Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Regions Gifted in New York State

We live in upstate NY. If you live in NY state, you know how hard it is.... there is really nothing upstate for gifted kids. Most of the public schools offer nothing.

So how to we solve that?

Hello everyone, If someone can help me please...I'm looking for information on where I can take my son of 4 years old to get evaluated for gifted children. ??? please help. everyone tells me to have him evaluated to see if he is gifted, so if any of you know of any programs I would really appreciate it. thank you.

milkestarz, I had the same problem when my son was that age. Take him to your local school district. Call the district office and tell them you want to have him tested. We didn't do that because when he was that age we were in the middle of a move.

As soon as he started kindergarten I went to his teacher and lucky she was really great! Got the ball rolling.

Remember this though go in with a positive attitude.

Great suggestion, IESoup!
Your local child pyschologist or university child pyschologist will be able to reccomend someone for private testing. Problem with both of these suggestions is that if your child is more than 'the usual' gifted, say in the top third of the gifted chunk, then you might get misled. Still you have to start somewhere....

Here's a nice article:
http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/PDF_files/testing.pdf

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/psychologists.htm#uny

best wishes,
grinity

grinity,

I tried the university route and it got us no where. The people I contacted about our son reading when he was 2 either never got back to me or told me to go to my school district.

His Ped. also said to wait for him to go to school, although she also has gifted kids, so she had specialize experience with people in our area. Which worked out great for us.

This is the problem- there is nothing standardize in NYS. Not that standardization works great with gifted kids, but there should be something when you have a kids who is way ahead. For us is was very scary, we had no idea why our son was reading already and were lost as to what to do and where to go. We were told over and over, "Oh don't worry, he's just ahead of the game."

Even now in school it's haphazard and "make it up as you go". He's not the only kid in his class, his school, our district, our county, our state, that is like this. Why isn't NYS doing something for these kids?

Of course I have heard the line,"What are you worried about? He gets A's" Well, yes, he gets A's.... but I don't send him to school to "get A's" I send him to school to get an education to prepare him for life, so he can become a positive contributor for the common good.

Easy answer to 'what are you worried about' is - how is he supposed to learn a good work ethic if he never has a chance to work at his readiness level? Isn't the chance to develop a good work ethic one of the most important things we can give a child?

OK here's a Comic that I saw flash in my mind this morning:
Parent is visiting a school, sees a 3rd grader in the hallway writing 'X's on the kindergarden door with Chalk.

Visiting Parent: Why do you keep writing Xs on the door to the first grade classroom?
3rd grader: My mom says that it's Obscene that my Brother is spending hours a day practicing phonics when at home he reads 'Harry Potter.' So I thought since it's Obscene, I should rate this classroom, triple-X.
Visiting Parent: ((Blank look))

Visiting Parent: Why do you keep writing Xs on the door to the first grade classroom?
3rd grader: My mom says that it's Obscene that my Brother is spending hours a day practicing phonics when at home he reads 'Harry Potter.' So I thought since it's Obscene, I should rate this classroom, triple-X.
Visiting Parent: ((Blank look))

as my 7 year old son would say I am rotflmbo
(rolling on the floor, laughing my butt off)

he cleans it up- the boy just doesn't go in for profanity...........

Cute joke and oh so true...the number of times I got in trouble in 2nd & 3rd grade for "reading ahead" in my school reading books!

Has anyone found any other lists of professionals in NY state familiar with gifted testing & identification? I had previously visited the Hoagies list and was amazed that only two professionals were listed and both in the NYC area. Aren't there any resources for Western or Central New York State? Has anybody found any?

Thanks!

That is a lot of Hits. I am a Gifted in New York if anyone cares.

There also seems to be no schools north of the tri-state area.