Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Overview of Davidson Young Scholars program

One way is to ask your school for updated IQ and achievement testing for helping develop educational planning and learning concerns that you have for him. Ask that a meeting be held to discus which tests will be given (at that meeting ask for a WISC or SB and then ask what achievement could be given and know which are on the Davidson list and steer the committee towards one from the list).

OR you can call a local university and ask in the Psychology department (or even the College of Education too) if they have low cost testing done by supervised grad students. I even asked for someone very familiar with gifted students (they couldn't guarantee it but by luck of the draw and having asked they did match me up with a grad student who was specifically involved with gifted research and had experience). My university had sliding scale fees and even more money off because we participated in a gifted research project (just a few extra questionnaires/scales and he did one extra thing with her).

So, I am new to this. Is private testing the only option to qualify for the Davidson Young Scholars program??
I know that we can wait for our public school system to test, but I don't think that they give enough data to qualify for the program.

It depends on what you ask them for. If you ask for a special education evaluation (say, with a question of underperformance or twice exceptionality), the default would be a comprehensive cognitive measure (most likely the WISC or SB), and a wide-ranging achievement measure (such as the WIAT, KTEA, or WJ). Of course, a sped referral might not be very convincing (or appropriate) if he is doing well enough in school that additional gifted services are warranted.

I would just ask the schools what they would do, so you know what your options actually are.

Mark,

I think a large part of the value Davidson offers is to connect families with similar-ability children. Is there any interest on the part of Davidson to admit international candidates to a second-tier level of membership which offers just access to the private forum? This would be a low cost way to expand Davidson's reach and provide social and informational value to isolated PG families.

Just an idea!

Hi Aquinas - thank you for the suggestion, but at this time DITD is focusing its attention on US students. Of course, this forum and the Davidson Gifted Database will always remain open to everyone.

Best,
Mark

I am wondering if I have to scan the full IQ testing report, which includes everything from how my son acted during testing, background, recommendations etc and is very long. OR do I just submit the page with the actual WISC results? We have qualifying WISC and WJ-III results.

The details for applying, FAQs, and qualifications are found in the QuickLinks on this Davidson Young Scholar (DYS) webpage.

Here is a link to a related thread about DYS questions, and a link posted by the forum moderator as an Overview of Programs.

Sometimes you can get a school to do WIsc if there is a question about a specific Learning Disability and giftedness.

I am in the worst county in California, but things got a little better when that fact got publicity. It usually took a Child Psych and an educational lawyer working with the family. often, lawyer was free, because school would not comply with laws,

Right now, DSM (psych dx manual) is not favorable to Gifted and Learning Disabled diagnoses.

Hello � New member here. Forgive me if this isn�t the right place to post or if my questions are not appropriate. Background: My 9 yr old had a special ed re-evaluation this winter. Some areas of WISC showed a 20-point increase. Likely explanation is that her perfectionism affected the score at 6 yrs 0 months when she took it the first time, though it was still high back then. Also, that psychologist told me she stopped some of the test because my daughter was too distraught when she didn�t know the answers. Anyway, I found out about DYS program while searching for resources to help with our situation. For school, she has gone from public to private to unplanned and sudden homeschooling. We live in a rural area with limited resources. She is also 2E, with social-emotional struggle, no learning disability that affects academic achievement. I am working on an application and hoping this program is a good fit for us. Her scores meet the requirement. My question is about the parent form. I am guessing that reviewers would appreciate brief and concise answers, but our situation isn�t easily explained. I�m struggling with what to include and also seem to be going more in depth on a few questions to give the whole picture. How should I approach the application? How many do they review per month? Thanks for any guidance or maybe I just need reassurance

Welcome JAJ!

Sorry for the delayed response. To reduce the presence of spambots on the forum, the first 5 posts of new members do not appear immediately, but are held for moderation. Once approved, these new member posts may have aged a bit and therefore not be listed as "Recent Posts." (Therefore may go unnoticed for a while.)

Glad you found the online information for qualifications/application for the DYS program. The parent questionnaire of the DYS application does not require long answers. For example, it asks parents to "... describe an incident..." which tends to suggest providing a small insight into one occurrence of observing your child which helped you, as the parent, to understand that your child had a non-typical intellectual profile and different learning needs and/or learning style. A gifted child's insatiable curiosity and unquenchable thirst for knowledge is not limited to academic subjects.

Links about perfectionism and anxiety may be of interest. Here is a brief roundup:
- roundup on perfectionism and anxiety
- post on perfectionsim
- another post on perfectionism
- post on anxiety
- Understood.org, Stress & anxiety

Many people pick up on social skills, body language, friendship, and societal norms through casual observation in everyday situations. Unfortunately some may not. This may be due, in part, to observing many inconsistencies (such as different rules and expectations for different people). Some may benefit from direct teaching of social skills, rules and conventions. This teaching may help increase comfort and ease in social situations, and may also help children articulate if they have witnessed and/or been subject to inconsistencies, such as favoritism and/or unjust social pressures.
- book: 100 social rules for kids (hat tip to sanne)
- direct teaching of non-verbal cues
- direct teaching of friendship
- direct teaching of perspective taking
- link to an article on the Davidson Database, Tips For Parents: Gifted Children's Friendships
- post with roundup of articles on friendship

Hope this post helps provide some reassurance!