Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment I'm stuck

DS6 was tested and I received all of his scores. The school psychologist told me that my son would not cooperate with her, he didn't even complete the testing. His score on the IQ test was 127. What do I do now?? He doesn't qualify for any additional or harder work, and he is still bored.

Do I have to wait another year for testing again?? We can't afford to have him tested independently right now, my DH was laid off 3 weeks ago.

I'm sorry to keep asking questions, but this board is the best place to get advice and answers.

Hi Tall Boys,
I am in a similar boat. The tester mentioned several times in his report that DS6 was so "active" during the process it compromised his scores. He basically stopped the test once he felt he had enough information. I am also unable to afford additional testing. I am going to a State Chapter for the GT open house tomorrow. You do not need to be identified as gifted to join and/or attend. They have a ton of helpful resources to assist you in figuring it all out. We are looking at 2e issues. (Does stubborness count as a 2e issue? That is our question). Anyways if you do not have a state chapter, you could always check into a different/nearby chapter.

At this point I'm not sure if I have any legal grounds, but I will look in to it.

The test they gave him was called DAS-II. They also did the KTEA-II test, again he would not cooperate, but he scored very well, Math composite 98%ile, Decoding composite 99%ile, Sound symbol composite 99.6%ile, Reading composite 96%ile

I'm not sure even if he did hit the 130, they would do anything for him.

The impression I received from the psychologists was, she was annoyed with him, b/c of his lack of cooperation. I also felt that all the evaluators felt he was bright but no one would address that part of it. They would quickly turn the subject to the possibility of a Autism spectrum disorder, b/c he would not look the psychologist in the eyes.

In PA, they try to push the 130, but that is a recommended number that you can argue against. I'm not sure how other states work, but I can say that all they can do here is recommend that the student not be in Gifted. If you feel that circumstances still require him being in whatever the gifted enrichment is, you can stand your ground.

I would definitely make sure if he's ever retested that the testing be done in smaller segments. Some children at 6 just can't sit still long enough to do it all at once. Separating out works out much better for them.

Because my son was so fidgety at that age and some days were better than others I am sure that he could have tested on two different days and had completely different results. I wondered if it was possible for him to be gifted four or five days a week and not gifted at all the rest of the time. I guess those four or five gifted days were what allowed him to score high on an achievement test while only homeschooling about two hours a day when he was first grade age.

The educational psychologist who tested him the month he turned seven said he had trouble sitting still. I knew this would be a problem and I didn't make him sit more than 15 minutes at a time to do any kind of learning activity. Yet he could sit for hours at a computer if I let him which I could not understand. The developmental pediatrician said some people might think he had ADD. In piano he was either good even without practicing at all or not good at all even after practicing. There was no way of predicting if he was going to have a good day or a bad day. I wondered how they could possibly get an accurate test result. I wondered if he needed to take several different tests over different days and just average the scores to get a more accurate picture. We couldn't afford any more testing. We had to take what our insurance paid for and all they paid for was an individual achievement test.

I knew that my son learned differently and needed some accommodation for this but I didn't know how to get it. A child should not have to wait another year for an appropriate education at just the right challenge level and the right pace. I don't understand why a school would be so strict about a score on an IQ test. My son's older gifted friend didn't make a qualifying score the first time he was tested but he did the second time. So I guess he wasn't gifted the day he took the first test but he was the day he took the second test. None of this makes sense to me, but it does make me mad sometimes.

Thank you!! I will look into other avenues. We could be looking at 2e issues as well

He fidgety to begin with, but the problems they were having was, he refused to do any more testing if he had to think about the answer. If he perceives the question to be difficult, he will shut down and say "I don't know" or "I don't want to"

Hi Tall Boys. That sounds exactly like my son. He scored low on the processing speed which really skewed his test results. I have noticed this here at home and am subsequently trying to figure out what this means in the grand scheme of things. He is very visual/spatial so putting things into words under stress is very, very difficult as well as performing under pressure (especially time). I remember being specifically tutored for this in middle school. I believe that is also going on in my DS6 now.

All of this is frustrating. I can put the shoes on both feet(LOL)I understand all too well my side of this, but I can understand the schools side as well. My priority is my 2 sons, the schools priority is all the kids. I just want to find a happy middle for both. To schools defence, they will work with me willingly on any LD he may have, but getting appropreit work seems to be the road block.

I have been thinking a lot about the possibility of HSing, but that terrifies me. I don't think I'm cut out for that type of work. I'm afraid I would do more harm than good.

The DAS-II is the same test the district gave my DS. It is actually produced by the same people that produce the WISC. It is a timed test, with several sub-tests.

In many areas (if there is a college nearby) you can get graduate students to do the testing overseen by their prof. It gives them clinical experience and doesn't generally cost much if anything.