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    Originally Posted by MichelleC
    I sometimes wonder if the extreme VS streak amongst these family members may be related to the significant writing challenges they also share, a la Silverman: trouble changing visual all-at-once-thoughts into a linear sequence of words. Don't know how this could be tested, though - Silverman's a bit skimpy on that part!

    I don't know about your family or anyone else MichelleC, but I can tell you that my ds who struggles tremendously with writing challenges is also extremely VS.

    squishys, my ds is extremely good at and also very interested in engineering-type design and modeling, also very good at math (but not as passionate about it lol, and was not a fan of show-your-work in early math). He's always been light years ahead of grade level in reading (or was back when school measured reading comprehension etc), but is not terribly fond of subjects in school that require a lot of reading and rote recall from reading. He learns by doing, handling things, and visualizing in his head.

    polarbear

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    Originally Posted by squishys
    I don't think schools respond to reports with scores that "would be higher if...". If you handed the school this, they would reject a skip. You could try with the SB5 if you really feel he needs a skip.

    I would second squishy's cautionary note, and add that, in our school district, the set of achievement scores you have would also most likely cause a rejection of a request for a grade skip. What would more likely work is a combination of work products from a classroom (once he's started school), work products from home, an achievement test that specifically tests against school district curriculum standards, and (or in isolation) the recommendation of a teacher. It sounds like you have the recommendation of a teacher, although to be honest, I wouldn't (as a parent) go in with that recommendation with the teacher saying she'd recommend based on having worked with your older dd - you have two different children with potentially two different learning styles and two very different sets of needs.

    Re the WIAT, there are a few thoughts I'd consider when using them to advocate - take my thoughts with a grain of salt - my kids have been testing with the WJ-III Achievement tests, which are a different but somewhat similar set of tests. It's possible I might misunderstand something from the WIATs, so don't take my word for anything without a second from someone who's familiar with them.

    1) The scores on the WIAT are average to high average with the exception of math - which isn't what most schools are looking for when placing students in gifted programs or considering for grade skip - at least not in the area I live in. You may be able to use the math score to advocate for a math subject acceleration, especially since you also have the higher ability scores in areas related to math skills.

    2) The grade equivalent given for these tests is *not* the same thing as saying a child is ready to plop into a classroom at the given grade level. It means that your child's score is the same as the 50th percentile score achieved in a sample of students in that grade level. It is not tied to curriculum and hence has limited relevance for consideration for subject grade placement from a teacher's perspective.

    3) Another potential gotcha on the achievement tests is that each subtest assesses a very specific skill set, then subtest scores are averaged together. The benefit of this is that you can see easily where a student's strengths and challenges lie, and the downside can be that a score may come in low for a specific challenge, but in reality that challenge is compensated for in classroom performance and might not be an obvious challenge. OTOH, in the case where one type of skill is a challenge and results in a low achievement test score - you can often remediate or accommodate for that specific skill set and then the child will be able to function very well in an accelerated classroom in that subject if he/she has the innate ability to learn at a higher level in the subject. I think I didn't explain that very well! Sorry... it's early morning here lol. This is an example of what I'm trying to say: My dysgraphic ds writes very slowly. His score on the math fluency subtest on the WJ-III achievement tests is always very slow relative to his WISC score percentiles and relative to other math subtests on the WJ-III. The math fluency subtest is a timed test that measures both ability to do math calculations *and* the ability to write them down quickly. Hence the low score - due to his dysgraphia - which is not related at all to an understanding of or ability to do math calculations. In school he is multi-year subject accelerated in math and has accommodations for extended time on tests and is allowed to keyboard his work.

    Anyway, it could be interesting to look at your ds' WIAT subtest scores to see if there is significant scatter.

    polarbear

    Last edited by polarbear; 04/15/15 07:44 AM.
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    Re ADHD: I have an older child with ADHD (combined type) and I'm very familiar with it. However, I'm a bit worried about THIS diagnosis in particular for a couple reasons:

    (1) At the feedback session, the evaluator told me he did NOT qualify for an ADHD dx, and showed me the t-scores for the BASC, which truly didn't seem to fall into the zone. He had talked about officially giving in a dx of "Adjustment Disorder" based on our recent life changes (separation, divorce, moving, and his father's ongoing gender issues & other things going on over there that I have no control over). He had told me at that time to have DS re-evaluated next year if necessary.

    (2) Some of the things the evaluator mentioned in the ADHD section are a little iffy to me. For example, DS does sometimes put non-food things in his mouth, which I reported on the BASC. But, this behavior is definitely tied to anxiety and it comes and goes. The evaluator didn't ask me for background about it and I didn't realize he would call it out. It was, for example, epicly bad after my ex and I separated. I see this behavior when he's upset about something. It has also been my experience working with DS that his "refusal to answer" seems related to perfectionism, as is changing the topic of conversation. The report glances on anxiety but I don't feel like it convinces me that ADHD is a more valid dx.

    That said, I will definitely take advantage of our insurance company having gotten a dx on their books to take him to my DD's psychiatrist and a therapist.

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    The principal we are working with thinks a half year of K and then a skip to 1st mid year might be the best option for our DS (age 4.1,
    GAI 138, highly academic, 1st grade level now). Early k could become a option soon and I'll take that instead.

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    The scores you have are not good enough for a skip and like others I don't think saying they were suppressed is going to fly. Teachers consider total obedience and following instructions to be evidence of maturity. In NZ at least The first year of school is the most flexible with regards to working at your own level with multiple groups for each subject. I would test again at the end of K and try and skip first.

    Last edited by puffin; 04/15/15 12:39 PM.
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