Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment WPPSI-III hit ceiling, retest? Help, please

I'm convinced that what parents go through when seeing test scores that high is akin to the stages of grief--we all go through the same things in the same order, though some people get through them faster than others. You're through denial and into panic. Soon will come acceptance and then action.

So you're perfectly normal.

Just be warned: denial tends to creep back in from time-to-time. It's funny that way.

Ah HA, Dottie! The raw score thing is very helpful. For example:

On the Information subtest, my ds had a scaled score of 16, which is age equivalent >7.2, percentile 98, with a raw score of 30. If there are 34 points possible, and he only missed 4, he probably hit the end of the test without hitting termination point -- so a ceiling for him. And since he was at the older end of the test, it's probably not *that* uncommon -- hence "only" 98 percentile.

And had he gotten the other 4 points, then his scaled score would have been higher than that 16, and his percentile higher than 98, but his age equivalent would have still read >7.2.

Thanks! I really love this board. (Sorry to hijack your thread, Niki -- I'm a glutton for numbers. )

Ha. It's the least I can do, Dottie -- after all the info you've shared with me and other parents.


Agreed. As you say, to know then ... alas.

Niki, some more for you -- As I said, I went into a two-month hiatus on all my boards and just *read,* any and all the information I could find online about the HG+. You'll come out of the shell shock. I think the best piece of advice anyone gave me was that the number was just that -- a number, and my ds was still the same child after he was tested that he was before. It was just a new bit of info that can make you see the child in a different light.

As Kriston said, keep doing what you're doing. Following his interest, doing research, whatever catches his attention -- basically, keep feeding that little brain!

Schooling is hard. If you continue to homeschool, you'll likely blow through a lot of curricula pretty quickly. If you decide to go with public school, it's a mixed bag. Some find a lot of success at their public schools, with teachers and administrators who are willing to differentiate. Others go through a lot of advocacy efforts to try to secure appropriate placement for their kids, some with success, others not so much. Some hit dead-ends with schools who don't understand and aren't willing to try. It really, really depends. You might want to start investigating the gifted program at your school to see what they do with HG+ kids, what level of differentiation is offered, etc. Some gifted programs are great, others not so much.

Best of luck! Keep us posted!

Maybe, though I would add that one of the reasons our family went the homeschooling route with DS7 is because we can "go wide" (doing things like engineering that aren't studied in elementary) and "go deep" (with more hands-on and experiential learning opportunities), not just/primarily fast.

I feel compelled to make this point (tangential though it is...) because our biggest reason for choosing HSing over other educational options was because homeschooling was the best way we could find to slow down a bit. Grade and subject acceleration--assuming we could get them in our HIGHLY uncooperative school system--would make him go faster, but not necessarily deeper or wider, and faster isn't what would work best for our particular child. If we HSed, we thought that maybe in later years when schools have more to offer an HG+ child, he can return to public or private school.

So much depends on the particular kid. For some kids, fast is inevitable and works amazingly well. For others, wide and deep work better. Homeschooling is the best way I could find to go wide and deep, and that's what's best for our child.

Okay, back to your regularly scheduled numbers talk. Sorry to interrupt!

wow, thank you, lot of information here.
I feel the same way, Kriston, we cover a lot of themes on pretty
deep level. That is how my son's mind work, he has more questions and more questions, so we go deeper and deeper. And then we move onto something else. It works great for us as of now. We have started to tour the schools that are available. I am not from this country, so really don't know what to expect. My DS comes with me, as he wants to be able to participate with the decision. He was really looking forward to the Science lab, and was very disappointed with it, nothing beyond kitchen based potions that we have done already. He was looking forward to see if they have a microscope there. When he did not see any, he said, no reason to go to school for. We have 3 other schools to go to.

Good points, Kriston. It's true gt kids will cover lots of material but it will not necessary mean that they will move up only. They may go deeper or study things that may not be covered at school at all. Like this week we have been playing with the Morse code. Sure we could fit in a few more math lessons instead but we are having fun with it and there is no rush. Or watching Joy of Mathematics won't make him fly through Singapore Math any faster (or at least not at his current workbook), but he will learn something new.

Niki, I had to laugh when I read about the microscope and not needing school. He may have a point You are doing the right thing looking around to see what's available. I don't know if homeschooling is an option, but you may also want to explore local homeschooling groups to see what's available there as well.