Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Just getting started...

st pauli girl - I've bookmarked those references, thanks! The gifted testing was a result of contacting the psychologist (a referal from our pediatrician) due to some behavior concerns at school and home (the details are probably more appropriate for the Parenting forum). We have always known he was "smart" for his age, reading early, love for math, strong memory, etc., but really never considered having him tested. As we were working through this behavior with him, I was also researching "oversensative" behavior of gifted children. Long story, but our thought was that understanding if he was gifted, it would help us as parents...and, so here we are

shellymos - I appreciate your thoughts on public vs. private schools. Our initial discussions with his teacher have been very supportive and we hope to find out much more in the next week or two on what his IEP (if they do that) would be.

Have you read "A Nation Deceived?" It's free and online, or you can order a free copy and have it mailed to you.

http://www.accelerationinstitute.org/Nation_Deceived/

I was pretty anti-grade skips until I read the actual research you'll find there. And the group is pro-GT child, so they're not going to push a solution that is generally bad for GT kids, you know?

Skips don't work for all HG+ kids, of course. In fact, in our case, because processing speed was just high average for DS7, we chose not to try to skip him even after reading the research. The school would have fought us anyway, so this was part of our reason for chosing another route. But we didn't think it smart to have to fight tooth-and-nail for something that didn't seem like a great fit.

But for many HG+ kids--especially those who have high scores across the board and who get on well with older kids--it really is the best option available in most schools, especially when combined with other methods like subject acceleration.

Again, read about it before you reject it. You may still reject it, as we did. But research is better than purely anecdotal evidence!

Welcome to the board! I'm another happy homeschooler, but there are many PG kids who do thrive in traditional schools. You might keep homeschooling in mind if things do not go well with the school. Many of us felt backed into a corner when we started, but have since grown to love the freedom it provides.

Yea, what she said. LOL! I'm HSing my GT DS8 for the last 2 years.

In addition to the Ruf book and Miraca Gross book, I'd throw in:

A Parent's Guide to Gifted Children by James T. Webb

http://www.amazon.com/Parents-Guide-Gifted-Children/dp/0910707790

It's a great guide to understanding the social and emotional issues giftedness raises.

New to Me,

Welcome aboard! It's a whole new world, but the information is out there to help you make the right decisions for your child. Start reading and don't stop until your brain hurts!

My DS6 is very similar to yours. He is accelerated in all subjects and will be skipped to 4th grade next year. He is in a public school in a very small district. We don't have any designated gifted programming but the school is making it work. The extreme sensitivity you spoke of is pretty normal for GT kids, there are several good articles about OE's that will help you with that.

Interestingly the only time my DS has an issue is in Kindergarten never in his upper grade classes. It's because he thinks he knows everything K has to offer and freaks out when he makes a mistake. You might want to do a little reading on perfectionism (in your spare time) as well.

Take it slow, educate yourself and your DW. There is so much to learn and there are many people on here that can help based on personal experience and knowing where to send you for the info that you need. DYS is important just in the piece of mind that it offers, knowing that you're not alone.

Great to have another parent to kibbitz with!! LOL!!

I do need to get a nation deceived. Thanks for reminding me. I kept trying to find a link where I could have them send it to me because I didn't feel like printing it all out. I also want to buy the iowa acceleration manual as well. I really am not against a grade skip now, he is one of those kids that's high accross the board, extroverted, self-motivated, speaks his mind, enjoys older kids, etc. Actually he doesn't seem to notice ages of people, but I notice he goes towards older kids more. Sometimes he insists they are his own age, LOL. I just let it go because at least he feels they are a peer. That's so important. I wish we could just do grade acceleration and not have to do subject on top of that. That part makes me nervous. But what can you do? (that's rhetorical...I don't expect an answer) : )

I don't want you to think we're all homeschoolers, though lots of us are chiming in. We've got all sorts of educational solutions here! And all are welcome and openly discussed. In my experience, that's pretty rare to find.

One of the reasons I like it here is because we're all pretty much open to anything that works! No "us vs. them" stuff.

Is this not an option? This is what Dottie's son is doing, just as an off-the-top-of-my-head example.

I am not sure what you mean. Do you mean just do grade acceleration and no subject acceleration? I don't think that would be appropriate because he would be with MUCH older kids. Not sure what level he would be at, but the tester we had stated that we will have to go out of his school for this next year because it is only a k-2 school.