gifted program?

[lgliser]

Hi,

I've looked through a few old posts to find something similar but it's getting late and I'm getting sleepy so I'm just going to post, even though this is probably a really common question.

 

My kids are 9 and in 4th grade and I think my son could possibly benefit from being in a gifted program. He just grasps things so quickly and I feel like he's often bored. Maybe he's an accelerated learner and not "gifted," I don't know.

 

Should I have him tested just to see?  Do I just contact our school district? What sort of test do they do? I feel like if I knew the types of questions he'd have to answer, I would have a good idea if he'd have any kind of chance passing or not.

[wapiti]

If you are homeschooling him, as it looks from your signature, why not offer more advanced work?

 

Most public schools are not likely to test for giftedness of a homeschooler upon request.  There may be a few exceptions.  Private testing would be your best bet, if you really need that before giving yourself permission to try more advanced materials.

[Arcadia]

When my district had a GATE program, they had two rounds of their own testing and an interview with the student. After they scrap the program, they don't screen for gifted.

 

Their first round was a screening test so something like Olsat or Cogat. Those who make it to the second round get a modified IQ test so it is not a full test. The passing percentile depends on district so if your district has a high percentage of gifted kids, the cutoff would be higher. The state I am in does not provide funding or oversight.

[regentrude]

My kids were tested when they still attended ps. They are both gifted. Our experience with the gifted program in the local ps was that it is a nice change from the eight hour boredom for ps students who have to be there, but that a one hour/day or two afternoons/week pullout program is a drop in the bucket and not actually meeting the educational needs of a gifted student.

 

There is nothing there I could not do better at home with my kids. I would not waste effort for testing a homeschooled student whom I would simply educate according to his individual needs.

[Cake and Pi]

You could check your school district's website for information on GT.  Ours won't do an actual IQ test for school aged kids outside of IEP (for special needs) testing.  However, they screen 100% of full-time 2nd graders with the cogAT every October, and any parent of any child in the district, even one completely homeschooled, can request their child take the cogAT once every 12 months for free.  It doesn't give an IQ, but it'll give you a reasonably good, though not definite, idea if a kid is gifted.  They make you jump through some hoops to go along with the test, but all kids over some magical cogAT percentile threshold get ALPs... which are pretty much useless little slips of paper.  However, a kid who has an ALP is then eligible for GT summer programming (expensive) and the GT magnets (free and highly sought after), and the powers that be are more open to subject acceleration for kids with ALPs in public school. 

 

At home though, like everyone else already said, there's not much point to testing unless you suspect learning disabilities that are masked by giftedness.  I mean, I can think of a few other reasons, but you can give him as much challenge as he needs without ever doing any testing.

[Dmmetler]

At 4th grade you can also do out of level testing (PSAT 8/9, the online test that replaced the EXPLORE, or SCAT-or, if kids are really advanced, the SAT or ACT), which may open outside programs and be possibly helpful for advocacy. Usually there is one talent search program most recognized in your area, so that would be a place to start. It's a lot cheaper than doing a full IQ test, and, in my experience, is more accepted-even programs that take IQ scores often are as happy or happier with an out of level test, and for things like DE or early college, the ACT/SAT are necessary.

Edited October 1, 2016 by dmmetler

[mathwonk]

To me a rational response is just to upgrade their curriculum until they are challenged.  But in reality I think it helps you, to learn that/whether your kid is considered "gifted", as it may guide your search for appropriate materials.  We had a kid we were kind of ignoring since he seemed pretty average, (so we were not as alert as you are to your child's potential).   After testing revealed that he was considered "gifted" we took more seriously the challenge of educating him.  So the test was more for our benefit.   I.e. it helped us understand the abilities of a kid who was talented but just very laid back. 

 

Of course the reverse side of this might be that if he had been found "not gifted", we might have continued to shortchange him.  So maybe this sort of labeling is not so reliable, as every kid deserves as much challenge as she/he can benefit from.  So i guess I think testing can give useful information, but I would try not to interpret it as a binary decision, i.e. there are more categories than gifted/not gifted.

 

I.e. your children obviously can absorb more of something, so indeed please feel liberated to offer it to them.

Edited October 2, 2016 by mathwonk

[lgliser]

Ok, thanks! 2 years ago I started him on Beast Academy. It challenged him for sure. We didn't do it last year but maybe I should get that again. 

 

I'm not sure what else to do to challenge him. Math is his best subject and he's already working a grade ahead and doing 2 lessons a day. I don't think I could just flat out skip a level... he catches on quickly but still needs to be introduced to concepts.

 

And other than math, I'm not sure how to challenge him. Any specific ideas?
Thanks so much!

[wapiti]

Beast is an excellent resource for adding challenge.  There are others, e.g. the Singapore CWP and IP books.

 

I think you are right to not skip a math level but allow him to move more quickly through concepts.  As far as being "already" one grade ahead, that does not matter at all.  There is no reason to keep a student from working ahead, especially with the addition of some depth so that it isn't a shallow, procedural experience.  The balance between depth and acceleration may be different for individual students at various points in time.  After he has learned fractions/decimals, you might take a look at AoPS Prealgebra.