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Gifted and talented

Talk to other parents about parenting a gifted child on this forum.

Mix feelings about testing for G&T

31 replies

josie14 · 06/11/2010 16:13

Our little boy started school in September. He was 4 in April and has been reading for nearly a year. It sounds crazy, but he is really reading and now he is a very fluent reader recognising most common use words and not so commonly used. To give some idea, he knows words like - 'ultimate', scarcely, commenced, emergency. I gave him a reading age test 'the Burt Reading Test' and he has a reading age of 9 years on that test. We have four children and he is the youngest. We have not'hot housed' any of our children and he largely seems to have picked up how to read alone although I bought him a some ABC puzzles and books as a toddler. All great stuff and having such a bright child has a great novelty factor with the extended family. However, we have just had our first parents evening and I was very interested to meet Harry's new teacher to see what she made of it. He's got friends and is highly confident but a little explosive when irritated. The teacher showed us a list of words children going into Y1 should know and Harry was ticked as knowing all but one. That word was 'all'. I was surprised he didn't know this word so I showed it to him and he said 'all'. The teacher does not seem aware of how advanced his reading is and when we tried to talk to her about it she seemed a little annoyed and unwilling to explore it. She simply said he is ahead of the class but they will catch up quickly. We left it there as there seemed little point in going on.

The problem we have in having Harry tested, which seems to be borne out by some of the replies on this site, it that the label 'gifted' seems to cause hostility. It looks arrogant and the parents look pushy and snobby around other peoples kids. It is not a special need in the usual way. Other children who are labelled as special needs will probably have nothing like the life chances a gifted child might be able to take advantage of. But 'gifted' will make a child unpopular and set them apart.

Harry is only 4 and this ability he has may only be a flash in the pan, though I dont really believe that. We are wondering if there is any point to having him tested right now as he is so young. If school becomes a drag for him at a later time, we could look at it then. On the other hand would we be failing to open doors for him by not having him tested. But where would we go from there anyway if the test showed he was gifted.

OP posts:
redfred · 08/11/2010 11:13

I think you are wise to take things a step at a time. If your DS is happy and has a healthy attitude towards school and learning, then there's no need for an assessment. I would recommend the NAGC, altho' it's quite a while since I've had any dealings with them so things may have changed.

Enjoy your DS! Like you we have other children and of course love them all equally to bits, but there have been particular joys and challenges in parenting a child like our DS.

Bink · 08/11/2010 22:04

I too think that with your latest posts you are taking a good line. One thing that I think is so often not appreciated about bright children is how different they can be from each other - there are so many different ways of being exceptional. So my feeling is that the best thing you can do for your ds is tune in to his own kind of brightness - is he detail-oriented & scientific? big-picture & creative? exceptionally empathetic with others? musical? is his "thing" maths, or words, or images, or facts, or comedy, or a mix & match of different bits of those?

What does he show interest in spontaneously (or most spontaneously, as bright children often has lots of quick interests)? What does he wake up in the morning wanting to do? I think that is the most interesting bit of bright children (and indeed of all children) - the things that make them an individual. An assessment might flag up some things, but one testing appointment will never reveal the actual individual.

(For comparison - my two, who are meant to be bright (though we will see how they turn out): dd (10) spontaneously sewed a tiny beret this evening, having worked out from geometric first principles how they are made; ds (11)'s weirdness is to be genuinely Not Bored by politics & economics.)

Bink · 08/11/2010 22:08

Oh, and just the converse too: identifying your ds's own special kind of brightness is also useful for spotting the things that he might benefit from doing more of. Thus realising my ds was being a bit of an encyclopaedia made us point him towards funny stuff - finding his sense of humour was the turning point for dealing with school.

rabbitstew · 12/11/2010 22:35

I and both my dss, and my dh, could read fluently before starting school (and I do mean reading books to ourselves, reading with expression and understanding and being able to summarise what we had read). I never considered this to be a sign of a startlingly high IQ, particularly since I was the youngest of four, so a large part of my ability must have been learning through example. I did do extremely well academically, though (dh amusingly slightly less so, given that he was identified as gifted when his local state primary school advised his parents to try for scholarships at local private schools instead, resulting in him going to very good prep/public schools on full scholarships from the age of 6. He is undeniably extremely intelligent, but it takes more than that and a good education to reach your "full potential" (in quotation marks because he has actually got exactly what he wanted out of life, it just turns out what he wants is not the lofty heights of academic success...)).

However, along with reading ability, ds1, like his father, also had an uncanny ability with numbers from an early age, working out number sequences, playing with numbers, etc, despite no active encouragement of anything more than counting and no older siblings to copy. His memory and understanding of abstract concepts are also unusually good. He is not unduly inquisitive about the world around him, though - only interested in things if they can be turned into an amusing story - and this is maddening, sometimes. He also hates to be challenged, prefering things that are well within his capabilities. He has been assessed by a psychologist, at the request of the school, and has been found to be highly intelligent (amongst other things...). I don't think this is the answer to all the issues he has at school or at home, but it does affect the school's approach towards him in a positive way and was therefore helpful and worthwhile (but only because the IQ testing was part of a broader assessment of his skills and personality).

Ds1's brother, ds2, is more of an all rounder, interested in everything, less exceptional with numbers although still several years in advance of his peers, and much more talented than his brother at all things practical, as his spatial skills seem to be particularly good, whereas ds1's spatial skills are obviously his weak point. Ds2's social and emotional skills are also superior to ds1's. Ds2 is extremely happy at school and I therefore have no interest in having his IQ tested or doing anything much about it. His teachers have picked up that he is unusually bright, because in his case it is obvious and not obscured by any behavioural or physical issues, and he is mature for his age in all respects (the sort of child most teachers would want to and find easy to keep happy and engaged, though I say so myself!). Unless he ever expresses any frustration or unhappiness at school, I therefore don't think there is anything to be gained from having his IQ assessed.

So, I guess I agree with the others - you do what you feel is right for the child you have. Every child is different. Not every unusually bright or gifted child needs to be assessed to prove them as such, but some, as a result of the mix of their particular personality and IQ (and possible weaknesses - few people are gifted in all areas), may benefit from a closer assessment. But maybe wait a year or two first to see how your ds settles into school routines?

rabbitstew · 12/11/2010 22:48

ps I personally think getting an IQ test done to try to get through to a teacher that your child is genuinely brighter than she appears to think he is, is overkill at this stage. Better to try other methods of convincing her, first - particularly if your ds is actually quite happy at school at the moment!

PrincessTV · 02/03/2011 17:26

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