Intelligence Test for My Daughter

In my district the private school kids can come in for GATE only. So I guess it would be the district who would test. Start by calling them.

Some public schools will test a K student from a private school. You have to call the school and ask. Be prepared, ours took 3 mornings and was exhausting to the kids. There is paperwork you and the teacher must complete. Also, your ped. might know a good person to test her individually.

Since she is only 5 any "intelligence test" will be unreliable.
You can have her tested at any psychologists office and they will give you a baseline number. Will that make a difference, probably not. If you plan on keeping her in the Christian school then you will have to work with them to have her challenged.
In 4th grade she can start taking tests for Duke TIP, she will then be on a national list of gifted students. THen you will get many mailings that will woo her into the different programs.
MENSA does not test until a child is 14. THen it is with an approved MENSA test facilitator.
I would have her read, read, read. Pick books that are appropriate for her age but on a higher level. The Brian Jaques and Warrior Series are about cats and animals. They are pretty benign. My daughter read them in 1st grade. Mrs. Frisby is a 3rd grade book as are the Ramona books, Maniac Magee, and other Newberry award books are good. Just watch the content. Where the Red Fern Grows deals with the death of a beloved pet and she may not be ready for that yet.
Try some of the biographies that are written on a higher level, and nonfiction. THese will keep her interested and learning and hopefully not bored.
Good luck. I have one like her and sometimes living with someone who is so intelligent is very trying.

birmingham school district. even though you are in private school, your daughter is covered by the district where she lives.

good luck

there is a group who does this and I cant rember the name of them. look online for gifted people you will find the name of it.

As a parent who went through a similar situation, let me just add my thoughts.
Since you have stated that you do not intend to try and move her up a grade (good for you!), nor do you intend to put her into public school, there really isn't any need to evaluate her formally at this point. And at her age, the results might be skewed and unreliable anyway. (I do believe, that even though she is in a private school, that she is able to receive services from the public system, so she could be evaluated through them later on. But a lot of places, they don't test for gifted/talented until at LEAST 1st grade).

Our daughter was in private schools until the end of 2nd grade. I never wanted to move her up a grade, but I DID want her challenged beyond what she was required to do at school... because frankly, it wasn't enough of a challenge for her. She complained a lot about the math being boring and too easy. She was reading chapter books on her own at age 4, and reading her older brother's 2nd grade science books for fun when she was 5. She was self-teaching herself how to do multiple step addition problems when she was in kindergarten.

What we did, was just try to minimize any "busy" work for her, and add extra curricular things that she enjoyed that also stimulated her academically, but in a fun way. For example, she started piano lessons at the beginning of 2nd grade. But instead of her going to a lesson after school, the private school had an individual who came to the school during school hours and pulled out the participating students one at a time in half hour blocks. So for her entire 2nd grade year, one day a week, she was pulled out of something boring in her regular class to go take a piano lesson! Her private school curriculum also included one hour per week of Spanish, one hour per week of computer labs and one hour per week of music (music teacher taught them to play recorders and how to read music-- which my daughter already knew how to read music from her piano.. but she enjoyed playing the recorder). And she LOVED learning a foreign language. She even asked me for Rosetta Stone for Spanish for Xmas last year! We enrolled her in gymnastics after school one day per week, and she had a computer in her room at home on which to "play" and learn "SpongeBob Typing" (keyboarding skills) and she had tons of fun with KidPix software and loading and playing with her own digital photos. Not to mention "I Spy" games/software. We kept (and still do) her stocked with reading material (Chronicles of Narnia series, Spiderwick Chronicles, Lemony Snicket, Little House series, and all manner of single titles, but her favorites for a while were the Geronimo Stilton mouse detective books. We had to quit them though, b/c she would read them in 2 hours and that got too $$ to keep buying them). I OFTEN went to Walmart or an educational teacher's store and bought summer bridge workbooks (a grade or more ahead), and let her do them on her own after school, either in the car, or hanging out while her brother was in karate class. We would play along with the TV Gameshow "Lingo". Just anything and everything that stimulated her mentally, but allowed her to still have fun. It was never something we EVER FORCED her to do.

