Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Thread Like Summary - "Gifted" or just "Talented"?

Hello! I'm turning to the experts on this forum to help confirm if my child counts as "gifted" or simply very talented.

Public/private school admission is not an issue, as we homeschool, but I do need to negotiate with after-school academic program coordinators, and in a couple years, CLEP proctors and college admissions. I don't want to throw the word "gifted" around if my child does not in fact qualify, while I'm trying to lobby for early admission or skipping levels.

My 11 yo DD began reading at age 3, not exactly independently, but she identified the word "box" spontaneously all on her own, and so I took the cue and began her formal instruction. She completed 1st grade at age 4 and is currently chugging through freshman high school algebra and chemistry. Her 2 siblings study at a similar level or one year behind. I had her take the Stanford Binet in Sept and the Stanford + OLSAT in November. To be totally transparent, the SB was not independently proctored - I just bought the online version for her and sat her down at the computer.

Her SB gave her an overall IQ of 143: her 2 highest categories, "visual" and "knowledge", were 145, and her lowest category, "innate", was 125.

Her OLSAT gave her only a 119 SAI, in the 88th percentile. However, the Stanford academic portion was in the 95th percentile for the complete battery: Reading 98th, Math 96th, Language 95th, Spelling 83rd, Science 96th, Social 97th, Listening 96th, and Thinking Skills 99th percentile. She told me that she ran out of time on the OLSAT portion and could not get to all the questions, but the academic portion is of course untimed.

The Stanford+OLSAT rates her AAC (academic achievement score) as "high" because it considers that most kids with her OLSAT score would not have scored so high on the academic portion. Likewise, the Stanford Binet considers "innate" intelligence her lowest category, while her high categories are mental skills that are learned. So I'm questioning if my child is gifted, or if she is simply a very bright child who has been extremely motivated under a custom school program. I want to advocate for my child, but I don't want to claim she's more than she is.

I'd be very grateful for any feedback!

Which grade do you intend to put her in? Maybe start her in 10th or 9th would do this year as last year she was above average for 8th grade test, but bear in mind that "above average" does not necessarily mean as great as what some may think. 75th percentile in the class is the upper quartile but not necessarily the top. I was 98th-99th in grade level before they let me skip and for me 1 skip was enough to get into a very top university afterwards.

I agree with that and that is a reason why I would prefer labelling - if only to have a report stating that her skills are way above average and therefore to accommodate her. At least that's the official paper to support you in case there are any conflict or worse - legal matters (imagine discrimination against 2e).

My opinion is to report her as grade 10... but it depends on that 8th grade test to be fair. I would prefer AP rather than CLEP for international transfer and standardised benchmarks. I'm OK with her in in person campus at 15-16 full time starting off with AP credit. My concern is more to do with any potential age discrimination and harassment rather than any capability issue - if you do so perhaps have a lawyer on call in case there is serious age discrimination from the university.

I think the best would be to have a good amount of hobbies, CLEP/AP and then go to university in-person at 15/16 that is what I would do. Even if she goes a little bit wild I am more concerned about others' reactions to her (which we could fix with mediation or legal action) rather than her own capabilities.

As much as mediation or legal action are things to keep in mind as options for age discrimination at the university level, it is as well to remember that much of the concerning behavior experienced may not originate from the institution itself, but from other members of the university community--which one cannot realistically control with litigation (certainly not without incurring other unintended consequences). In any case, my experience with early entrance/radical acceleration with university students as young as nine has been that not nearly as much age-based discriminatory behavior occurs as one might fear. The more important questions typically are within-student, and focus on social maturity and executive functions, some of which can be scaffolded by thoughtful adults around the student.

For our children, we took advantage of relatively generous access to dual enrollment classes (especially online), as a reasonable compromise between full in-person university enrollment as a matriculated student and adolescent (or younger)-level social/EF skills. I would also agree that AP exams are a viable option both for accumulating college credit and for scheduling more challenging course syllabi in your homeschool instruction. We have also used them.

The child I mentioned upthread was multiply grade-advanced, but then requested a one-year retention back to grade 11 as we were preparing to enter grade 12, because they felt they were not ready for college--but then of course, ended up with a full schedule of dual enrollment classes, entering university as a sophomore the following year--putting them in the same position in the end. My point in this latter anecdote is that flexibility is key, and careful attention to the bursts of development that any children--but especially GT kiddos--tend to have. Make plans, but be prepared to change them, and don't let your anxieties run too far ahead of reality.