Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Should I have my daughter tested?

Welcome Nicky! You've gotten some great advice from others already. I thought I'd just pop in with my 2 cents.

I recommend finding any policies on Gifted for your state (state Dept. of Education website) and for your district. There may be some sort of outline already there for how schools are supposed to deal with gifties.

Think about possibly meeting with the principal and teacher ahead of time to discuss your concerns. Tell them you are worried that your DD already knows much of the kindy curriculum, mention what she can do. Ask them what sorts of policies/procedures they have for acceleration or grouping or differentiation. (E.g., do they test in the beginning of the year and group kids with similar abilities? Is there any chance of moving up to 1st for certain subjects?) Think about what your goals are for kindergarten for your DD. Has she had a lot of experience in settings with other kids, or will kindergarten be her first experience in how to "do school"? There are a lot of lines, getting ready on your own, dealing with dynamics of a full class of kids that is also learning. It sounds like your DD can already read and write pretty well... for our son, he refused to learn to write before school, so at least we had that goal for kindy.

Think about the possibility of full grade acceleration and the pros and cons.

Think about whether homeschooling is an option. It's a great stress reliever if you start school with a backup plan.

I would check with the school to see if they could test your DD. My son's school did achievement testing before kindy. We chose to get him privately tested at 4, thinking about a possible early entrance. The test scores came in handy in convincing the school we were not just making things up. For us, the report that came with the test, explaining what the scores meant, was the best part. We used a tester familiar with GT kids. But I wouldn't recommend paying for it unless you have a goal in mind that requires you having the scores.

In my opinion, most GT parents will have GT kids.

Welcome Nicky! I'm just jumping in to add my 2p-worth (I'm in the UK so my thoughts are valued in p not c) as another non-tester. By the time we thought about it, it was clear - as I think it is to you - that we'd expect DS to test in the region where the tests aren't really that meaningful, and that if he didn't we'd suspect the test rather than our judgement, at least on days when we were being rational. So it seemed pointless. DS's school raised the issue once. We asked them whether they felt test results would be useful to them in working out how to teach him. Not really, they said, given that they knew him well by that point. It seemed that they expected - maybe based on other parents? - that we'd want the data, but had no need of it themselves.

Many people, of course, do need scores for advocacy purposes, and some find them helpful for themselves, especially if they find themselves prone to second-guessing and/or there are inconsistencies in how the child presents that suggest some special support may be needed.

A middle road position might be to find out all about testers in your area who have experience with HG+ children, e.g. know their reputations, costs, likely waiting time to get a slot, and mentally make a plan and put aside the money in case you need test results... but don't actually put the plan into operation. You may find your school is great and really looks at your child, and you have no need of numbers.

Hah! It wasn't. That was his previous school. :-)

I really appreciate all the responses here! Last week Thursday at registration I talked with DD's Kindergarten teacher and ended up writing down where she was at academically. Her teacher assured me she was going to attempt to keep her challenged so that was encouraging. She said it may seem like we are starting out slowly but once she got a feel for where DD is at, she would be able to ramp things up to her level. I really hope this is the case. DD received her folder for class that school work and such is sent home in daily. The first assignment for the class was inside. A clown with 25 circles to color; one for each book that's either read to them, or in DD's case, that she reads. Since Friday she has already read me the 25 books and colored her sheet.

I have to be honest, this whole thing is kind of blowing my mind. The ease and speed that she learns at just shocks me. Since I originally posted a few weeks ago, DD has moved onto addition and subtraction into the hundreds including regrouping with ease. She asked me for more problems to work. She is always saying how much fun she has learning new words or new math skills. I apologize for going on and on, but I find it difficult to talk to others about her without feeling like I'm "boasting."

DD and I have decided that together she would like me to continue to work with her outside of school as well. She said she loves what we do (which is usually an hour or less a day between some reading/language arts and math) so as long as she's loving it we will keep going.

I am keeping homeschooling open as an option as well but I really think she'll be ok if her teacher is able to help her stay challenged and I'm able to still work with her as well.

So much great input here! I was going to try to respond to everyone individually but felt my responses would end up being fairly repetitive so decided on this reply. Anything that anyone else would like to add would be great.

Nicky

Oh, I wanted to add that DD has taken dance classes for two years so is familiar with the rules of large groups of children, etc. that come along with the school setting. So that generally will not be a new learning experience for her. However, she enjoys kids and people so much I really think school will be the best environment for her.