In 3rd grade, the kids were switched to public school and I insisted she be tested for Gifted/Talented right away. They still had music every other day in public school, but the computer and Spanish curriculum was gone and I knew she was far more advanced academically than MOST of her classmates. :( As soon as she completed the testing, I was contacted for acceptance into the program. She still rarely has homework from her "regular" classroom (she is in a one day a week pull-out program with Gifted/Talented) and carries all A's (had two 100's on her last report card in Math and Science, I think), even missing an entire day every week to go to her G/T class. She participates on the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl team (a Georgia thing) and stays after school 3 x a month for 75 minutes for practice. They use "special" books from the Accelerated Reading program and she ALWAYS has books checked out from the libraries (both the school library and the public library).
This year (4th grade now) she is also taking TangSooDo (2 classes per week).

So, all that to say... don't worry about formal testing or what a professional has to say at this point. Just keep stimulating your daughter. Keep providing her with opportunities to expand her knowledge, interests and experience. And ALWAYS keep it fun! If she doesn't like one thing, offer something a little different, or a LOT different... and see where her interests lead. Our daughter, in her 3rd year of piano, at age 9, is now playing the piano for church every week. And she LOVES the challenge of it.

Recognize too, however, that your child may or may not have a few social issues to go along with her extraordinary abilities/capacity to learn new things/concepts. Our daughter is very social. But she has a distinct tendency to come off as "snotty/too good/above" kids who aren't quite as advanced as she is. Particularly if they are at all younger than she is. She doesn't say or do anything wrong, she just tends to keep her distance and comes off more cold and disinterested, more than anything. And I sometimes have to remind her to think of how her lack of interaction might make another kid feel. She is very self centric. I know most kids are, but she has a knack for making it more obvious than other kids somehow. So just keep an eye out for that sort of thing.

You can keep her stimulated just fine without formal testing. Talk to her using "big" words, like you would to your spouse. And then "catch" yourself and say ".... (pause mid-sentence)... do you know what ___ means?" and then when she says "no", take a moment and explain (if she says yes, then just "oh, okay").. then go on with what you were saying. She won't realize that you are teaching her expanded vocabulary, but she WILL remember what that word means. I promise. :)

There are a lot of indicators of "giftedness", and "smart" is just one. A high level of internal motivation to learn, and a small number or repetitions to learn something new are a couple of others. They also are able to think in a more abstract way than most kids their age, and often have an advanced ability in the "humor department". lol. These kids learn new things and are ready to move on much faster than most kids. That is how they get bored in class, and why some end up with discipline issues (class clown stuff). Every class (even in private school) that my daughter has ever been in, they have allowed her to have a folder (or she can get out a book, her choice) to work in (or read) when she has finished her class assignments.

So, find out from your daughter, if she finishes her work before the other students often, and if so... talk to her teacher about ideas to address this time period. Check around and find out what kinds of extracurricular things she is interested in that you might enroll her in. (Our daughter wanted to be in the chess club; and I have a friend who's daughter joined the upper grade orchestra playing the violin). Take her to the library regularly. Play board games with her (our daughter LOVES them, even Yahtzee and other strategy games like Othello).
Celebrate when she learns something new, but celebrate even more when it has required her to work a little harder than usual. She knows if she didn't even have to TRY to accomplish something. So don't go overboard on things that came easy peasy to her.

And love her Mama. She is still a little girl. 5 years old. Keep it all fun fun fun!

I would ask around to other mothers in the school. There are always others who are the same way. I am not able to answer for sure as my DD is just average.
Is she talented too? Usually those things seem to go hand and hand. Does she have capabilites that exceed "normal" 5 year old standards?
Good luck in finding your results...I can only imagine the frustration in trying to solve such a riddle...where do you start!?!

