Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment New here, looking for advice

Hi Forum Members,

I am new to this forum (so grateful to have stumbled across it!) and trying to figure out how best to support our 2 grade-school-aged kids. Questions are below; given that it's a public forum, I'm not including much detail.

#1 - Gifted or just bright?
The elder has many attributes associated with giftedness (super-intense, recognized numbers and letters early, highly sensitive, etc.). The younger is also very smart, very high EQ, and less intense. Both parents are gifted (likely HG/PG) so we'd always assumed that both kids would be gifted as well.
Elder has complained for years of headaches, blurriness, other vision problems; after multiple trips to optometrist, pediatrician, ophthalmologist, etc., we found a behavioral/dev optometrist who ID'ed some issues and VT starts next week, estimated to run 10-12 weeks.
We had them assessed this fall (we're evaluating school options - see next question), both on the WISC-V. Elder came in at FSIQ 125/GAI 124, younger at FSIQ 129/GAI 130. We didn't expect 140s but are a little surprised that they're not solidly in the 130s. What's the likelihood that elder's vision issues affected performance/score?

#2 - Whether or not gifted: better to change schools, or to advocate within their current school?
There are no public-school gifted options here. (Thanks, NCLB!)
There is one gifted-only private school with a threshold of 130 (though they'll consider scores close to that minimum) and high demand for available spots.
The kids are currently at a private school that claims to support every child via differentiation; in practice it is not supportive of accelerated/advanced learners and advocating will be an uphill battle. Elder has never been happy at school, for a mix of social and academic reasons (lack of challenge). Younger was unhappy in previous years (persistent classroom discipline issues involving other kids, plus not challenged academically), but this year is better as current teacher is more strict so the other kids have settled down. Younger has been underachieving on academics, largely because teacher is busy with the discipline issues so it's easy for younger to skate by unnoticed.
Other private schools might be better options but it's hard to tell from the outside. Switching schools requires a teacher or principal recommendation, so is not lightly done (and school admin may take it personally); if we apply elsewhere and either don't get in or decide not to take the spot, the current school will be even harder to work with. School applications are due early January so this is something we're wrestling with right now.

This forum is such a terrific resource! Thanks in advance for any help, advice, or feedback.

Welcome!

FWIW, we have found that asking the right types of questions in a screening call or visit tells a great deal, assuming people aren't lying. There are some good lists on the main Davidson site. We are on our third private school for ODS and results have varied widely.
1) Accredited Montessori - very flexible, teacher let him learn at his pace but with appropriate guidance/rigor. Moved so that was that...
2) Fancy private school - rigid, seemed threatened by us and our child and acted accordingly. Nightmare year. Should have pulled him and stuck him in the local public school. It could not have been worse. Seriously a nasty situation. We asked some good questions but were too naïve to know that we needed to ask what exactly they were going to do to accommodate a kiddo who their own screening tests showed as far past grade level. He was also obviously pretty intense and active when they met him... yet they turned that into a problem once enrolled. Had we probed, we might have not sent him there and wasted much money.
3) Catholic school. Suspected it was the right place when the principal commented immediately on how bright he was and how thrilled they'd be to have him... then followed up with examples of how they had accommodated another highly advanced child. It's not perfect but they have really worked to make things as appropriate as possible for him.

I share all of that to say it is well worth one's time to start calling around and asking other schools questions. It doesn't obligate you to make a change, but it does give you a feel for what your local options would be...

One more thing: if the timing of our move had been different and we had not felt as rushed, we would have checked the two local public school options. I've heard that they can work and they claim to differentiate. I saw how they do that for K during the parent meeting (we have a younger child) and was impressed. It seems too late to go there w/the older one and we kept them together. I do know of other PG kids who are at public schools that are flexible enough. Flexibility and willingness to try seem to be key themes for success!

That's reassuring! I really hope the VT works for this kid.

I feel terrible about all the years of "Mom, my eyes are blurry" / "Well, we've had them checked, not sure what I can do for you, kiddo ...". Parenting fail.

Thanks! Is this the Davidson list you had in mind? http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/browse_resources_263.aspx

I would step back from looking at the world through the lens of IQ numbers. Each child is an individual with their own set of needs - the #s come into play when looking at program requirements, but just because a child isn't over some magical hurdle of an IQ # doesn't mean they don't need challenge in their education. I also think it's a bit misleading to assume that only extremely high-IQ children are intense, highly sensitive etc - if you've seen one extremely high-IQ kid you've seen exactly that - one child. I've worked with a lot of children, and it's absolutely possible to be super-intense or recognize #s early and not have a sky-high IQ. At the end of the day, everyone matters, no matter what their IQ


This is wonderful that you discovered the developmental optometrist - VT was absolutely life-changing for one of my dds. The one note I'll throw out there though - I'm not sure the issues were huge in your ds' case, if the VT only takes 10-12 weeks. Is he going for multiple sessions per week or just one? I'm only curious because my dd and the other children I've known who've needed VT usually had programs that lasted for around 9 months - 1 year. In most cases, those first 3 months saw the largest gains, but the remaining program was also important and valuable. So I'm guessing in your ds' case the issue isn't extreme.


Both of these scores are good, strong scores - whether they could be higher or not, they are great scores.


Absolutely could have - you can look for clues if you have the subtest scores, as some subtests rely on vision much more than others. If you have the scores and don't mind posting them, there are folks here who can look at them and let you know if there appears to be an impact. In general, any deviation in subtest scores greater than 1.5 standard deviations is considered meaningful. Just from looking at FSIQ vs GAI, I'm not so sure about an impact from vision - both FSIQ and GAI are really close. The impact for my dd with vision issues was significant in processing speed subtests, which lowered her FSIQ relative to GAI. However... she was tested with WISC-IV, which has a different configuration of subtests, and I'm not familiar with WISC-V enough to have a clue whether or not you would be seeing a higher GAI in the event of vision issues.


Are you sure you can't apply without a teacher recommendation? Some schools will let you by with a recommendation from someone outside of the current school in a situation like this if you just tell them you're uncomfortable asking for a recommendation from current school and why.

Best wishes, and keep us posted!

polarbear

polarbear is correct - we were at a private school that refused to give recommendation letters (school policy!). So, we got very detailed and well written recommendations from my DS's coaches, tutors and mentors. We told them that our school refused to give us recommendations and they were more than happy to help (while being amused that a 1st grader required a lot of recommendation letters to get into 2nd grade!).

That list will be helpful, but I was thinking of this page on their site.
http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/browse_articles_289.aspx

Maybe it is Hoagies that has the list of questions to ask schools. I'll take a look again.

Here's another article list with some great info:
http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/browse_articles_233.aspx