Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Testing for child with speech difficulties?

Hi everyone!

I'm glad to have found your forum!!

I'm writing to ask you all about my DS--age 8 and in 2nd grade (public school). At his teacher's recommendation, DS recently went through an assessment to see if he qualified for the school's gifted program. (This is the 4th teacher to recommend evaluation to us--and our first assessment ever.) I reluctantly agreed to allow the school psychologist to test him (she's a fairly new, inexperienced evaluator).

DS has speech difficulties (he has a small cleft palate which affects his production of many different speech sounds). He is not currently receiving speech services through our school, as his speech is not delayed by 25% (our school's rule). However, he has just recently started private speech and language services through our local cleft palate center. I noted this in our paperwork to the school psychologist, but I'm not sure that she even read the notes we gave her before testing DS!

The school psychologist administered the WISC (DS's full scale score was 129).

The GES (Gifted Evaluation Scale) was given, and my son scored 129 (97th percentile).

Finally, she gave him just two subtests of the WIAT: The Word Reading test and the Mathematics Reasoning test. His Word REading score was in the 90th percentile. Math Reasoning was in the 92nd percentile.

My son does not meet the requirements of the gifted program based on these test scores. However, his teacher is extremely frustrated with these results and has told me many, many times that his reading level, rate of acquisition of new material, and retention of information is far beyond that of his same-age peers.

I am wondering whether the Word Reading subtest of the WIAT was a wise choice for a child with speech issues? Can a psychologist score this fairly for a child who distorts several speech sounds and sometimes even inverts letter sounds (for example, he says "gril" for "girl")? I feel very badly that he had to try to make it through a test where pronunciation is really important! He knows that he can't say all of his sounds correctly, and he's very self-conscious about it!

I am also very disappointed that the forumla our school used to determine qualification for this program does not take into account teacher input at all!!! Is this common practice?

I am considering the possibility of having my son assessed again (at a later date) by a more experienced evaluator. Does this sound like a good idea?

Also, I'm discouraged to hear other parents talking about our school's gifted program. It's a pull-out once per week and revolves around independent study only. Adaptations to the child's IEP (i.e., provision of more challenging work in core subjects) really doesn't happen unless parents make a big, BIG fuss!!

Many children in our school have been tested year after year for the gifted program. It happens often that on the 3rd or 4th try, they are finally called "gifted." Also, I've come across 4-5 moms whose kids have been admitted to the gifted program, only to be told a year later (after a re-assessment at the school's request) that the child no longer qualifies for gifted instruction!!! This whole process is so strange to me! When I was a kid, an evaluation stood for several years!

Part of me thinks that pushing for further evaluation may not be worth the effort, though! Our gifted program leaves an awful lot to be desired...

So, can any of you guys tell me what to do with my son? He complains of boredom all the time and has carried 99% and 100% in all of his classes--always.

Thank you all for any thoughts!!

jellyb

Hi, Dottie!

Thanks for your reply! His WISC scores are pretty steady, with Verbal Comprehension at 128, Perceptual Reasoning at 129.

You're right. Pretty close to the 130.

I have a visit scheduled with the school psychologist to discuss his results. The formula our district uses to determine giftedness weights the full scale IQ at the same weight as the WIAT Word Reading and WIAT Math subtests. Why do you say that Word Reading is not a particularly good test for her to have used? I certainly see the speech difficulties as working against my son in that area...

Thank you for all of your help!!

jelllyb

Sorry to hear about the frustrations. I was curious if the observations about reassessments are things you've heard from other parents? Even folks I know well and basically trust have a tendency to fill in gaps in info with colorful hyperbole, so you might need to take some of this with a grain of salt.
I also recently had a conversation with someone poo-pooing (or however you spell that) the gifted elem. program which about 4 weeks earlier she had been in a rage to get her child into. I think she is now decided to wait until middle school to request retesting even though she sees some issues with how the testing was done for her daughter. She said she is waiting "until it really matters". So, again, have to take some of this stuff from other parents with large shakers of salt, and some actual info from the schools, if they are communicating.
Oddly, my son is in a similar state score wise to her dd, but I know the improvement he's already shown in the 3rd grade program, so I am not going to wait to get more info/tesitng for him, but that is just my ds/my perspective.

The gifted program would probably be only part of a solution for your ds, but it still might be very very helpful in getting him through the school week, boosting confidence, if that is an issue, etc.

Dottie,

Thank you for the GAI info. I'll check into that when I meet with the school psychologist!

Chris,

The info comes from both parents and teachers! No other parents know of DS's testing as far as I know. I don't talk about such things with them--bad experiences from when I was a kid in the gifted program!!! DS's teacher is a good resource for us. She knows DS needs further challenges and she does her best to accommodate him in her classroom. She's working on an independent study project with him and she allows him to test on higher math (rather than doing the addition/subtraction his peers are doing). But she's told me very honestly that many kids she's personally taught have been assessed multiple times and eventually called "gifted!!!"

Honestly, I don't care what they call my son--as long as they continue to challenge him and provide the learning opportunities he so desperately needs!

I've been seriously considering the possibility of home schooling. I live near a fairly big city with lots of supplemental opportunities for homeschooled kids. I think DS would really flourish with those opportunities!!!

Thank you both for your thoughts!

jellyb

If you want to talk homeschooling, just say the word. No pressure, just honest discussion about pros and cons.

If you can afford to have it done, I'd consider having him tested again privately. Find an evaluator that has experience with 2E. He needs to take different tests than he's already taken, but there are several.

As far as the "making a big fuss" part goes..... Most of the people on this board will tell you that the squeaky wheel does in fact get the oil. We refer to it as advocacy, not fussing. LOL!