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I think (as a teacher)many get gifted and advanced crossed! A child can be a quick learner and advanced but that doesn't make them gifted!

I see perks as they get older maybe 3rd grade and up, but K-2 not so much

I would get my son tested if showed that he was gifted. I feel that knowledge is power and sometimes you have kids that are twice exceptional and it could benefit them in so many ways, but people just aren't aware that a kid with learning disabilities could also be gifted!

eta: I was in a gifted and talented program in elementary school and while I know a lot has changed in 30 years, the main thing that it did for me is to boost my confidence and not be embarrassed that I was intelligent.

I was in gifted from a young age and DH was not. DH was extremely bored and frustrated at school as a kid and got into all sorts of trouble until they got him into a STEM physics and engineering program in high school. So based on that I would absolutely want to know where my kid was developmentally, whether gifted or delayed because I want to be able give my kids a joy and love of learning. Frustrated kids don't want to learn and whether it's a level of intelligence or a method of learning, I want to be cognizant of it.

No, I can't foresee a situation in which I'd want to do private IQ testing for him unless he needed to move into the school system.

What's the benefit of testing outside of school placement?

We will likely have our LO tested in Kindergarden because our district G&T program starts in 1st grade. I was in G&T programs through all of my schooling and I see huge benefits.

Our district wouldn't even place a child if they had paperwork from an outside testing environment, the testing would have to be done through the school district.

I also can't agree more that so many parents and even teachers confuse giftedness and general intelligence. I think I had 8 or 9 parent or teacher referrals of students in K-2 this year and only 2 qualified GT. (Part of my job is coordinating GT services at an elementary school).

Honestly, I can see my LO1 definitely qualifying, probably not my LO2. I wouldn't put him in a GT program. The district I grew up in did have a GT campus and actually did differentiate curriculum for GT students. I see so many campuses now that claim to have "STEM" curriculum or a are a "magnet" for GT really have only accelerated curriculum, not necessarily differentiated due to many factors (funding, state accountability, testing, etc).

Unlikely that I would pursue testing, unless my kid seemed really bored. I was gifted and pushed a lot academically. I think when a kid shows an ability for academics theres an assumption that they should love it. And be impressive. And become impressive. And maybe that's not really what makes people happy. I did the things and got the grades and graduated early and got the grades and graduated early and went to law school and I'm a lawyer-- yay! That's what we want right? Doctors and lawyers? Except I was too busy thinking about what I was supposed to do to ever think about what I really wanted to do and now I'm in my 30s saddled with a lot of debt and a career I wouldn't choose again, given a choice. I absolutely don't want my kids to have "impressive" (i.e. high stress) jobs unless they REALLY want it. I just want them to be happy. And I don't think happiness is really associated with doing a great job in school. So I just plan to let them do their thing. If school happens to be their thing, they're bored, they truly love academics and want to be challenged? then sure. But if not? No way. Not saddling them with the expectations of what they SHOULD be just because they COULD be.

I wouldn't bother with outside testing. It we will pursue district testing for GT placement. In our city, GT placement often determines the school you can attend. Not generally in our district, unless you are highly gifted but if you aren't in the GT track you can't do advanced math and science in middle school and AP courses in high school.

@Freckles: the program in elem and middle school I was in was truly different. The type of work wasn't just harder academically - it required different types of thinking and skills. I'm high school, it was AP classes and that of course is just college instead of high school level. In my G&T programs I never felt "pushed" - I was happy to do projects that challenged my mind and helped me learn in a way that was t the worksheet mill of the traditional elem school.

If there was a significant benefit (like better school, more interesting classes) I def would.
Our public school is really good and g&t is just a little extra, that's how it was when I was growing up too. I got a lot out of it but it didn't seem worth it to test in K (our district won't test kids each year, every other year).

I think though that giftedness in general is just a catch phrase that schools or classes can use to narrow their population but it's very subjective based on the testing and how much the parents have prepped the kid prior

I grew up in a rural area and my mother was the G&T teacher at our elementary school, and she chose not to put any of her own kids in the G&T program when she was there. I remember being referred by a teacher in 3rd grade, and then nothing ever happening. I didn't question it.....later when I was in HS, my mom mentioned that it was because she stopped the process. She was the only Gt teacher, it was only a pull out program where they did enrichment, and she thought we were enriched enough. She also didn't want people to think we had an unfair advantage. My older siblings were in GT, because that was before my mom was the GT teacher, so it was just my 2nd brother who is 2 years older than me (I'm one of 6 kids).

