We live in Iowa and the closest specialist we could find was Dr. Ruf, in the Minneapolis area. I found her name on the Davidson website, so I felt pretty sure she would understand the issues at hand with our daughter (who was 7 at the time). We also have family there, so it made sense to take the trip to see her.
Basically, we were having trouble finding a good school situation for our daughter. At the time we got her evaluated, she was in second grade at our neighborhood elementary school. It was obvious to us that she needed considerably more challenging work, but her teacher didn't see (or didn't want to see) the true extent of her abilities. The school administration just kept telling us that they didn't have enough "data" to make any decisions about changing what they were offering her. At that time, the TAG program didn't officially start until third grade (although they did pull her out for advanced reading in K).
So basically, we took her to get tested to "prove" to them what we already knew. In the end we still had to get her out of that school and send her to a nearby public school that was more flexible with us. She skipped third grade and went straight to fourth in the new school. (We had trouble there, too, and ended up moving her yet again at the start of fifth grade.)
Anyway, getting her tested was a very positive experience for us. My younger daughter was also tested last year with Dr. Ruf.
HTH,
Joy
