The WISC is done, and DS6 scored 151 in Perceptual Reasoning! Yahoo! That means he has DYS-worthy scores on both the WISC and the WJ3, and hopefully DYS will accept him.

So now I'm wondering how often DYS rejects kids with qualifying scores. Any ideas? Does having the scores mean you're pretty much in, or is that just the first of many layers of requirements? Should I spend a lot of time carefully crafting every answer on the app, or can I just "get 'er done" because the scores are what really matter?

Thanks for any help you can offer, friends!

Nervously,

K-

P.S. Interestingly, DS6 showed more verbal on the SB5 and more visual-spatial on the WISC. That seems weird to me! Why would he seem more verbal on the test for V-S kids and more V-S on the test for verbal kids? Any thoughts?

He *is* a very verbal kid who is also really good at puzzles and patterns. Maybe it just means he's both, somehow? ???

I just overlapped you on your other thread, asking how the testing went. Obviously it was a much better experience for your son this time. Sorry I don't know anything about the DYS stuff, but I'm sure it must be nice to get that over with and get validation for your beliefs at the same time!

Thanks for thinking of us, CFK! So nice!

Yes, the WISC was apparently a much better fit for DS6. (Though his verbal score was just a 132 or something like that, if memory serves. That seemed low to me. But whatever...) That helped.

He also slept well in his own bed last night and wasn't getting sick like he was the last time, so it was an all-around better test day. If he hadn't made the cut, this would have been the last try for a good long while because it was a good test day. So it worked out well for us.



You're so right! I'm just glad to finally feel like we KNOW something! After the SB5, when we didn't get any real answers one way or the other, I felt so frustrated, so clueless. This confirmation that yes, he really is *that* smart is very, very nice. It's a big relief.

Thanks for letting me share. It's nice to have friends!

Wow, congrats! That's an awesome score!!!!! All I can say for sure, is our application questions were pretty much the facts ma'am, without much digression. I'm guessing my son is in primarily on score data.

Don't stress over the VCI, these tests are so often quirky in the tails, and he did get the needed scores on PRI. Once you get the details, you might find he has a lower score in something like comprehension, and two HG+ scores on the other two subtests (common profile).

Best wishes!!!

By the way, it's insanely unfair that you got virtually instantaneous results!!!!

Those are awesome numbers! He sounds similar to my son. High PIQ, lower but still gifted VIQ.

I was wondering the same thing about DYS and scores. We will find out in a few weeks.

Good luck with the application. It's pretty long but doable with a glass of wine or two

Congrats Kriston! That must feel great.

I have no idea if kids with scores in the DYS range get rejected. Understandably, people are not always forthcoming about getting rejected!

Good luck to your DS! He sure sounds like a YS kid to me.

Go Kriston's DS! I have no idea, but vote for the 'go as fast as you can' approach. They are quite comfortable asking for 'more please!'
Grinity

LOL! I don't have the written report yet, if that makes you feel any better. But both this psych and the other one we used gave us immediate verbal feedback on the tests.

It certainly is a load off my mind!

Thanks for all the well-wishes and advice and info, everyone. What in the world would I do without all of my e-friends to get me through this stuff!?!

P.S. I'm starting to fill out the DYS app now, and I'll get'er done as fast as I can. I've already handed a recommendation form to our babysitter. Fast it is!

That only helps a little Kriston, as I had an insanely long waits for most of mine, LOL! Hopefully the written report will come through before the February deadline. Best wishes to you AND LMom! (And anyone else making a go for it!)

Our tester is 8 months pregnant, so she wants it done and off her desk as much as we do! Ha! So I'm expecting to get it pretty fast. She knows we're applying to DYS, and she thinks he needs it, so that's helpful.

(Plus I have no trouble with doing some nagging of the tester if necessary. LOL!)

Hope you're in, LMom!

Kriston,
I so happy to hear your son earned such high scores!

