Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment New...Totally heart broken and at a loss

This is so true. My dd, who isn't profoundly gifted (PG), is still not in her element when placed with other gifted kids of similar age. For instance, she is currently taking part in a STEM institute for gifted middle schoolers (6th-9th). She is 11.5 and will be an 8th grader in the fall, so she is in the middle of the age and grade grouping presumably. She has been somewhat unhappy with the level of the instruction and expectations and came home yesterday complaining how they aren't teaching her anything she doesn't already know.

I've really had to encourage her to think outside of the box and come up with a project on her own rather than following the suggested formatting for the projects they are doing b/c she wouldn't get anything out of the expected project and she really does want to learn something new not just create an impressive end project from material she has known for years.

She went in today with her own materials including a population survey of tagged and un-tagged manatees from the DOW in FL and a college textbook on sirinean anatomy. She's going to do some research on the brains of manatees or factors that correlate with successful release of rehabilitated manatees. (It's an oceanography focused STEM class.) I believe that the intended research projects were more along the lines of "what causes manatee mortality," or "what do Giant Pacific Octopus eat?"

I'm seriously begining to consider this for dd11 myself. Especially in an area of deep interest for a HG+ child (like marine mammology for my dd), the child is likely to surpass high school level material quite early and may do much better with college courses. Like I said, my dd isn't Doogie Howser. She's obviously very bright to most people who interact with her, but I never would think that she should start college at 11. I think that it is common misperception that only really odd, out there kids are taking college course this early when it may actually be a fit for many HG kids with a real drive and interest in specialized fields.

First, I'm sorry you're having such a hard time. That is a tough position to be in. Unfortunately, sometimes, giftedness doesn't present itself in ways others expect (argh!).

Did something happen during the test (boredom, distraction in class...)? I frustrated my parents once when I became bored during an ITBS math exam and started filling in bubbles to create artistic patterns. DC19 had a difficult time sustaining concentration on parts of standardized exams and did better on conceptual questions than on computation, spelling... Just some thoughts.

Tutoring/finding a mentor in his area(s) of interest may also help (maybe less problems with home schooling if someone else can answer his questions?), as it seems you are trying out now. I thoroughly enjoyed mentorships around that age and grew quite a bit in the sciences and creative writing/foreign language when I had someone in the field helping and critiquing me. It helped somewhat with home schooling and helped quite a bit while I was in school.

Kcab

Yes it is a "bubble-in" test. And yes I do believe that is what happened. That would explain a 40% point drop from one yr to the next with HIGH science scoring. Also the fact he has straight A's.

I know he had problems at the beginning of the year with bubble tests. He got a "D" on a religion test. He thought he got the wrong test back. He wanted the teacher to score it by hand.
He missed #11 filled in and ended up with 21 out of 20 questions.

He was more careful after that. His ITBS testing was in the first 3 weeks of school.

Thank you for "outlining" different tests. There are so many I didn't have a starting point.
I am going to look into different options for him.

Are there any recommendations for testers ? I do not have to stay close to home I would take him to a tester that understands my "Brillant disaster". He is disorganized and I really need to train him to FOCUS. He makes stupid mistakes, like he had a test on The Great Horn Spoon and he skipped an answer not because he didn't know it and was coming back to it...just missed it.
He just matter of factly said " i missed it, don't know how I didn't see it" UGGG it's irritating to me now (didn't bother me before) because on a "Bubble In" that can be a disaster. The ones he answered were correct still an A and he really didn't like the book.

I have told him about the ITBS score and the reason for not getting into adv math. I also told him I felt it was due to "sloppy error" and this summer we are going to work on that... NOW the question is HOW ?

I don't know where abouts you are, but you might want to consider Dr. Ruf of Educational Options.
http://www.educationaloptions.com/

A great place to start is http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/psychologists.htm to at least see who is available in your area, but I totally agree with Cricket about Dr. Ruf. I have a friend who is going to Dr. Ruf to test her son and I'm excited to see where Dr. Ruf places him in her levels.

And Cricket: love your daughter's project. Sounds like she put a lot of effort into it.

Thanks, she's decided to go with looking at how the encephalization quotient or "EQ" (brain weight to body weight quotient) and brain folding in manatees compares to other grazing mammals and why manatees might not have needed to develop as strong of an intellect as the grazing land mammals from an evolutionary standpoint. EQ and brain folds are both possibly related to intelligence. I'll be curious to see how it turns out.