Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Hi to Sophiasbrain!

Hi SophiasBrain,
I cut and pasted your post to an whole new thread, because I didn't want to lose your excellent question - Trinity
You deserve a whole thread to yourself!

Hello to all, I am a newby in this whole gifted realm. It's great to hear you all, because I know my daughter is gifted, but haven't had any testing done as of yet. She is 5, reads real well, and has an insane appetite for science. To the parent that mentioned the science books. We went to a book sale. Sophia picked out 5 books, all science, Plate Tectonics, Bugs, Dinasoars, Planets...

We are unhappy (that is an understatement) with her Kindergarten curriculum so far, and are looking to have her tested and moved. Do you recommend doing testing on our own? Or going through the school system?

K

K - it sure is true that if the school system will do the testing, then they are somewhat more likely to believe the results. OTOH, the point of testing is to give you the parents some idea of what to ask for - so if your DD is Ruf Level III or beyond, a local tester is unlikely to be very informative.

Reccomended Step One -
Decide what your goal is. If it's a grade skip, then you are going to want individualised IQ testing at school or privatly. If you want to learn more about your child - Deb Ruf's book, Losing our Minds, and then school testing or private testing, how much travel depending on where you think she fits on Ruf's estimated Gifted levels.

Best Wishes,
Trinity

Hi SophiasBrain (and Trinity),

3 of my kids were privately tested and I like this best because I can pick the time (when they're well-rested, chipper, best time of the day). I used the diagnostician from the school district (she tests during her non-school hours) so that the methods should be identical to what the district would use and accept. She provides results very quickly (1-3 days) compared to the month that one usually waits when tested through the schools. This has cost about $250, and if anyone balks about the cost I tell them that if their child qualifies for gifted programming it's well worth the expense.

Some diagnosticians sell the cadillac and cost more like $1000 but assess for learning disabilities, styles, etc. I second Trinity's suggestion of determining your goal and work with the diagnostician to use the test methods appropriate for those goals.

Cym -
What a great idea to use the district's own tester - it's like the best of both worlds, provided that she has some experience testing kids of similar gifted levels. I think 250$ is really reasonable - we paid much more and got much less.

Part of what a good tester can provide is guidance as to what kind of program to advocate for, or links to area resources. Our tester gave us a diagnosis that was both inacurate and not accepted by our school system - that's emotionally expensive at any price, but a double insult when we paid full frieght!

((shrug))
It's a process, I guess...
Love and More Love,
Trinity