u/tide_left_behind

I was in school in part of the 80s and 90s and was a gifted kid on the spectrum. However, I was in private school from 1st grade onward (until college) so there was no chance for me to be in a program such as GATE. However, I have a good memory and participated in the usual health-related assessments that doctors and to some extent schools did for all kids during those decades, as well as some other testing around my special needs (including for possible placement IN public school, though I never WAS placed and didn't spend even a day there).

--Hearing tests were common for people growing up in the 80s and 90s, however I don't remember taking one until middle school. I believe it was performed by my pediatrician in her office, however the school probably asked for it and got a copy of the results. These tests involved listening to tones through headphones and making a gesture or saying something when hearing one. The tones were played as a series of beeps, as I recall three of them, and they were made at random times so you couldn't just guess by anticipating. So you'd be listening, then hear a sometimes faint "ee-ee-ee" and have to indicate when it happened.

--I definitely recall having cups of fluoride to swish and spit out at the dentist. In fact, I got mild fluorosis of my teeth at some point and from then on it was put in my dental chart that I wasn't supposed to get fluoride again. There MAY have been a time when we also were given fluoride in cups to swish at school, but I may just be remembering that because people on here suggest that it happened. In any case, if it did happen, that ended very early (like 2nd grade, or age 7ish), because otherwise I'd remember having to sit out of that in later grades, which didn't happen. This was private school though--it's possible public school kids did it when older. Of course at the dentist it continued much later (or would have if I'd not been told I shouldn't--and sometimes a new dentist/hygienist forgot and had to be reminded).

--The only other quasi-medical test ever done at school (unless you include hair checks for lice when really young) was skinfold caliper testing for body fat, which was done by the PE teacher. This obviously had nothing to do with giftedness.

--The placement assessment for public school, which happened before the 1st grade year, took place at one of the local public school campuses and was several tests during one day. I don't remember much of these tests, except that one of them was cards with Rorschach-type inkblots (NOT Zener cards!). I remember thinking it weird that the pictures were clearly not "of" anything and I was basically being asked to make stuff up as a "test". In my case, the purpose for this again had nothing to do with giftedness, but rather was because I had serious behavioral issues, and they were effectively giving my parents the runaround because they saw my issues as a liability to them and didn't want to have to accommodate them.

So, these are all things that a student may have been exposed/subjected to just going to school in the 80s/90s even without GATE in the picture.