These are the types of questions testing can answer for you:

• I know that our child has special needs, but I can't go to the school and say, "I have a gifted child," without evidence. What exactly are our child's needs?

• Our child loves LEGO and puzzles, and remembers everything she sees. What special techniques should we and her teachers use to adapt to her learning style?

• What resources exist for gifted children?

• Why is our child underachieving? What can we do to reverse this?

• Our daughter seems to be hiding her abilities at school? What can we do about this?

• How can we help our son get along with his classmates?

• Why can our child do some things amazingly well, and yet have such difficulty with other things? What should we do?

• Why is our child, who is so quiet and good at school, having temper tantrums at home? How can we cope with this?

• Our child had chronic ear infections. Now he never seems to pay attention. Is there a connection? How can we help?

Testing is also an important safeguard in the unlikely event of accident or injury throughout life, as it enables you (and your child) to prove to insurance companies the level of prior abilities. (Most insurance companies treat scores of average or above on post-injury testing as evidence that no damage has occurred, unless pre-injury test scores exist.)

Why Select the Gifted Development Center?

The Gifted Development Center is internationally recognized for leadership in the assessment of gifted children. Our expert team of skillful, experienced examiners are specialists in giftedness who understand the intricacies of assessing asynchronous, reflective, perfectionistic individuals of all ages. We have a large number of assessment tools, including the latest versions of the intelligence scales. While most examiners work individually, we use a team approach to determine the best instruments to use, to assure that the complex profiles of the gifted are examined from all aspects, to detect subtle strengths and weaknesses, and to develop the most effective recommendations. As we also serve as a research and training center; policies determined by our team are often adopted by other agencies and examiners who specialize in the gifted.

We have assessed nearly 5,000 gifted and twice exceptional children (gifted with a learning disability) since 1979 from all over the globe. Evaluation at the Gifted Development Center provides you with an in-depth understanding of your children: their particular cognitive strengths and weaknesses, learning style, self-concept, personality characteristics, social and emotional development, achievement as compared with ability, visual and auditory skills, any hidden learning disabilities, and unique needs. Regardless of whether they score in the gifted range, this comprehensive diagnosis is invaluable for understanding how your children learn best, and what modifications of their school and home environment will assist them in developing optimally. Your child is worth this investment. The information you receive at the Gifted Development Center often dramatically affects your child's future. Since Dr. Silverman is a licensed psychologist, our services may be covered by medical insurance.

The Gifted Development Center provides a unique service to parents, not available anywhere else in the country:

1. The staff of the Gifted Development Center is knowledgeable about the special needs of gifted children and adults. Betty Maxwell, Barbara Gilman, and Allie Golon offer expert phone consultation. Betty Maxwell, Senior Staff Director, holds a master's degree in gifted education, is a certified psychosynthesis therapist, taught gifted children, and is a superb diagnostician.  Barbara Gilman, Associate Director, holds degrees in Child Development and Psychology, and has extensive experience testing and counseling gifted children, making educational recommendations, working with the highly gifted, and gifted children with learning disabilities, AD/HD, or underachievement issues. Allie Golon, Director of Visual-Spatial Resource, another subsidiary of ISAD, is the author of several books on visual-spatial learners and has significant experience counseling families who choose to homeschool their gifted and/or visual-spatial children.

2. Our intake and needs assessment procedures allow parents to determine beforehand the likelihood of their children scoring in the gifted range. We have developed a list of 25 characteristics of giftedness that have been thoroughly researched. If a child fits 3/4 of these traits, there is an 84% chance that he or she will score beyond 120 IQ (the superior range) on individual testing.

3. Our comprehensive testing allows you to have greater understanding of your child’s social, emotional, spiritual, personality, perceptual, motor, verbal and spatial development, as well as his or her learning style. We interpret your child’s strengths and weaknesses through the lens of giftedness. High abstract reasoning can mask learning disabilities, and complicate other diagnoses. It is necessary to take giftedness into account to fully understand presenting symptoms.

4.  We have encountered a great number of children with moral sensitivity and curiosity about spiritual issues.  We can help parents support their children’s spiritual quest and their need to understand the meaning of their lives. 

5. Our examiners are exceptionally skilled at bringing out the best in shy, perfectionistic, reflective children, as well as exuberant, active gifted children.

6. We can get accurate assessment of intelligence on young children. The ideal age for testing gifted children is 4½ through 9. On a selective basis, depending on their maturity, we have been able to test even younger children with excellent results.

7. Before you come to the Gifted Development Center, you are asked to complete an eight-page Developmental Questionnaire, an Introversion-Extraversion Continuum (completed separately by both parents), a Behavioral Checklist, a Short Sensory Profile, and the Characteristics of Giftedness Scale. After all of these materials, and any prior testing, are sent to the Center, a comprehensive needs assessment is conducted to determine exactly what testing will be most valuable for your child. All of your materials are reviewed and discussed with you by phone before you schedule the assessment. Many have found this phone consultation to be most enlightening. In some cases, we recommend remedial services in your area before bringing a child for assessment to assure that we obtain the best picture of your child’s abilities.

8. In the consultation session following the testing, all of the tests and your child's responses are discussed thoroughly. Two professionals are usually present to address any questions about test interpretation, school placement, enrichment opportunities, your child's social and emotional development, sibling relations, etc. This session generally lasts two hours and includes a written evaluation summary.

