Do You Have a Far-Ahead Kindergarten Reader? Advice Wanted

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Is your son as ahead socially as acedemically? How about his fine motor skills? Perhaps this can be more of a focus for him. Could you advocate for him to skip a grade?

Also, if he is this far advanced get him tested and then an IEP which would then require advanced work.

I'm one of the PPs, and I have to say, getting DC tested then getting an IEP never occurred to me. What kind of test? WPPSI, WISC, other? Have you done this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Is your son as ahead socially as acedemically? How about his fine motor skills? Perhaps this can be more of a focus for him. Could you advocate for him to skip a grade?

Also, if he is this far advanced get him tested and then an IEP which would then require advanced work.

I'm one of the PPs, and I have to say, getting DC tested then getting an IEP never occurred to me. What kind of test? WPPSI, WISC, other? Have you done this?

We did a neuropsych with Dr Stixrud's office. DD was off the charts, being gifted is also something that requires special support. Though we also had some ASD issues in the mix and it was good to teach out really was going on.

[Anonymous]

Does DC give an IEP for giftedness? Many places (including Virginia) do not.

[Anonymous]

I'm the OP. Does MoCo do IEP's for gifted kids? I thought those were only for special ed.

[Anonymous]

I'm 17:30. Some states/districts consider giftedness as a category of special ed and will give gifted students an IEP or sometimes called a GIEP. I have a friend in PA who has a GIEP for her DS, so I know some states do this. But I did not that think that any of the local areas (DC, MD or VA) did this.

[Anonymous]

My DS has an IEP in DC for ASD issues but it specifically has in there that they MUST challenge him academically (while supporting his social/emotional weaknesses). He doesn't have academic issues, just social/emotional. His sped teacher works with him on advanced work and gives him advanced work to do on his own.

Also, any DCPS that does Reader's Workshop and Writer's Workshop does a good job of dealing with different levels of reading and writing. The kids test at their level and they pick books at that level. For writing you will have kids varying from drawing a picture and writing their name to writing a whole complex story. They're both great programs (if well implemented). Also, the Everyday Math, which is controversial, is good for kids who are ahead in math, I found. It has a lot of practical stuff like money and time and really builds on basic skills. So a kid could do multiplication by counting up various stuff or by actually multiplying, thus serving different levels with the same assignment.

[Anonymous]

Johns Hopkins CTY starts in elementary school, that might be an option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP. Does MoCo do IEP's for gifted kids? I thought those were only for special ed.

Definitely not & I say that from personal experience. Part of the requirement for an IEP is to show that the disability is negatively affecting classroom performance. This is hard to do for a gifted kid, even one with documented disabilities, because the gifted child can often use their high abilities to compensate for the disability. So, for example, a gifted child with ADD might be peforming on grade level in the classroom, although w/o the ADD a similarly gifted child would normally be performing several grades ahead. Or a gifted but dyslexic child might be able to compensate for a number of the early years in reading by memorizing words instead of really reading by phonics; this usually falls apart as reading becomes more complex.

In these examples, the child might qualify with ADD or dyslexia as the disability but will not meet the prong of the IEP test that requires an adverse impact, because the child is performing on grade level. Schools are not supposed to make a child "fail" before they give help, but practically speaking, that is often the situation parents find themselves in.