types of questions asked. At this point it seems that the testing part is the easiest.

I think driving is worth it but, if it's five hours, I suggest driving one day, staying in a motel, and testing the next morning. Trying to do all of it in one day is going to be a lot for her. Sorry if this is obvious.

A word of caution, though, that you still might not understand what she needs even after testing. Mine tested DYS and scored highly on the SAT at 11 but I have no clue what to do with that information. The school thinks all is good and that all their teachers can give him enough.

I'm fairly certain he is not getting enough challenge but I have no idea what to do about it. He has already skipped one grade and is very young for his age (11) so another grade skip up in to high school is probably not a good idea. He doesn't want to homeschool.

I think testing can be very beneficial but be aware that it's not going to give you all the answers.

You wrote: "someone please tell me exactly what my child needs, in detail, year-by-year to meet her intellectual and emotional needs." Wouldn't that be LOVELY to have? I would love it if someone would just send me a roadmap on what to do with my kiddo.

I don't mean to be negative. It's a hard road and it's hard to know what to do with all the information once you have it.

I'm a little confused as to why an IQ test is needed to plan an education for this child. I'm not sure how that will get you "exactly what my child needs, in detail, year-by-year to meet her intellectual and emotional needs"

I wonder how much you can do by doing placement tests at the high school? By middle school level and beyond, it seems to me that performance/achievement should drive things more.

Geofizz, no need to be confused, that's MY job with my daughter .

My statement that I am looking for "exactly what my child needs, in detail, year-by-year to meet her intellectual and emotional needs" was intended to be tongue-in-cheek. Really, it was. Apparently I bombed that! Testing is just an easy information fix, as I said, the easy part of this - figuring out what to do after, that's another thing altogether, one I will just figure out as we go.

As for testing, these last three posts bring up very good points - it won't give me a GPS coordinate guided map for her education, but then I never really expected that it would. It could, I thought, be a piece of the puzzle. And, if we had some assessment with a good evaluator, I thought that professional could provide some guidance. The ACT was taken because we were invited to - to give her the experience. I never thought we'd do more testing. But, when we got these results I thought that perhaps I wasn't thinking about her education as much as I should be. And if I should be thinking more about it, shouldn't I get all the info I can?

Does potential really not matter anymore once you are out of elementary? Is performance all of it?

So, lets just throw this new one out there - test or not? Any other opinions or ideas?

We were glad to have tested-it gave us the info and confidence to request a successful grade skip into 7th. Well worth it in my dd's case.

Thanks! I am glad you are getting some results. We are going to look into it more and see what is the best path.