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Every parent thinks their child is brilliant or gifted in one way or another. But does being an A student mean your child is ready for gifted classes?
Meet McKenna Rowley. She's in second grade now, but she's been reading at a fourth-grade level since first grade. She's in the gifted and talented program at Fox Hills Elementary because regular classes weren't challenging enough.
"It was really easy for me, the math. I was just like, ‘Oh it's easy. I can just do it right now.' In this program they make it harder for you," she said.
Her father, Russ, says they noticed signs that their other children also may have been gifted, but they never had them tested. They almost didn't have McKenna screened, either.
He said, "It was her teacher in kindergarten that recommended we have her tested."
Rowley says some parents of children in Fox Hills worry their kids could actually fall behind because of boredom, even in gifted classes. Education officials say many parents have misconceptions about what being gifted means.
Granite School District Associate Director for Advanced Learning Programs Paul Shepherd said, "Really, what it's about for us is just trying to match the appropriate curriculum and instructional level to the child's academic needs. But there is a lot of misunderstanding about that."
Shepherd says some parents think of gifted education as elitist, but he's hoping to change that.
There's no black and white way to describe a gifted child, but Shepherd says one sign is a big mismatch in what your child is being taught and what your child can actual do.
"They have high performance in a given area that's very different; two or three grade levels above where other students their age are performing," he explained.
So, if your child is reading "Harry Potter" while other kids in the class read "Green Eggs and Ham," you should have them tested.
"Typically districts will do that once or twice a year, and then we can take some valid and reliable kinds of standardized testing and administer that and get a feel for whether that child is advanced beyond grade level or just performing well at grade level," he said.
Shepherd says it's not uncommon for parents to think their kids are gifted when they're just performing well in regular classes. He also says teachers need to customize their lessons for gifted kids who are advanced in some areas, but who perform normally in others.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
