Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Odd Testing Question-Retest or Not?

Thanks Dottie! I have two friend's DKs scores and yep, they fit the pattern you describe.

TXMom,

I sent you a personal message. To check these, go to "My Stuff" at the top of the page and select "messages".

I had registered mine for the beginner chess camp, but they put him in the intermediate. He wasn't quite ready for it, but the instructor said he did okay.

Welcome to these boards!

And yes, definitively trust your guts and retest.

I had a similar story with DD: she got the SB4 when she was almost 4 and she got 120, a nice score but not even close to the gifted range.
Now, one year later, she has been retested with another test and tester and she got 144.

TXMom,

A big huge welcome!!! Nothing to add that the others haven't said but if you think something is amiss, you lose nothing but money in retesting!

Thanks for the feedback!

Isa, My girlfriend's son was tested in K, 1st, 2nd and it's just now in 3rd that he qualified. However, the strange thing about his situation is that he flew off the charts when he did qualify. So what is up with that? Was the kid not gifted all those other years? I think not, but what held him back in testing? We were debating if this type of issue is common or not? DH wonders if her son just didn't learn the test over these years (I doubt that as well since he is in the 150 range). It was an agonizing 3 yrs for her with public school.

I think some of it boils down to brain development and could also be maturity for testing.

Welcome, TXMom.

If you can afford it, I recommend having your child tested again using a different test and tester. I had my dd tested at 4 years old by a diagnostician. The test results indicated that my dd was just within the gifted range. My gut told me that the results were not totally accurate. A year later I had my dd tested by a Ph.d. psychologist using a different test. This test showed that she was in the PG range. I'm not sure why the huge discrepency but sometimes it can come down to have a bad test day or a bad rapport with the tester.

Hello everyone,

I'm very new to all of this and have never posted anything on a message board before... so you will have to be patient with me. I don't know if I am posting this on the right thread. I have been following some of your discussions and would love to ask your advice. My son, DS7 (? although he will be eight in a matter of days) took the WISC-IV in December as part of our school's acceleration assessment. He was grade accelerated in mid-year from second to third. I have been trying to talk to the gifted teacher and the school psychologist about his test results, and have gotten nowhere.

It looks like he hit the ceiling on several of the subtests for the WISC-IV. He had three 19s and one 18. But his FSIQ was only 143. However, when I looked at his scaled scores, there was a big discrepancy between his VCI and PRI (which were high) and the WMI and PSI (which were lower). According to several sites, a GAI should be calculated instead of the FSIQ. (He had a 32 pt. difference). His GAI would be a 154. There is also the issue of the extended scale for hitting the ceiling. Two of his subtest, Block Design and Matrix Reasoning, change when the extended scale is taken into account.

The school does not seem to want to take any of these considerations into account. He was gifted enough for a grade acceleration, and that is all that they seem to be interested in. They don't care whether he is MG, HG, or PG. My fear is that one grade acceleration is still not challenging him. His teacher was content to have him sit and draw detailed space battles on paper and still get 100% on all of the third grade tests. However we don't really know if we want him to be moved up any more due to social interactions. He finished third grade as a seven year old, when most of the other boys in the class were turning ten!!

Does anyone have any advice? Oh yes... I should probably mention that he is a squirmy, fidgety little boy who is always on the go. The school seems more interested in focusing on his behavior (they actually recommended ritalin even though he can sit for hours at a time while reading books or building extensive lego creations... They had the school psychologist count the number of times that he kicked his chair leg in a 30 minute window!). What do you do when your kid doesn't fit the mold that the school expects or insists on?

ebeth

Well, we're homeschooling. That's certainly not the solution for everyone, but it is what we did. It helped his behavior and mood tremendously, and he is learning a ton.

I must admit, I get very annoyed by schools that try to diagnose and medicate kids willy-nilly. ADHD is a very real problem, and medication is a great thing for some kids, but ruling out GT boredom before passing out the Ritalin seems a pretty obvious thing to do. <Grrr!>

One of the the problems with HG+ kids is that schools just aren't always equipped to handle them. If further grade skipping isn't desired (and it sounds like it might not be for social reasons), then you can push for subject acceleration.

Is there a GT school near you? That might be another option. Even if most of the kids are MG-HG, at least the acceleration might put him closer to a good social fit. Some work for HG+ kids and some don't. (Some GT schools are actually less likely to work with you to meet the child's needs than the public schools are, at least according to our family consultant at DITD. That surprised me!) And they usually cost an arm and a leg. But they're at least worth a look if there's one available.

If all else fails, afterschooling might help to at least be sure that your son is challenged sometime during his day. Many people here do this. It can be hard on some kids because they're already in school for 7 hours or so, and *more* school when they get home doesn't always appeal, even if it's challenging. But for some kids, it's a real sanity saver!

I'm not evangelical about homeschooling, but if I may, I'd recommend that you at least look into homeschooling. As someone who thought I'd NEVER be able to do it, it's significantly easier to do than I thought it would be. If you find a good homeschool group, it can work even for an introvert like me. The social stuff isn't nearly as hard to get for my son as I thought it would be, and the education he's getting is much, MUCH better! More importantly, he's happy again. It's worth a look.

If you have questions, let me know. I'm happy to help, and there's no such thing as a dumb homeschooling question. There's a lot of misinformation out there. Contrary to popular belief, we're not all religious wackos or hippies.

Welcome ebeth! Dotty is the resident expert on the WISCIV and I'm sure she'll chime in soon. But let me say WOW on those scores! I would have fainted had I seen scores like that given that my district's policy is no acceleration.
The one thing I've read is that districts are more impressed by achievement data. Have you considered any of the talent searches? Perhaps your son needs additional subject acceleration rather than another grade skip since you're concerned by age/social issues.

LOL Dottie, you and I cross-posted!