About Ettina Expertise My biggest area of expertise is in autistic and other developmentally disabled gifted kids (especially creatively gifted disabled kids). I can also answer questions about gifted/talented children in general. I can't answer questions about legal issues and such (eg fighting the education system), but I can answer questions about what it's like for the child and so on. I'm better at dealing with questions about school-aged children than preschoolers.
Experience I am a highly creative autistic person with a tested IQ in the gifted range. I've also read a lot about gifted kids.
Education/Credentials Just high school. I'm a first-year student at university.
Question I have a six year old whom I believe to be gifted. At 8 months he could not even crawl or stand and at 9 months could walk. He could do a puzzle for an 18 months old child well before he was one. He taught himself to add using his fingers at about 32 months. At 3 he could do math workbooks for first graders. He taught himself to read at 4.5 and by 5 could read simple chapter books. He can now add some fractions in his head e.g. two halves plus two quarters plus a third, he also understands and is interested in how scientific concepts such as gravity or how deoxygenated blood is taken to the heart and pumped to the lungs etc...
We are in australia and start school a year later than in the USA. On his first day the teacher was blown away but the entusiasm fizzled out very quickly and she put him on level one readers and told me he was in the lower math group, telling me he has no concentration skills. I marched him into the headmistresses office and asked him some questions and asked her how this qualified as being in the lower math group.
He was then tested to see what year level he is at and I was not contacted with a result. When I rang to find out I was told he was performing at second grade level but they would not accelerate him as they had done it once and it did not work out! I find this ridiculous as my son is very good socially. My son is at the top of the year (90 kids) and has to go to the third grade classroom to get his home readers. I have been told he has teh reading level of a ten year old.
Finally they tested him for giftedness and his results were
verbal comprehension- 97th percentile
perceptual reasoning - 97th
working memory - 91st
processing speed 66 percenile
full scale score 97th
they did not want to give me an actual iq score, and said he hates writing and has poor fine motor skills, and this will cause him alot of problems at school. They also said he is not a good independant worker so even though there is going to be a mixed class of first and second graders he is not a good candidate??? I have severe inattentive ADD and am very suspicious my son has my problems. I have several questions: Does the score sound like it reflects his abilities? what iq score approx is in the 97th percentile? they did the test in one hour flat, dont they usually take longer? If he has add would that affect his test result? He hates colouring drawing and writing and struggles what could cause this? Do you think it would be a big mistake to homeschool him? I am so frustrated at him learning how to add 2 and 3 when 2nd grade maths books are too easy for him! What level of giftedness does he sound like to you? I find it hard to believe he barely qualifies as gifted!
Answer The 97th percentile would be about 130 IQ. That sounds fairly accurate to me for the most part, although he might be somewhat higher. Also, he appears to have skill scatter which makes it a lot more complicated, for example his reading level is clearly well above 130 IQ (I estimate more around 160-170).
In terms of how long an IQ test would take, 1 hour sounds fairly reasonable. They don't want to take too long testing the child because then the child will get tired & bored and not do as well (this is especially the case with an ADD child).
People with ADD usually show a selective weakness in working memory and/or processing speed, like your son does (note, however, that there are non-ADD kids with this pattern too).
His trouble with writing & drawing could be related to poor fine motor skills. Has he had trouble with other activities requiring precise finger movements, such as doing up buttons or typing shoelaces? Poor fine motor skills can be improved with practice, and you can also use work-arounds like using a computer or dictation.
Homeschooling sounds like a pretty good option, in my opinion. With only one student, it's very easy to tailor the lesson plan to that child's needs, so homeschooling is especially beneficial for kids who are gifted, learning disabled/ADD or both. However, you might want to also enroll him in afterschool programs so he still gets plenty of interaction with other kids.