It didn't bother me--our school already had an accelerated program where we worked 1 year ahead, and I was in that along with the GT students and other people. But then I had a regular elective (like band or choir) while the GT kids only got to go to GT.

As for my own kiddo--I haven't really seen any evidence at this point that she'd "gifted", so I doubt we will ever need testing. She's very intelligent and a quick learner but she's the 2nd youngest in her class, so she's fitting right in her Pre-k 3 class.

@Freckles: the test prep here drives me crazy. When I did the test in grade 3, there was no such thing as test prep. I don't even think parents signed consent forms for the testing! I feel like the playing field was much more fair, since nobody was preparing for it. I never prepared for any of the math contests in school either (Descartes, Euclid, Cayley, etc), though I think that was possibly ill-advised... oops.

Anyhow, my point being I don't really want to push my LO to prepare but I don't want her to be disadvantaged if she takes the test since everyone else here does so much test prep.

I don't think we'd ever pursue outside testing unless our child was showing prodigy level and so far I don't see that happening. There isn't really any good reason to have that information for us since the only local option would be through our school district and in order for us to drive her to one of the pricey private options close to an hour away it would really need to be an exceptional case.

We will certainly consider g&t testing through our district though because it is how they are admitted to the magnet program. My oldest doesn't do well with change though and it would mean switching schools in 3rd or 4th grade and I'm already considering school X for K then school Y for 1-3, after that it would be back to X unless we could petition to stay at Y or if she was admitted to the magnet. No matter what it feels like a lot of transitions since she could go to X for K-5.

Our public schools have accelerated learning groups within the classroom for the "smart" kids AND a pull out G&T group for the gifted kids DS is in both.

The testing was pretty crazy I thought - DS had NO idea he was being tested. He thought he was just doing puzzles and games with the Student Support staff. It was 3 rounds of testing and you only proceeded if you passed the one before it. In grades 1 and 2 its written and grade 3 and up its verbal.

The teacher has to recommend the child or they aren't even considered. Gifted kids have differently wired brains and need that extra boost - the 2nd graders this year are learning about animation right now - DS is a huge fan!

As silly as it sounds I definitely think DS found "his people" in the G&T group!

@freckles: schools in the US, including G&T offerings, are largely run and regulated by the states, so there's huge variation in programs. The school I mentioned in my post is an entire school geared towards student who have met some G&T testing benchmark where the curriculum is somewhat accelerated, under the theory that these students will learn reading and math skills at a faster rate.

The G&T program I attended in the '80s was elementary only and was an enrichment program, so we basically did mini-units on all sorts of outside topics that we wouldn't get in regular school. After that, I was just put into advanced classes, so I took math classes with older kids. I think there was also an advanced English track, which would have had a more advanced reading level curriculum. In high school, advanced (faster paced, more rigorous) and A.P. (you could take a test to earn college credit) options were offered.

I think the advanced and A.P. classes I took better prepared me for success in college. But, I was still often bored at school - my opinion is that was more a personality/teenager thing than a failure to offer enough enrichment. I'll also add that my parents put very little pressure on me to achieve in a specific way and did a pretty good job of supporting me to make my own decisions and focus on the things I wanted to focus on. I hope to follow their example there with my children.

When working I was a school psychologist and this was my main role within the school. The individual standardized testing I would administer, however , was not for the gifted and talented but instead the special education population. In the district that I worked at would do IQ standardized testing in the second grade for all students (number two pencil group testing kind of test) to determine students eligible for the G&T program so IQ testing can already be a part of your public school.
Personally I don't think I would persue IQ testing for my child. It's very expensive and only gives one factor that determins a child's success in school/ life. I've seen many average IQ students excel as well as superior IQ level students that fail in school.

My daughter missed the cutoff for K this year, so we were able to test her into it through the district's TAG program. If she had gone next year, I think she'd have been bored, but thankfully it's perfectly leveled for her. The entire school does TAG testing in the 2nd grade, and that's enough for us.