Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Tests to Help with Acceleration Advocacy

My DS (7/ 1st Grade) took WISC-IV with GAI in PG range (VCI PG, PCI HG, Memory Gifted, Processing Average). His WJ-III showed underachievement. The difference between his processing and verbal is beyond significant. We have spent the year in OT for dysgraphia/dyspraxia and with a Reading Tutor as insurance against stealth dyslexia. His enrichment is a one full-day-a-week pull out and our own attempts (science and arts) through camps and Saturday programs.

He is bored with the school work. He has voiced that he learns more in 45 minutes with his reading tutor than an entire week of school. He describes school as a phonics lesson on Monday and repeated worksheets on the same lesson all week long...tedious as he got it the first time around.

So, DH and I are discussing SSA or a skip. I'm cautious as we are not exactly sure what learning challenge may exist depressing achievement and have been cautioned by trusted friends that the writing challenges may prevent a skip as a viable option. We do plan to discuss with the ed psych who did original assessment. And we have asked for achievement to be retested to see gains from remediation, though tester cautioned that test is sensitive with his young age and we may not see the gains well represented in the numbers.

So my question is...through the school system what might I ask them to assess to determine what he already knows...with the hope it leads to compacting, proper differentiation in classroom or acceleration in subjects/grades. I wondered if having them assess may move things better than just a repeat of WJ-III...as well give us more tangible information.

He took CoGat through school and qualified for gifted services. He took 1st grade ITBS and was 99% across board.

Thanks for any and all input.

I have two very different kids, a traditional highly gifted daughter and a 2e son with stealth dyslexia. I'll give you my experience and perspective.

My 7th grade hgt daugther really learned very little in school until middle school. She had learned everything on her own well before entering school. I had very limited success with teachers really differentiating for her. Sometimes they had her do "special projects" and I tried to get in a district that had a pull out g/t program. The best was a one day a week full day pull out. The social part and that one day was enough to make her happy. Was she shortchanged? Absolultely. We decided against moving her up a grade because she was so small and I was afraid for middle school. Fast forward to today, and she is in an accelerated middle school program, now learning lots of new things, and has a 4.0. She is socially doing great, lots of friends, lots of confidence. I think keeping her in the same grade was the smart thing to do. I wish they would have done more for her to accelerate learning, but those were the limits of the school system.

Now, my 2E kid, which sounds like your son, it is a different story. He was in the highest reading group in 1st grade, and now fast forward to 5th grade and we are really struggling in reading/writing. He really internalizes alot, and he feels bad about himself, even though he is highly gifted in math/spacial things. If I had accelerated him to a different grade, it would have been disasterous for him. The writing issues are profound and damaging to an upper elementary/middle school child. The homework load is almost too much because it takes him so much time to do writing, and he is exhausted. I want him to feel the top of the class in math and science because that is what he feels most proud of, while we work on the others.

I don't know what is right for your child, but I would say the social/emotional and peers become so much more important to the child as they get older. Just consider that piece. Also, if the school is really good at teaching 2E kids, maybe acceleration is an option. If they are rigid, it is really hard on them later.

Hope that helps to give you an older child perspective.

My DS now 10 had the exact same profile on the WISC IV at 7.5 years. GAI in PG range (VCI PG, PRI HG, Memory Gifted, Processing Average). Prior to the WISC – which we needed for HG school application, he had been assessed by his school psych with the WJ Cognitive and Achievement. He was assessed for potential whole grade acceleration. He had one DYS level achievement score on the WJ at that time (he was barely 7 and in the 1st grade). All of his fluency scores were average. He has since been further evaluated because after he was grade skipped and transferred to his HG school (in other words after we were able to get a better curriculum match) he was still struggling. After the additional assessments at age 8, he got an ADHD diagnosis. He struggles with speed and writing but he does not have dysgraphia.

Now, at a few months into age 10 and in the 5th grade, his processing issues are becoming more of a drawback and his writing (while at what they call grade level – he gets As in writing) is his biggest challenge. He does not have significant handwriting issues (it’s not beautiful but is fairly neat and easy to read) nor does he have too much of a problem with organization - he struggles more with the act of getting it all out of his brain onto paper and with focusing on editing, etc. We are starting a program to address processing speed specifically toward his writing and also getting some professional advice on and considering medication for ADHD – we have not taken undoing the skip or taking a gap year off the table, but the academics are still not where he needs them, so it would be difficult to think of having him in a lower grade at any time soon.