Best wishes to everyone with the DYS application. Don’t stress too much about it. You know your children best and will give the best account of their individual precocity and needs.

Thanks, delbows!

Here's hoping the report comes before the baby! LOL!

Yikes! Oh, that would be SO unfortunate, for everyone. (Tester included!)

Yes, here's hoping!

Kriston, Sheryl here. It's wonderful to hear of your DS6's scores; you must be thrilled! I send you my best wishes and a dose of patience in working through the application process. Mine took quite some time to put together - it was a real project (certainly it took a good deal of thought and gathering of resources) - but I am still as happy with what I wrote today as when I sent it in. Take the time - it's worth it! My son was selected as a 2008 DYS just this month. Good luck!

Oh, yay, Kriston! And you were so worried ... can I say, I told you so?

Very, very best of luck with DYS -- I'm hoping for a big fat acceptance letter for your ds!

Sheryl, I sent you a private message, but I'm not sure you've been able to access it? If you click on the my stuff pull down, you'll see that option. I just wanted to share some more personal info.

Thanks, Mia. I'm sending you a PM...

Good luck Kriston!!!!!!!!!!

Incog

Hi. I don't know if they reject children with qualifying scores but I can tell you that for my son, who has qualifying scores, we were sent a letter asking for work samples displaying 2-3 grade levels above his age peers. My son just turned seven last week. So, they may still ask for more. Or they may not, I don't know why they wanted more from us. I am a bit surprised and am not sure how to display this with a first grader!:-) Good luck to you.

Thanks, tdha. I'll try to keep in mind that my answers should show that he's working significantly above grade level. That's very helpful!

Roll call, sound off!

If I may ask, who else is applying to DYS in February?

Our application goes in the mail tomorrow--sent via expensive 2-day mail because I couldn't get the WISC testers' report until then! We'll meet her at 1 p.m. and race over to the post office at 1:30.

Good luck to all applying!

I wish I was putting ours in the mail tomorrow. I am hoping to make the March deadline. These questions are just taking me lots of time to answer and last week was a 80+ hour work week. I think that's a good enough excuse.

Good luck to you and your son, Kriston!

No excuses necessary, crisc! The application is huge!

I had answered a lot of these questions for my tester, so I was ahead of the game there. Otherwise I'm not sure I'd be making the February deadline.

Hi Krison,

We are submitting the additional info they requested for DD7. DH was supposed to fax it in last week, but has promised to do it Monday.

I'll cross my fingers for both of our kids!

Incog

Hi Kriston,

We're also applying for the 2/15 deadline for DS8. He took the WISC and WIAT in 11/07. The WIAT scores ceilinged out at 160 for both math and reading; WISC FSIQ was 147 with a VCI of 148.

We finally were able to select someone to do a reference for us; moving every 2 years + homeschooling = few non-family people to write references! Our reference-writer sent in her recommendation last week.

I'm just finishing the application this evening and will be sending it out tomorrow. I'm sort of glad that I'm sending in our app toward the deadline, because it means we won't be waiting so long for an answer.

Of course I am nervous and don't want to depend on a "yes" response, even though all of his scores are above their minimums. I feel that he will need advocacy in the near future and it would be wonderful to have DYS support. At 8 (2nd grade) he's doing middle/high school work as a homeschooler, but will need to take traditional classes in advanced subjects soon. I never even took Calculus and couldn't teach it to him - he would need to take a class. At his current pace, he'll be ready for it around age 11, and I know it that DYS assistance would be helpful when that time comes.

Aside from that practical assistance with advocacy, I would appreciate being part of a community of families who deal with a similar parenting experience. I don't know anyone else who has a kid like mine, and many times we feel emotionally isolated as a result. He has good friends, but consciously self-limits around them since they are on a different level in many ways. I would love to help him find a true peer, even just one.

