Once Emma was in kindergarten and privately had the Autism label, the school had to go trough and determine if she meet their criteria for Autism. So we had to have her tested through school. I was nervously waiting to see what they would find for her ability and performance scores. My husband and I could see pings of brilliance through her unwillingness to go with the flow. I knew she was bright, but was she gifted. My husband and I often ask ourselves this question. We were taking a wait and see approach in the beginning. It can be so hard to qualify what is gifted in the younger children. Gifted kids don’t develop their skills and talents evenly. Well neither do Special Needs kids. So it was hard to determine if what we were seeing was a really bright child or a gifted one. So we waited. Then the testing came back….
Emma ability scores were high…very high (Ms. 99.6 percentile with her strength in nonverbal…duh Autistic). She has this enormous ability to learn. Her reading scores again were very high for a kindergartner. In math she was average (fair enough she had never been taught any math directly…she probably did not know what they were asking her to do). The light bulb began to flicker. What did we need to do to nurture her ability to ensure she does not waist too much time in school learning nothing??
In December of 2010, we had her eligibility meeting and her IEP meeting. Everyone kept talking about how bright Emma was and how she needed to be challenged. One of the county representatives mentioned how she would be best grouped with the gifted cluster kids. Stating that she would probably fit in better with them and they would have more in common with each other than differences. Her being gifted was brought up, but everyone said “I don’t know…maybe”. I brought up GT testing. The counselor quickly chimed in and said 'we really don’t label kids younger than 3rd grade gifted'. They don’t even bring them up for testing (not what the k-12 gifted policy in the county said…note to self research and provide evidence in future)!!! In the end she was found to be Autistic through the school too. We wrote her IEP and explicitly wrote for the teacher to provide her with higher level work and higher level questioning. We thought we would see differentiation in her classroom and they would meet her needs.
After winter break things were not getting any better for Emma at school. She was expected to do work that she had mastered long ago. She was board and frustrated. We were all frustrated that the teacher was not providing an education for our child!! I had to do something, but what?? What if I was wrong…what if she was just a bright kid…not gifted? Ironically I began course work toward my Gifted and Talented teaching license. I confided in my instructor and spoke with my GT resource teacher at work. After the teacher performed Emma’s mid year assessments I asked for the results. Again she was leaps and bounds above where any kindergartner should be! I sat down with my GT resource teacher at school and showed her my evidence (much of it was testing and data collected by Emma’s school). I point blank asked her…she advised me to go ahead and seek gifted identification and placement for Emma. She felt looking at the ability alone showed great promise. You cannot fake that knowledge…she has it in her somewhere.
So I asked Emma’s school about GT testing again. I got the same answer; 'we don’t really test the young children'. So feeling frustrated, I emailed the GT coordinator and the head of Exceptional Education of the county and asked about this policy. The next day I was informed that they would go ahead and assess Emma for Gifted Identification. So we wait some more!!
The GT meeting….Spring 2011…my husband and I were going into this meeting thinking Emma would easily get in for at least reading. Heck the schools own testing showed her reading at least end of 2nd /3rd grade level. She consistently showed in school her reading ability every chance she got. Math…not so much…she would do things at home but not at school. At the meeting we were in shock. The only evidence that showed her being gifted were our parent report and all her norm based testing. The school/teacher collected work samples, they deemed them not good enough. Then the route of the problem…the teacher questionnaire/report was really telling. The teacher said Emma was below average to average. This lady had seen and tested Emma at well above level…and now she is saying below. This confirmed our fears all year. The teacher just did not like our daughter…and her education was suffering. My stomach turned into knots. I did not say much. I was at a lose for words. Emma was short 1 or 2 pieces of evidence to be deemed gifted. All that said, the Gifted teacher handed us the information for summer activities for gifted children. We left that meeting hurt and confused and determined to make sure our daughter would get what she needed.
I took a few days…then I got my research together. Information on Twice Exceptional identification…..information on Gifted under achievers. Then I did it!! I send a detailed research based complaint letter to the Director of Exceptional Education, the Coordinator of Gifted and Talented, the Director of Special Education, and the Coordinator of Special Education that we work directly with requesting that other factors be considered and used when evaluating Emma’s identification for the gifted program. All I asked was that they consider more evidence. About a week later we get word. After a file review Emma was found to be Gifted in Reading
To all you Twice Exceptional parents out there. It is an uphill battle getting our kids what they need. We have to really fight for them. This is the road less traveled. Not many of us know enough and have been lead to fight hard enough. We need to stand up and demand that our children receive ALL the services they need…not just one or the other! We need to help educate those around us.
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