Think I just got hit over the head that my kid is smart....anyone else?.

[Leanbh]

We just got our MAP test results mailed today - which by the way I completely disregarded as rubbish up to now of course, he-he.

Anyway, it test the kids on english and math and how they average compared to the rest of the country. They divide it in different area's of these and also give you your kids percentage in each. I was impressed with the test in the fall, but this one was a make a phone call to dad impressed...

So I think 65-90% is doing well/as expected. Then over 90% is doing better then 90% of other kids their age/grade.

Well, DS2 got a 97% on his math


This just hit me over the head as we have been so focused on speech for the past 3 years with speech therapy, I never even thought or focused at all on math. So funny.

We will see how it pans out next year as he is only in kindergarten.


I'm not so sure on how this MAP test will pan out in real life though.

[ktmelody]

I knew my ds was super smart from a young age, but got shocker when he was tested by his school psychologist for the GT program with an IQ of 151! :O

He scores 99% in reading and reads at a highschool level and skipped 1st grade.

Of course my other kids are smart, lol. My older girls have always tested way ahead in math and reading on their state CRTs, but haven't had any formal testing done.

Congrats to your DS!

[MCR]

Congrats to your son.
We are still working on Math skills, reading is Dd's strong area, so we turned our attention to math, so far so good, she seems to be doing well.

[psylion]

Congrats to your son. But I have to ask, they have standardized tests in kindergarten? That sounds horrible to me. DD starts kindy in the fall and I had no idea that started doing that to the kids so early.

[z2akids]

It is absolutely nice to have a way to gauge what you can expect of your child.

[Leanbh]

ktmelody - that's kinda how I felt, almost a little guilty too that I hadn't realized at all. I'm happy for him as his older brother and #3 brother tend to take over the roost with their charm and mischief. He is my mellow one(thank god!!). I always felt that things came easily to ODS - outgoing, friends, daredevil, wheras this guy is very cautious. Nice to see that he has an area that he can shine too.

Yep, they do this test in kindergarten, but it's really just a computer test they do in the fall, then again in the spring. They do send out a letter saying to make sure your child is well rested, but you don't tell the kids or at least I don't.

I do find it useful though as it shows the level of growth from the fall to the spring.

Plus for me, our school has a test in spring of 1st grade to see if the kids qualify to attend the "challenge" school, which is if you score in the top 80%. So I will work more on his reading to try and bring that up more so he might, just might qualify. I will admit I have been very slack this year with a new baby, but even before this I had planned to actually work with them this summer to help them "up" a bit for next year.

[jac1976]

Congrats! I remember that feeling when I was told DS' scores. DS doesn't have standardized tests at school, but since he has PDD-NOS (an autism spectrum disorder) and had been in early intervention since he was 20 months old, they did a bunch of testing during his transition phase to Kindergarten to see what kind of help he qualified for. The OT from our public school called me to discuss the results with me. Apparently, they were sure that DS would fail in their school because of his sensory difficulties, but he scored "above the 99th percentile" on the cognitive tests so he didn't qualify for any help, even with his diagnosis. I didn't even know there was such a thing as "above the 99th percentile". We put him in a private school where his sensory issues wouldn't be as big of a problem and he has been excelling.

In the strange world that is the autism spectrum, while he is 2 grade levels ahead academically, he is still way behind socially and emotionally, especially if his surroundings aren't just right. So I leave academics at school, and at home we usually work on things like how to recognize emotions and social cues.

[shen7]

That's cool! You can definitely help him excel and use his abilities even though he is young! I was a bit of a math prodigy as a child. My parents didn't push it but my dad is a math PhD and recognized my aptitude early on. I hated coloring books but they found some little math workbooks, they started with addition and subtraction and eventually took you through the times tables up to 10, I still remember loving them, they were so interesting to me and I felt like I was learning important secrets lol. I would always have math workbooks instead of coloring books to keep me busy when we went out places. I knew my times tables in 1st grade and never even got tested on it until 3rd grade. They tested us up to 12s and for those I took the 10s and then added the rest, since I never memorized them, haha, I was the only kid who finished and I got 100%. They never skipped me in grades for fear of social problems but looking back, I wish they had. I was chronically frustrated and always had to pretend I didn't know stuff I already knew. So I don't at all disagree with early testing and some amount of tracking, letting the fast kids go fast. I hope you can nurture him to keep a love of numbers and go far in math. Math education is all about going as far as you can, as young as you can, that's why Asia is so far ahead of us, we assume there's like an age cutoff for understanding variables and algebra and functions, but there isn't really. Good luck to you and your son