Well. That was quite a ramble! Good luck to you as you wait for your answer. We'll have to post back to this thread when we get our replies. I promise to let you know how we do, even if we are rejected *sob*.

"last week was a 80+ hour work week"

Poor you! I used to have those, but thankfully, no more. Good luck!

Back at you, 'Neato!

Your post left me feeling nervous about the future, czechdrum! My DS is not yet 7, so I haven't even thought about calculus yet! (Though I know I'll have to deal with it sooner than I want to believe...) Ah, that GT denial gets me again. Just when I think I'm through with it, something slaps me in the face!

And I empathize with you about the rec. Homeschooling does make that more challenging to find, and we haven't moved like you have.

Best of luck, friends! I'll be waiting to hear what happens for you! Keep me updated, please!

Good luck to all of you!

Good luck to all of you!

czechdrum you really, really don't need a portfolio on top of all that LOL

Luckily we are a math family and it will take a while before our son reaches the end of our math abilities. One of the very few things we don't have to worry about.

Best wishes one and all!

It's done! Whew. I'm UPSing it this afternoon. What a relief.

I'm glad to hear that you don't think we'll need portfolio items. We decided not to include them. If they want them in addition to the app and test reports, I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Kriston, the only reason I'm thinking about Calculus is that he's taking Algebra I now. His current math pace has him blowing through a course like that in about 7 months. Since we do lessons year-round (with some periodic breaks), he could very well be ready for Calc by age 11. I feel like I need to be planning NOW so that I have my resources available when he needs them.

This is a huge reason why we're applying to DYS. Our local school proposed a "solution" where he is with his age-mates in 2nd grade for PE, art and music, but then is put on various bus transports throughout the school day to go to all of his other classes at the middle and high school. He can maintain an A average in these subjects, but that doesn't mean I want my newly-turned-8yo wandering around the local high school in a sea of thousands of teenagers for most of the school day. Not yet, anyway. So...we continue to homeschool until we can find a solution that is equally comfortable for quality of education and age-appropriateness. I hope that if he is ready to take Calc at 11 (for example), DYS would help advocate for him to get into a community college course or perhaps hook him up with a tutor or mentor.

Good luck to you! I hope that both of us get positive responses.

Tara

Here's hoping that you hear good things. Glad the application is done -- it is time-consuming, isn't it??

Good luck to all in the midst of applying.

J

((Snort))
Don't I wish that were true - one would like to think that a child at a bricks and mortar school would have tons of folks who would be happy to write a reccomendation. Didn't happen in our case - more like "he's not the strongest Math student" and "we have handfuls like him in Middle School"

Well, sometimes it's true...
Grinity

And then there was my experience...I foolishly aimed high, hoping for ONE response. I gave forms to DS's grade level teacher, his math teacher, the principal (who was at least mildly receptive to addressing his needs) and an aide who called him "hotshot" and thought he was brilliant. The principal tried to confiscate them so they could have a meeting about how (if?) to complete them. Fortunately I got to his grade level teacher first, and whatever she wrote did the trick.

FWIW, we had "he's not my top math student" the following year from his math teacher, ((more snorts)). I'm half tempted to tell her that despite her concerns over skipping FIFTH grade math, he is now pulling an A in SEVENTH grade math!

Also, for Tara...8 year olds and high school kids are certainly more extreme than 9 year olds and middle school kids, but FWIW, DSnewly9 is doing quite well with his daily trek into a sea of 12-15 year olds. This is NOT something I could have pictured just one short year ago though....situations/expectations can change fast with kids like these! On his current schedule he'll be in the high school at 10.5.

I am SO not ready for this!

Dottie - I know. I probably would have been okay with one daily building change/bus trip and most of his classes in the middle school. The middle schools in our district aren't small but manageable sizewise in my opinion.

The high school is just...mammoth. We went to some planetarium programs there (yes, our local high school has its own planetarium in the building) and the walk from the parking lot to the planetarium took almost 15 minutes. Our son was shaking his head and saying, "I wonder how the kids here don't get lost!"

