need a specialist

[shs69]

Hello,
my DD had top top score largely exceeding the max required percentage in NVR for entry to a high selective private junior school.
But she did just above average in Maths and English. She was very tired coming from overseas and not sleeping very well for the previous 2 nights in an hotel etc..
We suspect from long time her actual school is not stretching her and not offering the education she needs. Ok she is a nearly 10 yo, still a child and tiredness and stress can affect largely a test but she should have done average also in the NVR that came later in the testing day..
I would like to understand if Maths and English average are just because she is not receiving an adequate education at the moment or if she has some problems; gifts comes sometimes with other "problems" and I would like to ask for your help to find the best professional people, no matter where in Uk, that can help to test her abilities and eventually discover if she has some problems.
This with the aim to offer her the best education adjusted to her gifts, abilities and eventual problems.
She is flying also with the piano lessons at the moment and starts composing her own pieces.
We need someone able to test both her gifts and detect even smaller
syndroms, problems, if any etc that could affect her learning.
And of course if all ok and she is very talented we will run away from her actual school.... so I need to know asap and I need a good specialist to help us understanding....
Of course she was offered the place but I need to know to help her better...
many thanks!

So she's an average student who did well in one test?

I am not sure how you have assessed her as g&t?

Also it's very dangerous to think that she is not neurotypical owing to being good at a subject.

Non verbal reasoning tests show that she is able to make sense of abstract information. This doesn't always lend itself to every subject.

Have you spoken to her teacher at parent's night to assess how the school feel she is performing?

What has the school she tested for suggested? I also would be wary of assuming that the English and Maths scores are the anomaly and should match nvr. Were they more traditional exams? The skills required are different, and vr might give you a better indication in relation to English potential. Music and maths ability often correlate.

Does she exhibit other behaviour that you feel she may have issues worth testing? You would need an Educational Psychologist to assess her, probably privately, which could cost anything upwards of £350. However not all selective independent schools are willing or able to support children with additional needs.

we have lot of evidences she is well above the average and that the current school do not challenge her enough, I don't want to discuss this here. I just need to know if someone can give me a name of an Educational Psychologist or other specialist dealing with gifted children to assess her in order to be able to chose the right education for her. thanks!

Ah that is not actually what you asked in your OP.

Just google an educational psychologist for your area. We don't know whereabouts in the UK you are.

www.achippp.org.uk or try potentialplus/nagc for advice. Fwiw it is not that uncommon ime for children to get maximum scores in nvr or vr.

yes, I asked for a name please as the title of my post says! I got you a bit of the story It does not matter where I live, I ask for the best names able to go around a complex and certainly gifted pre adolescent with the most appropriate tests, I will travel. We need help urgently, for many reasons, an Educational psychologist specialising in SENG and in all that comes with it. Are the best in London?

This lady www.joanfreeman.com has featured in several channel 4 programmes about bright children over past years, however I'm sure she charges accordingly. Assume this is a different child to the one due to transfer to secondary?

thank you so much Lizs, yes, she is a different one, very talented but with a big personality....

@LIZS I wouldn't recommend it. Despite claiming that "labelling" children as gifted is damaging to them, she has a track record of doing exactly that in the most public way possible on national television and in national newspapers.
No need to take my word for it - the consensus on past threads speaks for itself.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gifted_and_talented/a1309012-Anyones-dc-seen-peter-congdon-or-joan-freeman

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gifted_and_talented/1418443-formal-assessment-by-a-psychologist

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gifted_and_talented/1438150-Weschler-Testing

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gifted_and_talented/745496-Genius-on-C4

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gifted_and_talented/2123034-Gifted-and-talented-long-term-outcomes

I wasn't recommending, as no personal experience of her. Op asked for a name to follow up as apparently the organisations I had suggested were not specific enough.

It is a recurring theme on G&T threads that the OP can tend to be rather rude.

TrollTheRespawn, or maybe she is foreign not perfect with her/his English, or accustomed with British modesty.

If you need to stretch your child then you can do it yourself. You don’t necessarily need an educational psychologist for this.
You just need some KS books and to read to your child.

So on the G&T board there is an OP who worries about her child. A child who OP assumes is gifted (OP gives an example of why she thinks this, but indicates there are other reasons too) but who achieves averagely at school. OP describes that she is keen to untangle why this gifted child is underachieving. She is wondering if it is 'merely' lack of appropriate work at school, or if there may be something else in play, some kind of SEN that may have been masked by the child's intellectual abilities, and in turn masking the intellectual abilities.
OP recognises that this is (perhaps) a complex situation with 2E and assumes that perhaps your regular EdPsych wouldn't be able to determine what exactly is going on, so is seeking recommendations for EdPsychs who specialise in gifted children/2E.

OP gets questioned (simplified):

• Why do you think your child is gifted? What you have said does not indicate this.
• Why do you think your child has SEN? What you have said does not indicate this.
• You need an EdPsych.
• Buy some workbooks for your child.
• And a recommendation for a specialist EdPsych the poster wouldn't/can't recommend.

OP also gets some links, and politely imparts her thanks for this.
OP points out that she isn't really here to analyse if her child is gifted or not, and why her child underachieves; she is looking for a specialist to do this, rather than relying on MN to provide her with a distance diagnosis. As a result, OP is judged to be rude.

Perhaps wrongly, OP assumed that on G&T board there would be people who have had positive experiences with EdPsychs specialising in gifted children.

Seems though that if there are, they haven't posted here. As nobody has recommended anyone (named, but not recommended - why would you point OP in the direction of someone you wouldn't recommend?). Instead OP has been faced with people questioning her premises for seeking support.

Do we really require everyone posting on G&T to provide firm proof that their child is gifted, listing all the things they can do, before being allowed to ask for advice on an issue related to the giftedness?

IMO there have been some rude posters on this thread, yes, but not OP.

OP I am sorry I can't help with your question and that you have not received a better response to your query.

G&T board is a bit strange. Sometimes it can be really supportive with insightful discussions and lots of good advice from people who have 'been there'. Sometimes though people just start piling in with 'that's not gifted' and 'stop hothousing' and 'you're imagining things'. Sometimes I wonder if there is a pattern to why it goes the way it goes...

These are the ones I've either used myself and can recommend, or had recommended to me by people who have used them:

www.tcfp.org.uk/child-adolescent-services/

flowerassociates.co.uk/

www.edpsychology.co.uk/

My daughter is dyslexic but with NVR and VR scores in the gifted range. She scores average in English tests and high average in maths but, as it was explained to us, she should be doing far better given her general ability ( NVR and VR) . There were signs of dyslexia ( awful spelling and letter and number reversals) but nothing obvious enough for it to raise concerns for her school. She was assessed by a dyslexia specialist, so not as qualified as an ed psych but they were still able to identify her strengths and weaknesses, which were very uneven with some areas scoring in the top 5th percentile and some in the bottom 5th. Based on our experience, I’m not sure you’d need anyone particularly specialist to identify issues you might be ok with just a standard ed psych. Good luck with it though OP. It can be a bit baffling when they’re obviously bright but underachieving!

I have a daughter to had a 'spiky' profile really high VR, good NVR, really high maths, below average English and quite frankly appalling spelling. Combined with teachers using the old 'doesn't seem to want to push herself' ie. struggling to complete work.
I used the dyslexia research trust for her assessment they were excellent, plus as a well recognised organisation school took on board their assessment.
2E with a Visual processing disorder was the diagnosis and school taking on board the recommendations and moving to being the top of set 2 (there is some overlap between top of set 2 and bottom of set one depending on learning style) rather than struggling in set one and she is flying away.