Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Teacher thinks my child may be gifted

Good evening

Recently, at my daughter's parent teacher conference, her teacher told me that she thinks my daughter is gifted.She based this observation upon general classroom testing that she does with the class, her personal observations and that she rarely has seen such a strong all round student. I am not quite sure how to follow this up. the teacher did not offer and testing an our district does not offer any gifted programs (we are in NY). But I have noticed that many of the additional programs outside of school that I could sign my daughter up for require testing to qualify her for eligibility into the courses. Do you think I should / could ask the teacher to have her tested so that I can find additional resources outside of the school for her? Any advice or experiences that anyone may have would be greatly appreciated.

If the school doesn't have a g/t program, it's unlikely they have anyone on staff experienced in testing gifted children. I would imagine, being in NY, that there are many private psychologists better suited to doing the testing you're going to want.

Welcome!

What do you think about the teacher's thoughts about your daughter? Are they in line with what you are seeing? Does your daughter seem to be someone who works really hard and her school situation is a good fit? Do you see any real misfit between your daughter and her school situation? Is your daughter happy or unhappy with her current situation?

To me, with no gifted program in your district, I would think you should weigh carefully whether you are needing access to either some of the programs that you mention or to an accelerated curriculum. If so, then I think it would be reasonable to do private testing. I agree with epoh that you would probably need to find someone outside of the school system to do the testing. If your daughter seems to be thriving in her current situation, though, perhaps you don't need to test, but rather just take in what the teacher says and use it to help guide her opportunities within the school system as they arise.

Even though your school district doesn't have any gifted programs at this time, they might offer testing for gifted-id (please know, I'm not in NY so I have absolutely *no* knowledge of your local area - just offering up suggestions!). If you can get testing through the school district it will be at no charge, so I would at least look into it. Did you ask the teacher specifically about testing, or about whether or not there are any programs within the school district that your dd might be able to participate in if she's id'd as gifted? Did you ask her for any advice re what she recommends for your dd?

FWIW, programs offered outside of school have been *so* beneficial to my kids. If you have programs in your area that you think your dd would like to participate in, I'd have her tested - but I'd also first look into what specifically is required in terms of testing for the programs you're interested in. This is just a for instance, but we've participated in some of the programs offered through Johns Hopkins CTY. With CTY, you can sign your elementary-age child up for their talent search testing even if your child hasn't had any type of formal IQ/achievement testing (hopefully my advice isn't out-of-date, but we did this for our youngest dd when she still hadn't been through any testing). Once your child is signed up, CTY has some programs that I think all families can attend, and others that your child has to qualify for through the CTY testing - but the CTY testing is relatively inexpensive compared to private IQ testing. It doesn't give you test data that you'll be able to use in advocating elsewhere, but it's a relatively inexpensive way into the program for a student that qualifies.

You didn't mention how old your dd is - I am guessing early elementary - if she's older I might have a few other ideas

Best wishes,

polarbear

Thank you so much for your replies! Currently I feel that my daughter is with a teacher who is a good 'fit' for her. She is motivated and eager to learn and her teacher seems to be giving her opportunities to work independently and to work with other students in a a way that is positive for her in the classroom. My daughter is particularly talented in language and has always been well ahead of her peers in this area. Her teacher pointed out that it's not just this area but that she is a particularly strong all rounder. To be honest when I met with the teacher at conference time I didn't really think to ask about testing, I just thought it was great that her teacher had noticed how strong she was. Last year my daughter seemed quite unmotivated in class and her 'spark' was just really hard to ignite at home. So the fit with the current teacher seems good. After the parent teacher conference I started thinking that come next year she'll be with a different teacher and I began wondering if we should do testing or gather evidence of some sort to be able to push for a teacher (and some additional resources if possible) who will be flexible and supportive again next year. Her teacher last year was very traditional and there wasn't much scope to think outside the box and she just seemed to 'switch off' for a lot of the schoolwork. I'd hate to have a repeat of last yr.

Thanks for the information about John Hopkins CTY - I had briefly looked at that as a possibility - so I'll have a look at that properly again. I guess if she did take the talent test for CTY and she performs as I think she probably will, that will be another indicator that perhaps we do need to think about something extra for her.

Thank you all again for all of your advice. As a total newcomer to this it's great to get input.