I just couldn't fathom dropping him off at the ES, then having a bus transport him to MS around lunchtime (where presumably he'd fit right in at the cafeteria) and then having another bus transport him from the MS to the high school for the rest of the day. I wish I had the option to homeschool him and enroll him PT in individual classes at the high school, but that isn't allowed in our district.

Tara

Ah, that's another advantage to our local schools....they are really all the same size. Well, the high school is bigger because it's 4 grades instead of 2, but we don't have any feeder schools so it's the same class sizes. And his last school covered 3 grades, so the high school is only a tad bigger in numbers.

I do know what you mean though...high schools are scary big! We have a brand new middle school that is similar, but DS is only there for a short stay.

Remember too, I have older girls, which really does help the adjustment for DS and for mom!

The question on another thread about Dottie's child's explore scores reminded me...

DYS results for February should be coming in eventually. I'm hoping everyone will share results here. Hopefully we'll have no commiserating to do, only celebrating together.

Anyone hear anything?

How exciting!!!

Well, right now it's mostly just nerve-wracking!

I meant for me, .

LOL! Sure, I can see that.

Here in my little world, I'm just waiting for Explore scores. Online, I can wait for so much more.....

I was just coming here to check in and see if anyone had heard anything. Nothing here. I had put the DYS thing on the mental back burner, but now that we're into March, I can reasonably expect to get a response soon.

I'll definitely post here about our response, even if it's a disappointing "thanks, but no thanks." *sob*

Tara

<fingers drumming impatiently>

Nothing here either...Thanks for asking, czechdrum!

Who else is waiting? I have been so involved in my own little world, I lost track of who was applying in Feb. Anyone else care to chime in so we can all e-hold hands, like they do on Miss America before they announce the results?

We are.

Anyone have any guesses about when we'll hear something?

I'm still mostly trying not to think about it, but every day that passes makes it harder to hold fast to my resolve!

We applied in January and our acceptance letter was dated January 29th. I would say you may get your letter any day now.

Good luck.

I've been thinking about you guys, Kriston ... fingers crossed! I've actually been checking in and lurking just to see what happens. :-)

I'm glad you're still around, Mia. I miss news of your delightful son, not to mention your wit and wisdom.

And thanks for the help, LMom. Maybe tomorrow we'll all know something. Maybe Dottie's explore scores will come in, too!

Oh gosh yes Kriston, thanks for including me! ROFL! Let's all get great news together, although it appears I'll have two sick kids today, and can't play around with them much if they come today.

Mia, don't just lurk dear! We all miss you!

Best wishes to all! I've enjoyed watching newcomers join the DYS fun for over a year now, and sometimes it's fast (1-2 weeks) and sometimes it's slow (4-6 weeks). There is no rhyme or reason, but every hope that it might be today!

I am anxiously awaiting the February group to get responses since then it will be closer to the March application review where our application is going to be looked at. I did receive my e-mail stating ours had been received--it's going to be a long wait.

Yeah, there is something to be said for being "last minute" as far as the waiting goes! I remember shipping our stuff off on New Year's Eve, and of course that just added two weeks to our already impatient wait. My friend who applied with me faxed her stuff in on the 14th. We both heard the same day, LOL!

Cathy, you must have missed the January date, no? It shouldn't be too much longer for the February gang though...hang in there!

Oh, we're around ... I'm adding when I have something to add. Still fighting school and even *I'm* getting sick of it! I'll post when something actually happens -- or sooner if the spirit moves me. :-) I'm waiting on the principal *still* to get going with the IAS ... I'm thinking she figures that as long as it's not available, she won't have to deal with me. Sigh.

But anyway, Kriston, I've got my fingers crossed triple for you guys.

Sorry, Mia and crisc for your various waits.

Ah, if only impatience actually made the wheels of beauracracy move faster!