Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Newly tested son, need help

Thanks for all of your responses. It is nice to know I am not the only one who wishes my son had to struggle once in awhile.


After reading the Hoagies gifted Web site, I do have a technical question about test scores.

Since my son's tester said the GAI was a better indicator of my son's ability than the FSIQ, and didn't even tell me what his FSIQ was, is the GAI an OK number to use when applying for things like Young Scholars?

This
is a DYS-qualifying score. FSIQ not required.

See here http://www.davidsongifted.org/young...holars___Qualification_Criteria_384.aspx for details

Yup, Perceptual Reasoning will get him in. By Dottie's calculations his FSIQ will get him there too. While GAI is a better number when it comes to his abilities, it's not what Davidson accepts. Have the psychologist give you full report with all scores even if she doesn't care for them and apply to Davidson. It sure is worth it.

I am another homeschooling mom (DYS 6) but some people can make it work just fine in public schools. Skip to 6th or 7th would be a stretch but 2 year skip and perhaps additional subject acceleration can work wonders for him. Do you have grade equivalents for his results? One thing to keep in mind is that the grade equivalent talks about an average x-th grader and whatever grade you will move your son to you don't want him to be average. You still want him to be close to the top of his new class.

Jeni, the WISC IV has working memory and processing speed weigh in heavily to FSIQ. There has seemingly been some differing opinions on whether or not this is a good way to reflect intelligence. I think that may be a reason your son's tester focused on GAI.

Also, as Kriston says, PRI score is a qualifying one anyhow.

Good luck with the meetings. I'm glad your school is being proactive. I agree that a grade skip from 2nd to 5th or 6th might be a big first step. That doesn't mean he isn't capable of work at that level, it just might be easier to step him up a little at a time.

You may not feel like an expert on what these numbers mean, but you ARE the expert on your son. And probably, by April or May, you'll be an expert on what those numbers mean for him anyway!

...And if not, that's why we have Dottie, thank goodness!

Wow, those are great scores! Maybe this was mentioned already - in addition to acceleration you probably want to consider asking for compression - not sure I'm getting that term right. Bascially the idea that you can put your ds in 7th grade math (or whatever level) and then proceed at the same pace as other 7th graders going forward doesn't make much sense. He'll probably need things speeded up - fewer repetitions, covering more in the same time as a regular 7th grade class. I think this is a major benefit of homeschooling. We don't hs and I am very jealous of that aspect, but at least our ps does 'talk' about compression!
Good luck and welcome

Yes, I didn't mean to indicate otherwise, just trying to throw out a reason why the tester focused on GAI. In this case it's not as relevant, so I guess I wouldn't know why the tester would focus on GAI and seemingly dismiss FSIQ.

Thank you all again for all of this information. I will probably be back after the school meetings to ask for your expert advice again!

Until then, I will be busy reading all of the links and info you gave me.

Cheers,

Jeni

Welcome, Jeni! Those are great scores for your ds.

With a 7yo, I'd hesitate to put him in with sixth or seventh graders, even with that IQ and even with those achievement scores. We recently moved my 6yo from public K to private gifted first grade, where he's subject accelerated to third grade for reading and math. Although he could probably move somewhat faster, he's pretty well placed there -- even though he reads quite a bit higher for pleasure and grasps math concepts very quickly, he's still learning a lot. Things that don't come naturally to a young child, like *critically* reading, or *gasp* reading the instructions! It's a big jump between a second grade curriculum and a sixth -- and there *are* steps in-between, even if your ds has the down-and-dirty basics. If I were you, I'd go and observe a fifth or sixth grade classroom, and see what you think!

We've had great success at the private gifted school; ds6 is *much* better placed academically and socially there than he was at his public school. He's meeting tons of kids who are more like him, and a few that are actually very much like him -- a situation I doubt he would have found before high school had he stayed in the public school system.

Homeschooling isn't an option for us at this point, but I think we've found a pretty happy medium for now.

Good luck, and welcome to the journey! And yes, your ds is *that* smart.