Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Advice and experience on grade acceleration

My oldest is 6 and in 1st grade. She is bright and probably "gifted" as well. There really isn't anything in school that is challenging for her. She is so happy though. She loves the social aspect of school and has grown a lot in confidence and maturity ore the last year. She will be able to test for the gifted program next year. We've mentioned it to her and right now she has no interest in leaving her school and her friends. But, we'll have her test and then cross that bridge when we come to it.

Depending on what kind of tests the school gives for giftedness, it might be worth thinking about - if your DD is optimally gifted and the school has 'more than average' bright kids, then keeping her where she is might be fine, but girls are usually better at 'acting normal' and she may be quite unusually gifted even though she is so much farther behind #2. That will be info worth knowing as you decide. Girls are usually higher in 'EQ' and that helps them fade into the background. I wish I had a nickel for every female here who softly 'lived down' to the expectations others had of her and appeared happy as a child, but is raw inside as an adult with all that gift bouncing around without a talent to channel it through.
Parents of girls have a huge responsibility to insure that the wallpaper they place their daughters in front of is a good match for their dds.

Thanks for indulging me!
Grinity

This was definitely my DD. She was happy, had many friends, and loved going to school. Everyone thought she was really shy, since she rarely talked during class time or raised her hand to offer answers. Even around her friends outside of school she tended toward more demure. But we noticed that the work was way below her academic level and so we pushed first for a subject acceleration and then a grade acceleration. And we are so glad that we did. Not only was the work more appropriate (although, truthfully, easy again after a few weeks), but my DD really blossomed. She started answering questions in class and volunteering information and made new friends who were truly her peers! It was as if she now felt free to be herself and share herself rather than feeling as if she had to hide who she was to fit in. Seeing her blossom and become the funny, outgoing, quirky kid who fits in so well with her older friends has truly been glorious to watch. And if we'd never asked to have her classwork match her abilities, I'm not sure we'd ever have seen the true her!

YES Grinity--these were exactly my thoughts...you said it quite well.

YES.

Beautifully put. My DD can come across as entirely average (relative to age-mates) and rather reserved.

It's astonishing to see.

Hello. My middle son sounds similar to your son with similar learning rate and love of learning and is now in 5th grade- I will share tips I know that have been beneficial:
-Get an independent evaluation completed or request an IQ from the school psychologist. We did this and it has been helpful in advocating
-Speak with the principal prior to his enrollment and request a teacher that is prepared for a high level of differentiation
-Advocate every year for him to be placed with the best teacher- this makes all of the difference
-Regardless of K or 1 the pace of the curriculum will always be way to slow. For this reason, we did the K and have advocated for as much differentiation as possible
-The district tried to have him skip last year (so 4-6th), but we refused. The extra year gives him another year of math in school, he has friends, is a smaller guy and for what? so he could plateau within a few months?
-My oldest is a senior in HS, the extra year does give an advantage on act, and I have been glad to have her at our house this extra 18th year, it goes too fast, I am glad she wasnt moving away a year sooner- you are smart to think of the driving and sports, they are a reality:)
-Consider single-subject acceleration. My son initially advanced 1 grade in math, but quickly reached a plateau- He is now 3 grades ahead in curriculum attending the middle school with a group that is on a track for 2years ahead so he is only with kids 1 year older, but on an 8th gr level (prealgebra)
-The district tested him for this placement and all test scores indicated that he should be there, but they wanted us to sign off one placement lower for their scheduling ease- Fortunately we knew that the test scores indicated this and were able to ask the right questions, dont be afraid to ask,- we did and he is doing outstanding and is clearly in the best placement- always be informed
-Request that he be paired with another student at his level if one is available. My son has this and it is the greatest gift and blessing of all. many schools look to separate the gifted into equal numbers- research tells you they need to be together, advocate for it
-I work in his school and I know that the teachers have their best interest at heart, so I am not "demanding" , but I do offer the types of info you shared with each teacher of things he likes and how he learns- and then we do advocate because if you dont ask and its not happening chances are it wont
-ask for pre-tests of curriculum, when he passes that ask for extentions on his level
-Ultimately, we were not happy with public school during middle school and opted for private for our oldest. In the younger grades, public was better than pprivate for gifted. Now, our school is cutting the gifted program (I am going tomorrow to discuss this...) , but I am aware of the other local schools and their programming and will switch schools for my youngest if the programming is gone- stay informed- if there is a gifted school near you, take advantage of it, I wish we had that opportunity!!
Sounds like you have an amazing little guy...Good Luck!!

We have had a positive experience with acceleration in a private school setting. My DS7 accelerated directly to first grade. We initially worried about motor skills and social skills as well. He did bring home some work in first grade that he wasn't able to finish in class. We were told to expect a 3-6 month adjustment period. This seemed to be right on target for him. He is currently in second grade and doing great. He loves cursive as it is faster for him. Socially, he has a close group of friends and most children/parents in his class don't even realize his age difference (He has always tended to prefer older playmates). One note of caution, we were not prepared for the number of parents who held their children back before starting kindergarten at our school. There was a 2-year age difference with him and the oldest child in his first grade class. In retrospect, it is hard to imagine starting him in kindergarten as he has clearly thrived with his acceleration. One benefit of an early entry is that we hope he will be able to stay with the same group of friends for a while. Hope this helps!

We got our evaluations done. And although they still point to the direction I expected (principle and school psycologist are all for a skip) I'm really confused by the results. I posted over in the testing area, but I'm hoping to get more opinions over here
He took the WJ-III cognitive and achievement. The cognitive portion he got a GIA of 125 - broken down - verbal ability 120, thinking ability 140, and cog efficiency 108. On the achievement side his scores were much higher - all but two were between 140 and 170. Math fluency scored at 120 and reading vocab at 129. Broad math is 155 and basic reading is 171. So I think based on those scores we can apply to DYS.
I'm fighting with myself over having a hard time accepting the GIA of 125. Knowing my boy and all that he self taught himself and his drive to learn and his amazing ability to quickly learn and forever know - I absolutely had him pegged as a much higher level of giftedness. This score puts him just barely entering the gifted range. His tester was a school psychologist intern and honestly knowing that she was an intern I think I wouldve doubted almost any result. Put that with a boy that hates the stress of anything timed, has slow fine motor skills and was on the tail end of a cold, and I lean towards not believing the results. But, then I wonder why I even care. Does any one know how accurate the WJ III cognitive results are? Should it change my plan of attack if he really is only mildly gifted? Hmmm... The more I think anoint it the more confused I get. Thanks for any help and insight.

and the Marathon continues!
WJ-cog isn't one of the more popular IQ tests, so I don't have much info on it. Seems like it sure it hard to know what will happen in kindy until you get there - unless he has had 'issues' with agemates previously in daycare/preschool.

Is it a half day kindy program? If so, you could certainly try it and see how it goes - particularly if the teacher is hand picked. Somehow teachers of younger kids are often better at accepting and accomidating 'individual differences' than teacher in mid-elementary school, after all the flip side of is that the teacher isn't expecting to have to accomidate such a wide range of individual differences.

I love the idea of subject acceleration, for math and reading, if the school will offer it.

It might be nice to do kindy with agemates, then get a WISC IV after he turn age 6 to decide on skipping 1st. Again - not if he has a history of 'issues' with agemates in preschool/daycare.

If it's a full day kindy program, sometimes the schools will allow kindy in the morning and 1st in the afternoon.

Go in and observe! That's the best way to know. I mean it.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

The principle is fully in support of skipping kindergarten. He said something to the effect of he is the best candidate for a skip that he has seen. Do you think it wouldn't be a good idea because of the iq score?