9. At the post-test conference, parents are given a multitude of handouts: guidelines for parents, an updated bibliography for parents, a bibliography of children's books that feature gifted children, and specific articles on your child's personality type, learning style, social development, gender issues, placement in the family, etc. Dr. Silverman has written over 300 articles for parents, teachers, and all who guide gifted children.

10. You will receive two copies of a detailed psychological report, specifying recommendations for school placement, program modification, enrichment opportunities, social and emotional development, and referral to other professionals as necessary. Many gifted children suffer from allergies, undetected visual processing weaknesses, central auditory processing disorder, sensory integration dysfunction, attention deficit disorder, emotional or behavioral problems, and other weaknesses that may need the attention of a specialist knowledgeable about the diagnostic complications of giftedness. If you are coming from out of state or out of the country, you may want to allot extra time to consult with other professionals in our area (who take giftedness into account in their evaluations) for further diagnosis of these issues.

11. We can also assess your abilities and assist you in developing your own potential.

12. We are internationally recognized as a resource center for highly gifted children and gifted children with learning disabilities. We began in 1979 assessing children in the Denver area, primarily for school placement decisions. Now, more than half of our clients come from all over the country, and as far away as Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, Italy, the Bahamas, England, etc.

13. We are knowledgeable about resources for the gifted throughout the country. Dr. Silverman has established both a state and national consortium of schools for the gifted. We also have an international network of referral services for twice exceptional children: audiologists, optometrists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, AD/HD specialists, etc., who take giftedness into account in their diagnostic work.

14. We have a full range of services available to families:

·  counseling for children, adults, couples, and families

·  phone and e-mail consultation for continued support

·  school staffings, mediation, and development of individual educational plans

·  re-evaluation of test results for gifted children and adults with learning disabilities

·  publications (articles, books and e-books) on all aspects of giftedness

·  assessment of, and support for, gifted adults

·  Advanced Development, the first journal on adult giftedness

·  signed copies of Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner; Empowering Gifted Minds: Educational Advocacy That Works; Raising Topsy-Turvy Kids: Successfully Parenting Your Visual-Spatial Child; If You Could See the Way I Think: A Handbook for Visual-Spatial Kids and The Visual-Spatial Classrooom: Differentiation Strategies that Engage Every Learner!

·  in-service education for teachers and presentations for parent groups on a wide range of issues involving gifted individuals

·  consultations on homeschooling gifted children

·  consultations on teaching and parenting visual-spatial learners

·  career counseling and preparation for SAT, ACT, GRE, LSAT & GMAT exams

·  educational therapy/tutoring, especially for visual-spatial learners

·  mentoring in creative writing

·  a lending library of resource materials available for teachers and parents

15. Dr. Silverman holds a Ph.D. in learning disabilities as well as educational psychology and a license as a clinical/counseling psychologist. With nearly 50 years of experience studying the gifted, she is often able to see masked giftedness, and to detect hidden disabilities that others may miss. She edited the popular textbook, Counseling the Gifted and Talented (Love Publishing, 1993), and has written the popular Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner  (DeLeon Publishing, 2002)—the authoritative handbook on children and adults with right-hemispheric strengths.

Children suspected of being twice exceptional (gifted and learning disabled, AD/HD, etc.); children who were the product of a difficult birth (e.g., lengthy labor, need for oxygen at birth, more than 4 hours of pitocin); children who have had a history of chronic ear infections, visual-motor delays, or emotional trauma of any kind; children suspected of being profoundly gifted; children with unusual spiritual experiences or awareness; or children with complex family, school, or legal situations are best accommodated by a consultation with Dr. Silverman.

Please contact the Gifted Development Center at 303-837-8378, 1-888-GIFTED1, or by e-mail, for more information about our services, and to learn about our fees. A a needs assessment/phone consultation will allow us the opportunity to answer all of your questions and determine which tests would be most appropriate. For testimonials about our services, please see testimonials. Information about visual-spatial learners may also be found at Introduction to the Visual-Spatial Learner and  Visual-Spatial Resource.

To read more on assessment, and our work with the WISC-IV, please see the following articles:

An Overview of Issues in Assessing Gifted Children, by Linda Kreger Silverman, Ph.D.

Assessment of the Gifted: Making Sense of the New Tests, by Linda Kreger Silverman, Ph.D.

Who are the Gifted Using the New WISC-IV?, Linda Kreger Silverman, Ph.D., Barbara "Bobbie" J. Gilman, M.S. and R. Frank Falk, Ph.D.

Using Two WISC-IV Indices to Identify the Gifted, by R. Frank Falk, Linda Kreger Silverman
and Diane M. Moran.

From Conceptual to Practical: Making Gifted Testing Relevant by Barbara J. Gilman, M.S.
and Kathi Kearnery, M.A. Ed.

We Look Forward to Seeing You Soon!

References for:
Testing Your Gifted Child: A Springboard for Effective Advocacy by Barbara
Jackson Gilman.

This article will appear in the

Duke Gifted Letter, Spring 2006 issue (Vol. 6, No.3)

and will be posted to this
website in June, 2006.

Copyright 1997 - 2006, Linda Kreger Silverman, Ph.D.
Gifted Development Center
A Service of the Institute for the Study of Advanced Development
1452 Marion Street Denver, Colorado 80218
1-888-GIFTED1 (Continental US only) * 303-837-8378
Fax: 303-831-7465

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