I'm wondering if anyone can offer thoughts on if/how DYS could help with our child/ situation and also on whether we could apply with what we've got for scores right now and a portfolio. Our son is 5. He was diagnosed with HFA/Asperger's when he was 2, and has made tremendous progress since his initial dx. The schools won't work for him (they would like to treat him as a special ed student who basically requires no services b/c he won�t do poorly in his academics). We will be homeschooling (we already homeschool his big sis b/c even the gifted program here wasn�t a good fit).
Here's little guy's backstory (hard to summarize, sorry so long:)
He taught himself to read-- was decoding 3-4 letter words by his 2nd birthday and really launched from there. Was always early with shapes, puzzles, patterns, etc. He can do math based on anything- planetary order, presidents (he can do equations based on the number of their presidency if you just give him the president's name-- though you have to specify which term for Cleveland :)). Knows an astounding amount about many things, like: solar systems, presidents, states, science, math, geography, the periodic table, cloning/dna, the body, etc. He's excellent with grammar and spelling (can tell you parts of speech, tense, plurals, punctuation, antonyms, synonyms, etc.) He's a goofball and LOVES puns and homonyms. He loves games: like Mancala, Stratego, etc. He's gotten into Chess. I have no idea what level he plays at, but I suspect he's pretty good for a 5 year old who�s been playing it such a short time. We were just on a car trip and he started a mental chess game with dad and they played like that, with no board, while we were driving. And then there's Math! He's always been a whiz and he's pretty much taught himself everything he knows. The basic operations, through things like: prime numbers, algebraic equations, squares/cubes and roots, imaginary numbers, etc.). We just tell him the right names for the things he stumbles into or turn him onto things related to what he's doing (fortunately we're friendly with a colleague in the math dept). But he guides us-- asks questions that make us show him things we wouldn't normally intro to a kid his age. We call him a walking hypertext:) He naturally expands upon and generalizes everything he learns. His knowledge/application is encyclopedic (if he sees a date for when something was invented he may say, "oh, so it's as old as X" and whatever it is he'll be right and have accurately calculated if necessary). He can calculate your weight on the various planets. He can calculate calendar dates. And he's nonstop thought/inquiry-- just seeks more and more all day long (big sis is also identified hg -- we're always exhausted :D).
This spring he was evaluated for his "triennial review" for special ed. The psych who tested him (who is the school's ed. psych who tests for the district's gifted program) apparently realized in the first session that he was gifted beyond what they'd seen before. The gifted program reps have also said they've never experienced another child with his abilities. Because he's 2e and has some difficulty w/ transitions/social interactions, esp. with new people, the psych felt his initial IQ testing w/ the SB5 was inaccurate. It gets him the max points for the county's gifted program , but she felt did not reflect what she later realized he is capable of (this is also supported by his primary doc and the other pros who work with him and know him well enough to know what he's like-- they all felt it was well short of his true ability). As he and the tester grew more familiar, he was more comfortable engaging with her and she began to see his abilities more clearly. She dismissed his IQ scores b/c of the issues I mentioned above (he took SB5 and I remember fluid reasoning was around 141 and GAI, or whatever it's called on SB was somewhere in 135-140 range but I don't have exacts b/c we decided, with her advice, to keep his IQ scores off record b/c she felt they weren't accurate and were affected by his twice exceptionality and his unfamiliarity with her, the setting, etc. ). After the SB, she gave the WIAT. By this time he'd begun to feel more comfortable with her. He scored 160 in Total Math. I want to say his total reading was 135 (but there's a note that she scored him out of age/grade level b/c there wasn't a norm for someone of his age/grade with his reading ability????). I've got another hg child, but we used WISC w/ her so I'm not as familiar with SB5 and the age/grade norming for advanced early readers. I can get his full WIAT scores when I get back into my office, but I do know the only thing that fell within range of his age/grade level was handwriting.
I have a lot of video documentation of him just doing his usual stuff, but don't know how much that would count as a portfolio. His fine motor is delayed, so it is probably the best evidence I have at this point.
Anyway, we are scrambling to figure out how to do what's best for ds (dd's gifts at least fall into our areas of strength-- we're both profs in our fields so she hasn't exhausted what we have to offer her just yet- lol).
Would appreciate any advice and thoughts on benefits of DYS, the application process, etc. Do you know if they'll take a portfolio if one test score qualifies and the child is 2e and may have difficulty with some of the tests b/c of it?
TIA!
TH
