OP - I'm not convinced Nysmtih actually attracts truly gifted kids and educates them well. That's what they say they do but I've observed for a long time and don't buy it. Don't buy the Edlin line either. The gifted programs in FCPS are better. If you do try a college-level course while your child still is in high school, as we did for DC, select the professor carefully. A particular chemistry professor had horried RateMyProfessor.com ratings but we went ahead with the course because it fit our schedule better than the chemistry course at GMU. Big mistake. The professor was worse than the RateMyProfessor ratings. She was just calling it in - didn't give a damn about teaching.

I am sure that is true. I was tested with Stanford Binet ( not sure of spelling) and Whecksler or something like that. I am a terrible speller so apparently that was not tested. My general impression is that most kids today are brighter.

Anonymous wrote:My IQ was 145. I know IQs are not supposed to change, but mine has declined somewhat is adulthood. It is my understanding that this IQ is highly gifted, but not profoundly gifted. I was tested several time about age 7.

The tests are different now, and so is the scoring. So a 145 then is not exactly analogous to a 145 now.

gds (closest to va) can meet kids where they are at. Or Beauvoir. TJ for high school.

OP, I agree with checking out davidson's gifted.
I live on the west coast and although there are private schools for gifted kids (some of which require IQ tests), most private gifted schools are for kids 130-150. If your child is over that, those schools may or may not be a good fit.

Some kids in this area go the public school route and are okay, but others quit and go to college early because of the boredom.

Not sure if you have thought about boarding school but that may be a good option instead of having your kid go off to college at 15.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:11:16 again. I do agree, however, that there are plenty of other ranges of giftedness, and I understand those children will have particular schooling needs. So I don't want to discourage people from pursuing the resources they need. I just don't think using labels like "profoundly gifted" helps advance the discussion.

Well how do you want to differentiate them, then? Rec league gifted and travel league gifted?

Hahaha! This struck me as hilarious. Thanks, pp, for the laugh!

My IQ was 145. I know IQs are not supposed to change, but mine has declined somewhat is adulthood. It is my understanding that this IQ is highly gifted, but not profoundly gifted. I was tested several time about age 7. I was bored in both private and public school, but fully challenged when I went to Reed College at age 16. I am very familiar with Sidwell US and I know I would have fully challenged there, because the classes are open ended, and there is a lot of room for the top students to widen their inquiries. If your child's IQ is above 150 then you will truly need to look beyond local public and private schools, to special programs that cater to that very specific population. Your main challenge will be encouraging social development to remain on age level, while providing opportunities for academic stimulation. Based on my own experince, I would say 16 is the minimum age for college. Prior to that, it is best to keep a child at home and augment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My nephew and son are profoundly gifted, 147 and 155 FSIQ respectively on the WISC. They both attend charters. My nephew attends a charter school for the gifted (needs at least 130 IQ for admittance) in another state. DS attends an immersion language charter in DC.

Nephew is currently ranked in the top ten in the country in chess for his age. Will be attending the Davidson institute summer program.

DS will be going to China to attend language school in the summer.

Outside enrichment helps.

147 is profoundly gifted?

One of mine is a 147. I thought that was highly gifted, not profoundly gifted. Hum...learn something new every day.

My rec is to go into a public AAP program for elementary, supplement interests and passions, and focus most of the energy on socialization and EQ.

You can nourish the "gifts" while developing the areas such as working with others, leadership, teamwork and social skills which are usually not as developed for those kids at the very top intellectually and which will benefit them more as adults. Focus on bringing up the weak areas instead of the academics. Those will be easy regardless but without well developed EQ odds are good that the "gifts" will be wasted or not reached to their potential.

He was accepted at Davidson and will be attending their summer program so that's the criteria I'm using. My nephew lives in the Midwest.

Look for a school where assignments are open-ended, and where teachers try to meet kids where they're at rather than cover the material on a relatively fixed schedule or keep everyone together. Schools with small class sizes and where teachers are respected and given some degree of autonomy are more likely to have these features. Recognize that most of a PG kid's learning will happen outside a classroom, so introduce the kid to good libraries and teach him/her how to find and evaluate online resources at an early age.

Bottom line is you aren't necessarily looking for the school with the smartest cohort. You're looking for a school where intelligence is valued and where it's given room to grow.

Anonymous wrote:My nephew and son are profoundly gifted, 147 and 155 FSIQ respectively on the WISC. They both attend charters. My nephew attends a charter school for the gifted (needs at least 130 IQ for admittance) in another state. DS attends an immersion language charter in DC.

Nephew is currently ranked in the top ten in the country in chess for his age. Will be attending the Davidson institute summer program.

DS will be going to China to attend language school in the summer.

Outside enrichment helps.

147 is profoundly gifted?

One of mine is a 147. I thought that was highly gifted, not profoundly gifted. Hum...learn something new every day.

My rec is to go into a public AAP program for elementary, supplement interests and passions, and focus most of the energy on socialization and EQ.

You can nourish the "gifts" while developing the areas such as working with others, leadership, teamwork and social skills which are usually not as developed for those kids at the very top intellectually and which will benefit them more as adults. Focus on bringing up the weak areas instead of the academics. Those will be easy regardless but without well developed EQ odds are good that the "gifts" will be wasted or not reached to their potential.

Since we apparently have oodles of profoundly gifted children in this area, maybe someone should start a school for all of them. Maybe FCPS can start an "AAAAP" program to house them all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Skip 2 to 3 grades asap and further subject accelerate math and then attend TJ. Also, get into JHU-SET for additional resources. My kid did.

And what would be the goal? Attending college with 15?
When we faced acceleration with our child we decided against it.
I don't see the long term benefits to doing it. My DH dud not like starting college young.
He feels he was robbed of the experience being very young.

Some kids like attending college early. My brother did. Went to Hopkins at 14. Made lots of friends unlike elementary or middle school.

However, not planning it for DS (and neither will nephew). They want to be near parents unlike DB - our parents were working all the time and we rarely saw them.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who says PROFOUNDLY GIFTED with a straight face needs to be hit in the face.

Why don't you start with hitting yourself in the face. Profoundly gifted children exist and it is extremely difficult to educate and socialize them. I know, my cousin is profoundly gifted. It has been a hard road for her.

Even if you suspect that OP is exaggerating, why so much venom, from so many people? Are you all jealous? Really, this forum is insane.

OP, a profoundly gifted child will not find a good fit anywhere - that's the reality. You can find less-bad fits, though, and supplement at home with college textbooks, get special dispensation to attend college-level courses at the community college perhaps. Above all, pay attention to helping him or her find a good friend or two. Friends make all the difference.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what are the best school options for those kids, some of whom, we can guess, live in northern Virginia? (After all, the DC region has about 2% of the US population, so 2% of 3000 Davidson-identified kids would be 60 kids, not to mention others either not identified by tests or whose parents haven't applied to the program.)

Well that's easy -- FCPS or perhaps Potomac. FCPS AAP program requires something like 130 full-scale score, which I image is pretty well correlated with the children who are able to reach the Davidson threshold of 145 on one single substest.

DYS does not accept children based on a single subtest (there are something like 15 of those on the WISC). Their minimum score guidelines are for composite scores: Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, General Ability Index (GAI, which does not look at working memory or processing speed) or Full Scale.

Anonymous wrote:Skip 2 to 3 grades asap and further subject accelerate math and then attend TJ. Also, get into JHU-SET for additional resources. My kid did.

And what would be the goal? Attending college with 15?
When we faced acceleration with our child we decided against it.
I don't see the long term benefits to doing it. My DH dud not like starting college young.
He feels he was robbed of the experience being very young.