Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment WISC IV Testing Questions

Then again, I feel I have underestimated DS all along.

That is some pretty high achievement. It sounds like your ds would be a good candidate for a skip and I'd be skeptical that subject acceleration alone could meet those needs. If he's not radically opposed to the skip, but just hesitant, I might push it a little with him. My dd wasn't opposed, but she also wasn't seeking it out herself. The school brought it up.

What we did was have her shadow a 6th grade student for a day at the middle school to see what she thought about going there next year rather than staying at the elementary for 4th. Perhaps if the school can arrange something like that for your ds, it might give him a glimpse of what it would look like and improve his opinion of skipping.

In some ways he sounds like my dd12 in elementary. She had "friends," but they weren't kids with whom she was really deeply connected and she was bending herself into whatever shape it took to fit with them. I think that, at the time, she didn't know what having real friends felt like. She is not skipped, but she has found a much better social fit in middle school for other reasons and I think now understands the difference as she has people with whom she fits without having to change or be someone she is not at the core.

Thanks, Cricket. So much to think about, and you've helped quite a bit.

Oh...and how long did it take before you were informed of the results?

I just want to pipe in on this one. We too got a shock with my DS Explore results at age 11. He was in GT language art program that was really strong program. His Reading and English scores didn't surprise but his Math scores did. He had been totally grade level up to that point. I would encourage you as Cricket said to really feel out his level of opposition. My DS was 100% against skipping grades. He had to many close friends and activities he was unwilling to part with.

We approached the school for subject acceleration in Math and later Science. He is already in an accelerated LA program. The regular class in higher grade would have been a step backwards for him. He has since skip 2 years of math, 1 of science and compacted curriculum both subjects. He is dual enrolled in middle school and high school. Now that he is at the high school and has made a lot friends, he may have had a different opinion about skipping. He is happy with his set up and has friends at both schools. The sort of radical subject acceleration with his age mates has worked for him. He should have been skip early before his friends and activities impact his view. We do have a school that has been supportive of him and helpful in making it all work for him. Each situation depends so much on the school you are working with and you child.

Is the school testing him? We got our private results the same day as testing followed by a written report a few weeks later. School results - we have always had to wait for the scheduled follow up meeting. Private testers vary in how quickly they give the results. Some seem to keep the poor parents waiting for a long time.

Thank you, Jtooit, This is all helpful.

Yes, the school is testing him. Did you find your DS's IQ supported the high achievement scores? I have to admit, I worry that this has been all for nothing and I will have consequently gotten my DS's hopes of subject acceleration up only to disappoint. (I've already spoken to him about the possibility that the school may not find it a good fit to subject advancement him and he will have no way of knowing if the scores were the reason.)

Like I mentioned, we had the IQ done two years before the skip came along so they were two different processes. For IQ, I think that it took a few weeks before we got results. For the IAS/skip process, the whole process played out over a month or two. It has been a while (dd14 is a 10th grader now and was in 4th grade when the school was evaluating her for a skip), so I can't recall for sure. However, I believe that I wasn't too concerned that they were going to say "no" since they were the ones who initiated it. We were more the ones who needed convincing and we left the meeting at which they approved the skip not having made a decision and telling them that we'd discuss and get back to them.

I can see as how this whole process may be a lot more stressful in your situation since you are waiting on test scores and the school may not be as gung-ho behind it. In regard to whether IQ supports achievement, though, I can say that I've seen it both ways but it is a lot more likely that you are going to see achievement higher than IQ when you are dealing with achievement that isn't as high as your ds'.

For instance, I've seen high achieving, but not gifted, kids who are pretty consistently A students in grade and who get grade level achievement scores that generally run around the 90th-95th percentile and which even sometimes pop up to the 98th or 99th percentile. I think that above level tests can help tease out the high achievers like that from gifted kids to some extent as they really become more of aptitude tests than achievement tests when they are taken a few grades above level like your ds did.

I'd bet that, with as highly as he scored on the Explore, there is a very good possibility that the IQ scores will come in where you need them. Not hitting the IQ bar on the IAS also doesn't rule out subject acceleration, but I'd expect that his chances are good on IQ none the less.

Thanks, Cricket. I was all set to give DS a pep talk as in "have fun, relax, etc," but the test was already given today. He came home and said it was the most fun test he's ever taken--more fun than the Explore test, even. He said it took about an hour and forty minutes and that the pysch was really nice.

So...we'll just wait and see.

Good luck! That sounds positive at least.

My kids loved the IQ testing! I agree with what Cricket said about the IQ testing. It can go both ways. It is nerve racking waiting for the results. We didn't approach the school until after we had results. It was probably a lot less stress as nothing was really riding on it. My ds scores did come out inline with his explore testing. I do have friends that have been quite disappointed. Above grade level results are more suggestive than similar scores on grade level testing to me.

My ds came home since my last post. I asked if he would choose a different route now that he has done this crazy schedule and 2 schools at once. He said, "No way, I have the best of both worlds." For him our situation just works and for others the our situation would not work at all. He said if you skipped me early it would have been great but once I was really connect to my friends I would have really been lonely. He feels anything after 4th grade would have been hard for him. I would really get down to the nitty gritty of your DS's feelings on the topic. I would probably wait for results and the schools reaction before having the conversation. We knew the school would probably give us what we asked for by the time we really pushed for it. We had one of his subject skips before the testing but neck breaking pace of the last 1 year or so was post testing.


For me as a parent the testing was really helpful in understand my kiddos. I was really clueless or in denial anyway about how different he was from his peers. It help us as parents advocate for him with more conviction. For my dd6 it has been just as enlightening as she presents very different than ds13 does. I know that wait stinks, but I think you might find it very helpful in understanding your ds.

Glad your ds enjoyed the testing. It's good for it to be a positive for him.