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

To make you feel better, I don't think DYS can offer him much either other than getting to know some other gifted children in their events, unless you want to move to Reno to attend school at Davidson.

You can participate some of the talent search things like Hopkins CTY which starts at 2nd grade and that would qualify him for their courses and summer camps. Other talent search like the Duke TIP starts later. None of these require citizenship and green card.

Does he like music or sports? Playing instruments may be a good challenge for him. Or find something he is not a natural in and do that. As long as there is something he needs to work on, I think that is enough for a young child.

But it sounds like he is doing very well. There is really no need to do more if he is happy. There will never be a program that fits his needs exactly. You just have to make it up as you go.

Thank you indigo, what a clear and detailed response !!
I do provide him extra work at home whenever he wants. He takes after-school math classes, and I am also thinking of enrolling in Singapore Math this year.
We do informal brain games and fun puzzles all the time. His school has a good math club that conducts tournaments a couple of times in a year. He is a good speller and participates in bee contests.
I am thinking I will go ahead with the testing , after all.

Thomas Percy, your reply made me feel much better. Thanks much. He does learn our traditional music and is into badminton at preliminary levels. He loves his taek won do training very much :-). He hates swimming, I just do not know why:-) I will look into other venues like JH CTY and try to do my best for him.

Welcome to the club in terms of always wondering whether or are doing enough to support your gifted child.

I like to think that every reasonably sentient parent feels the same way at times.

I am the father of a DYS girl aged 13 and I have felt the same intermittent and paralyzingly panic/second guessing yourself. It never goes away but I can assure you that the frequency of the 'attacks' does lessen over time.

There is no great hurry for DYS right now as that window will still be open once you get your green card.

So life until DYS - what to do, some suggestions:

+ check local universities to see if they have any G&T programming at weekends/summers - review entry criteria and still test if needed

+.check for gifted support groups in your area (we do not have any but used the weekend G&T program at Montclair State to help our kid find peers with similar interest she)

+ Singapore Maths books are relatively cheap and very good

+ Look into AoPS - great Mayhs curriculum, they have have Beast Academy for younger students now (working through this will prepare him for their PreAlgebra class)

+ Look into Duke TIPS//CTY online and summer classes

+ Post questions and updates to this forum it is a useful resource which greatly steepened my learning curve and provided support through rocky patches. It is also a great place to celebrate you kid's achievements without alienating the members of the general population by appearing boastful.

Good luck!

Thanks madeinuk. Your suggestions are very helpful. I looked into Beat academy and it is really good. He does work on SG math books from time to time.
I have not been effectively using the forum and did not realize how helpful the lovely people here can be. I am thankful to all of you who have pitched in to clarify my questions and confusions.

You may also want to look into PG Retreat. It is free to join and membership is not limited to US citizens. www.pgretreat.org

Huh. Their 2018 event is near me. Any forum users who attend can feel free to PM me for a possible meeting over coffee.

I am also interested in any feedback regarding PG Retreat as well. Is it worth applying and attending the annual gatherings?

Just looked at the website and checked criteria to qualify with them as profoundly gifted and while there is no cutoff listed, they do say that ideally applicants will have an IQ of at least 160 (fs, gai, or verbal). Since the current tests only go to 160 and my ds got 19s on half of the sub tests and still only has an fsiq of 144, I'm not sure how anyone taking the Wisc v could score at least 160 (read: 160), except maybe by getting all 19s. Ds got an 18 on one of six nv subtests and ended up with a 158 non verbal IQ. And even if he had gotten 160, they don't take non verbal anyway, only verbal as qualifying. I'm not saying I think my ds is pg, mostly that I'm just wondering who is with the criteria listed and the current tests only going to 160?

Well I read that there are only 50 or so families that are part of this group. Davidson has about 3000 families. Obviously Davidson is more well known but their acceptance criteria is also much lower. So maybe PG Retreat is just very selective or exclusive. I think the 160+ is for kids that took Wisc IV With extended scoring or SB that had higher ceilings.

Actually, from my perusal of the website, it appears that PGR uses a portfolio process, reviewed by a clinical psych and a psychotherapist. There are no absolute IQ cutoffs. They consider accomplishments, above-level testing (SAT, ACT, etc.), and clinical judgement by a professional skilled in GT assessment, in addition to formal cognitive and achievement assessments.