Good Luck!!!
M:)

She does not need to be tested, but if you want to go ahead. As other posters suggested, you can contact the local public school district to see if they have resources. Ask her teacher what she thinks or if the school has any recommendations. Good luck

I'm not sure about an intelligence test, I do know that you can get a test book through I think ALPHA OMEGA, Check out your local childrens store, not like Toys R Us, but like a learning oasis and see what they can give you. It sounds like she is a very smart little girl, and I'm not sure if I would neccessarily want to move her up either. But if she is getting bored alot, she may get to a point where she looses intrest and doesn't do her best in school. In the summer between my 6th and 7th grade year we moved from Iowa to Arkansas. When I started school I was 2 years ahead of everyone else, and I got bored alot, I lost alot of my good study habbits because I didn't have to try. To be honest with you, I kind of wish I would have went up just one grade. I understand not wanting to because then she'll have to be with kids older and bigger. But I would stongly suggest that either talk to the school and see if their is an advanced class, or at the very least do what you can to challenge her when she's at home so she doesn't get lazy because everything she's doing is easy.
I homeschool, so my son is able to move at his own pace, whether we need to slow down on a certain subject or go faster. He is 6 and doing 2nd grade work. In his books if it was something that he got easily and started getting bored doing all the pages for that subject, we would skip those pages. He would just do reviews later to make sure he still remembers.

Contact a child Psychologist. They will give you the best idea of where your child is at as well. My daughter is 4 and reading chapter books(Ivy & Bean is her fav); Kamryn is by far the most intelligent 4 year old I know. Her birthday is December 30th, so we have to wait to put her in Kindergarten. Her pedi said an IQ test would not gauge her well because the questions are not geared toward her age. She also told us to not put her in Kindergarten early since she is so little. I don't have a problem waiting because I know once she gets into 1st and 2nd grade she will be evaluated. Just remember they are kids and because they are super smart doesn't mean they should be with older kids.

Find a neuropsychologist. They test all the things you are looking for.

M.

Gifted serivces and IDEA special education serivces are not two sides of the same coin. IDEA funding is federal, and the statute is proceeduraly based, and completly relys on judicial reveiw. The judical standard is "some educational benefit" and a "basic floor of opportunity" of participation in general education curiculum and most relevant, that no school is required to "maximize" the educational potential of a child with a disablity.

By definition, gifted services are Maximization services. The goals of the two programs are at odds, and schools know not to mix the two ideas becasue taht would give IDEA students leverage to get better services than they typically get in public schools. Schools are required to find and identify all the children, age 3 and above, who have disablities within thier bondaries, but there is no such stipulation that they find and identify gifted children, and giftedness is not a special need under IDEA.

Public schools are not going to provide any assistance with a gifted kindergartener. Gifteness programs do not usally begin until the 4th grade, when there is a reliable measure of academic acheivment. MR

My kids are not in school yet so I can't tell you about the mechanics of getting her tested through the schools. I know private school student with special needs can still get some services from the district so there may be similar for gifted children.

My son is 4.5 and in pre K. He asks questions constantly, especially science questions (I always loved science as well). I answer him if I know or look at the library or online if he wants more information. I think following up on your daughter's interests is a good way to go for now, even if you find her a gifted program later. Reading on any subject that interests her is also great as well as reading bedtime stories.

Check with your public school district. That would be your starting point.

B.,
I agree with other moms that testing is not necessary. Does her current school have a gifted program? If not, speak with her teacher about other options. My son is in second grade at a public school and in the gifted program. He also takes saturday classes at a local science academy for gifted children. Look around your community to find what resources are available (for example, we have a local group that does monthly museum trips). You should take a look at the National Associatino of Gifted Children (NAGC.org) for some resources. It might be a good place to start just to understand the meaning of "gifted." Lastly, there are lots of good websites that offer home based enrichment that target your child's area of "giftedness" (music, art, etc.).
Good luck,
C.