Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Hello I am new, my 7yo's test results.

Hello all! My 7yo was tested early in this school year and in December she was accepted into our counties gifted learners program. I was told they don't usually test that them early in the year but the GT teacher and her own teacher seemed very excited about my daughter. I did not submit her to be tested, they requested it and I had to sign something.

I was shown some of the testing samples and the test was described to me and then I was given her scores. She is in 2nd grade.

Verbal: 127 SAI 95%
Non-Verbal: 125 SAI 94%
Total: 130 SAI 97%

(SAI = School Ability Index)

I don't really understand why the Total is more then the others.

It makes me feel pretty good about our decision because we made a huge life altering move 2 years ago. In Georgia she would have only been allowed in pre-k as she had a sept 7th birthday and the cut off was sept 3rd in our county in GA. I was really frustrated because she was clearly very ready for kindergarten and while we livd in one of the best counties for education, GA doesn't have a great reputation for education.

So we started her in Private Pre-k, and she did I think 2 weeks of school before we took a huge jump and moved to Virginia, they have an October age cutoff and she was able to attend the first week of school as school starts almost a month after school in GA. So I guess she skipped pre-k, but in GA we went to primrose and their daycare preschool curriculum was great for her and pretty much exactly like pre-k.

My daughter loves science and loves to read. We got her a microscope for Christmas and she got those amazing Dash & Dot robots she can program (https://www.makewonder.com if you are curious) and she did the code.org challenge. She loves learning about bugs, that seems to be her favorite thing so far. Any advice would be welcome!

We are considering putting her in a spring Saturday course at the college of William & Mary in VA which is specifically for gifted kids, its fairly expensive but I really want to expose her to stuff and keep her interested. I worry the internet and social aspect of school might take too much of her attention and move her away from the amazing things she's so into at this age, but then I just want her to enjoy being a kid and doing silly kid stuff too!

I try to add enrichment whenever I can and encourage her and buy whatever science books she likes. She acted interested in learning cursive but then when she got a workbook said it was a lot harder then she thought it would be, she has terrible print as we had no idea she could not see and she only got glasses in 1st grade, it turned out her brain was correcting the maximum the human brain can and it was amazing she had learned to read and write, I felt so guilty for not knowing but she never crossed her eyes. She's fine otherwise, just sloppy print and occasional headaches.

I'm working on getting her to type with two hands properly as she loves minecraft and likes to "chat" on it (again, she loves being social) so I'm using it as a way to get her to learn to type properly. Kids like to hunt and peck and she seems at 7 to have the dexterity to learn to type properly. Anyone know if there are any free online courses to teach typing?

The total score is higher because she did very well on both subtests, it is not simply an average. It reflects the rarity of scoring high on both subtests, not just one subtest.

Thank you for the reply, thats interesting. Are the scores based on national or local numbers do you know?

It sounds like you're already geared up to advocate for her! Minecraft was instrumental in teaching my ds how to type and type quickly!!

BBC Kids DanceMat seems to have one of the most popular typing programs for younger kids: www.dancemattypingguide.com

I don't know if it's local or national. I think most schools use tests with national norms unless the district is particularly high or low achieving. If it's not based on national norms, it would likely be listed as "local norms" or something on the test results sheet. What test did they give your child?

I would just grab one of those old Typing Tutor programs out there.

I can't remember what I used to teach myself to type when I was in elementary school, but it was one of the programs that a middle school had available on the old Apple II plus/e computers.

My son types pretty darn fast for a third grader (I'd guess 30 wpm or so) because of minecraft too. He doesn't know how to do it by touch though and uses the wrong fingers for the keys. Typing instruction is useful for that purpose, but it is so boring, even when it is gamified.

DW is a touch-typist, and was actively using and cultivating that skill set working as an office manager when we met. I'm just some IT dude who honed a hunt-and-peck style through frequent use.

It makes her really, really, really mad that I'm faster and more accurate than she is.

I'm a writer and I never learned how to do it correctly either. I mean I can type pretty quickly without looking at the keyboard but I don't use the right fingers. It works, though.