In Ontario, the road to a gifted program usually starts in grade 3. Many school boards screen every grade 3 student with a group reasoning test, then look more closely at the children with the highest results. Here is how the process works and what you can do as a parent.

Large boards such as the Toronto District School Board and the York Region District School Board give the Canadian Cognitive Abilities Test, known as the CCAT, to all grade 3 students. It is the Canadian edition of the CogAT and measures verbal, quantitative and nonverbal reasoning. York Region runs its screening each year in late November to early December. Your principal will usually tell parents about the process in the fall.

Children whose group results meet the board’s criterion are referred for a second, individual test with a psychologist. In York Region this is the WISC-V, and a student needs a General Ability Index at or above the 98th percentile. Other boards use similar steps with their own cutoffs.

If the second assessment meets the cutoff, an Identification, Placement and Review Committee (IPRC) meets to decide whether your child is identified as gifted and what placement fits best. Placement can range from support in the regular classroom to a congregated gifted class, depending on the board.

School boards ask that students do not practice the actual screening test in advance, because seeing the real items makes the result invalid. That is fair, and it is also not what good preparation means. The real goal is a child who is calm, used to thinking through unfamiliar puzzles, and not thrown by a new format on test day.

Practical ways to help:

• Play reasoning games at home: patterns, analogies, “which one does not belong”, folding paper and punching holes.
• Read together and talk about word meanings, opposites and categories.
• Practice short, timed activities so a time limit does not feel scary.
• Make sure your child sleeps well and eats breakfast on test days.

Students who join a board after grade 3 can often still be considered. Talk to your child’s teacher about an In-School Team meeting, or ask whether the board accepts a private psychological assessment.

Sources: TDSB Universal Screening, YRDSB Gifted Screening Procedure. Each board sets its own process, so check with your school.

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