I would advise to think about how significant you think the writing/processing struggles are. I really felt that even though my DS had some of them at 7, it was more important to get him to a place where he could learn something new every once in a while and accommodate or remediate for the things he was not as strong in. This is the first year we have considered outside help for his writing. The big difference for us from what you report, is that my DS did not show underachievement on the WJ except in fluency. I do sympathize with the struggle that you and he have of going and sitting in school for a week doing things you already know – we have had a lot of that along the way too.

One other thing, I don’t know much about the ITBS but could that give the school/you some information on what level he may be at. Alternatively, could they give him a higher level verstion of the ITBS to see where he is. That might help them feel comfortable with acceleration?

Percy,

Just out of curiosity what type of writing (addressing processing speed) intervention are you considering doing? My son is dyslexic, and reading programs are easier to find than writing. We have the phonics thing under control. My son was memorizing whole words mostly until we started this. However, writing seems to be more of a challenge to find the right kind of instruction.

Also, I am not sure what PG cutoffs are. Cogat was the primary thing used for my 7th grade daughter, 99%th percentile in everything. I remember some sort of IQ type testing thing in kinder. She always qualified for the max program offered. Acceleration was really the only option left, and we chose not to do it. It was a very traditional school at the time. There was no G/T school in our district at the time. We have been in three school districts, so they all varried in what was offered. Our new district has a high ability/GT school, and if we were here I would have pursued that for both my kids.

My 2e son is a little more difficult to assess. Don't think he is PG, but not sure since testing shows up as severely underacheiving.

N., my experience with my dysgraphic ds has been that the WJ-III Tests of Achievement were *not* good tests to use when advocating for acceleration. They are *great* tests to use when you're trying to determine what challenges a 2e child is having because they use a combination of timed/untimed and oral vs handwritten responses - but for a child who is dysgraphia (or students with other types of disabilities) - you'll see results in some of the subtests that are telling you what the disability/challenge is, not what the student's true level of knowledge is. The tests that have helped us most in advocating for our ds were achievement tests given through the school (whichever achievement tests your school uses - not the state test but widely used tests such as ITBS etc), and it is important that those tests be given with the students with the accommodations they receive for their disability (for my dysgraphic ds, testing accommodations include extended time, and use of a word processor for essay questions).

If your ds hasn't had achievement testing in school yet another thing that was helpful for us in advocating were work samples.

I also want to encourage you to advocate for the level of instruction you feel your ds needs, and if/when the school raises concerns about the writing or whatever, ask the school for help with extra instruction or remediation or accommodations or whatever you think will work best to allow him to participate in the higher level while still working on the basic skills he needs in his areas of challenge. It's really important to give our children *both* experiences, and for some kids (my ds is one of them), it actually *helps* to be given higher-level classwork while working on remediation of a very basic skill such as written expression.

Best wishes,

polarbear

IOWA Scales for acceleration...

PG cutoffs are 145 or 152 depending on who you ask (without extended norms, which add another layer of complexity).

Have you considered asking for the Iowa Acceleration Scale? I found the school very resistant to considering outside scores, even though I know many people find them useful. It will depend very much on your specific school what is most helpful. Is there a gifted specialist you could consult? We found the district gifted specialist very helpful as an advocate because my daughter's scores meant much more to him than they did to her teachers and principals.

My DYS kid with a gap between GAI and processing speed of more than 60 points, who is also dysgraphic and has DCD, is also grade skipped and has an additional two year acceleration in math and science.

Yes, writing can be a challenge and but I'm 100% positive it is a battle we'd be fighting regardless of the grade skip. His handwriting is close to that of a 1st grader and his speed is about that as well, despite being a 10 year old 6th grader. A year of OT and PT did nothing to help that, so he has a 504 with accommodations. As long as the accommodations are in place, all is well.

I throw this out there because sometimes I think the school can focus too much on your child's weakness or what they "can't" do and that becomes the pinnacle of why they're not going to accelerate or challenge a child. My DS's 1st grade assistant (not his personally- the class aide) would not support the acceleration because he couldn't tie his shoes and "all the 2nd graders could". He still can just barely tie his shoes- thank goodness he's not still in 1st grade because of it!

I also love that polarbear says above that it "actually helps to be given higher level classwork while working on remediation of a very basic skill such as written expression." This was exactly what we found as well. Telling him he couldn't handle the academic work because the physical act of writing was too hard- that was disastrous for his self esteem and his perseverance.

Cathy M

It's an ABA type of therapy that uses a lot of reward and targets fluency. It's designed to make some of the things that he struggles with, more rote - so they are automatic. The particular group that we are working with is located only in a few places in the US. If you want to know more, PM me and I can send you a link to the website.

We haven't started yet (they have a wait list), but my DS got assessed and he was interested in doing it, so we are going to give it a try.