[Therese]

New thread time

Your last thread is Here

[qak]

Gold!

[LiveLife]

ok Ill play

silver

[qak]

Well FWIW we have decided to do the test. It's in two weeks!

Should I be doing any preparation?

[WonkieTonkie]

There's nothing you can do to prepare except for letting your child know what they will be doing. I remember how nerve wracking it was

[*Tess*]

I would recommend telling your child that there will be questions they will get wrong or don't know the answer to and that's OK.

[ednaboo]

lol - I don't think you need to prepare for IQ testing!

I was wondering about getting my DD tested. Her teacher thinks she is gifted (and I am confident they are right). I have discovered you can get IQ testing for $165 at a local universities psychology clinic. She is 5.5. My query is whether to get tested now, using the WPPSI, or wait until she is a bit older and get the WISC? Does it matter?

[nellymac]

Hello all,

Just popping in to ask for some recommendations for Brisbane psychologists who deal with gifted children for IQ assessment but also the possiblility of a learning disorder which is being masked by their giftedness.

My son is 7.5 and has commenced Grade 2 this year. He has always been a very bright boy and since starting school we have become aware of just how quickly he learns. His literacy skills are about 3 years ahead of his age and his numeracy skills are also well advanced on his current age peers. He does out of class reading and comprehension extension and creative writing club out of class but is not extended out of class with his numeracy skills.

We have always been aware though that he has problems with disorganisation and concentration, and remembering what he is asked to do. He is often "tuned out" and we need to repeat requests to do things several times which is becoming very frustrating at home and my concern is that this will start to become a problem in the school environment.

It came to a head last week when I kept asking him every day to bring home his homework exercise book but he kept forgetting and I turned up to school on Friday morning to find his homework book sitting in his desk drawer with 2 weeks of maths homework sheets not done.

Of course when he brought home the book on Friday evening he raced through the 2 weeks worth of homework in about 10 minutes as it was very simple for him, but this is really not good enough in terms of his organisation skills and remembering to bring home his homework book each day.

I spoke with his teacher and asked if she had noted any problems with him at school and she said yes he is often not listening and can't remember what has been asked of him and needs redirection.He alsoran out of time to do maths exercises in class because he could not organise himself to get all his things together and make a start or was otherwise too distracted to make a start.

She had never mentioned any of this previously and because he could do the work easily enough, she was obviously not concerned. But I find all of this very concerning and am wondering why he is having these difficulties.

So whilst I have until now avoided having him assessed as he has been happy at school and doing well, I am concerned that there may be something going on with him that is affecting attention and concentration in class that we should know about so we can help him in the future.

Of course, it is possible he is bored or thinking about something else entirely which is fine, but again if we know this is the case, then he may need further extension.

Any help or advice would be appreciated too.

[baddmammajamma]

Hi nellymac:

Two thoughts:

1) I belong to a fabulous network of parents of twice exceptional kids (gifted kids with special needs and/or learning differences), which also includes a number of professionals who work with 2e kids. It is primarily a NSW-based group, but the head of it lives in QLD and is well connected. I will ask them for specific recommendations re psychologists who understand "gifted with glitches."

2) Have you seen this (of course, it's not appropriate for us to make online diagnoses -- but some of the content might resonate with you...it did for me!)

http://www.addvance.com/help/parents/gifted_child.html

[nellymac]

Thanks BMJ. That would be very much appreciated if you could.

Certainly does describe many of my son's characteristics and to be honest quite possibly me too!! And he also does have mild anxiety at times which we keep a close eye on.

He has actually gone up to sick bay 6 times in the first 3 weeks of school complaining of various problems, but is always well when he is at home. He denies that school is worrying him but I think there must be something going on for him which is making him anxious there.

I had wondered about ADD but also thought he might have an auditory processing problem.

It is funny because I have 3 children and I spend nowhere near as much time worrying about the other 2 as I do about this boy!