References and Testimonials

Numerous past clients have agreed to act as references. Any of the listed people can help you decide if working with Deborah Ruf would be worthwhile and helpful for you. Please feel free to contact any of them by e-mail.

References

Steve & Laura Lonergan: ljbermuda@charter.net. Parents of three girls and one boy, early elementary through middle school ages. Mrs. Lonergan offered to talk to anyone about the usefulness of the personality assessments, in particular. Clients since early 2004.

Jon & Anne Felde: felde@post.harvard.edu. Primary grade children. Clients since 2004.

Carol & Mike Tveite: mdtveite@msn.com, Mike.Tveite@polarisind.com. Parents of middle school girl, high school and college boys; clients since 2000.

Testimonials

I would very highly recommend Dr. Deborah Ruf.  I've known her since she first tested my daughter 3 years ago.  Both my daughter and I were very impressed with not only her professionalism and her expertise, but also with her warmth, humor, and her ability to put my daughter at ease.  Beyond just the test scores, the follow-up consultation that Dr. Ruf  provides was like a mini-graduate course in giftedness!  That alone made it well worth every penny.

I have also had Dr. Ruf come to the school with me to talk with my daughter's teachers and principal.  It really helped to have an expert there to back me up!  In addition, I've had Dr.Ruf speak to our local MCGT chapter (I'm Co-President of MCGT- Rosemount/Apple Valley/Eagan Chapter), and the response was incredible!

Several months ago, my son was having “issues” at his new school. He was “off task” constantly, so I scheduled a meeting with the teachers involved in order to resolve this before it became too cumbersome to handle. At this information-gathering sortie, the development disabilities instructor was brought in and ADD was mentioned, and I was then given a list of local psychologists who tested for ADD. It was a challenge not to get too defensive. I know they were only trying to help my son. But this felt wrong, horribly wrong. They were already labeling my son and to top it off, they were using the wrong label! I politely stated that I thought they were mistaken, thanked them for their time, and left with a sense that I now had to do something — but what?

So that evening, I started researching ADD characteristics on the Internet and stumbled on a site called Born To Explore and through their links I was led to the Gifted Development Center to investigate visual spatial characteristics and then to Hoagies' Gifted Education Page which is where they described my son so accurately. The more I read, the more it made sense. I read about the different methods of testing and more specifically the Stanford-Binet and I thought; “Now I know what needs to be done."

I tried to go “in network” with my insurance to no avail. I tried 15 different psychologists and their answers ranged from, “We’re too busy.” to “We can’t test your son with that unless he’s in therapy.” (But he doesn’t NEED therapy!)

I went back to the hoagies gifted page and found your name among the specialists certified for testing the gifted and wrote it down. Did I really think my son was gifted? What if he wasn’t? Was I being arrogant? Was I being blind to my son’s faults? Could I afford this without insurance? Could I afford not to?

After much internal debate, and some not so internal, I called. For the first time in this whole fiasco the person on the other end of the line understood what I was saying. Finally! You answered all my questions patiently and without judgment. I cannot express to you how comforting that was. I held my breath and jumped, in other words, I scheduled the assessment. It was painless for my son, he said, “Some parts were fun and some were hard,” and that was it. I waited on pins and needles for the results. When they finally arrived four days later, (I really wanted to know!) I felt vindicated.

The follow-up consultation was enlightening and I wanted to thank you for the insights into my child's character as well as my own. Now I have a starting point and specific goals to achieve instead of questions upon questions. He and I have had a few really good discussions and I believe he's on the road to self-awareness. I feel positive about the future (if a bit under-educated) and I'm confident we'll now find a way to get him through childhood and school relatively unscathed.

Thank you so much!

Molly Ring  molly@skewedviewstudio.com

"We just learned that [our son] has been accepted into the new G/T magnet program in District XYZ! (Child had been labeled with several learning disabilities instead of very high giftedness prior to seeing Dr. Ruf). We were told that you were contacted by the staff regarding his assessment. Thank you very much -- we're sure your comments helped convince them to create an additional opening for him as an out-of-district transfer student! ... after what we've learned from meeting with you, even homeschooling doesn't sound as daunting as it did at first. It will definitely be an option if we are in a situation that requires more than the institutions can deliver. Thanks again, and best regards!" - parent of profoundly gifted first grader.

"... just wanted to let you know how meeting with you has benefited our family. Thanks." - parent of a highly gifted first grader.

"Just thought you would want to know that Madeleine is on the B honor roll for the third time this year and though still not pleased with the world is doing much better." - parent of teenaged girl who was underachieving.

"You have been very helpful to us in clarifying where our kids are in terms of intelligence and making us aware of the need for us to be involved and not expect that the schools are going to completely recognize or provide for their educational needs." - parents of two upper elementary children.

"We frequently mention to each other how glad we are to have had the opportunity to meet with you and how much it has helped us understand and appreciate each of the three kids as individuals." - parents of elementary and middle school children.

"I recommend your services all the time, but since my child isn't highly gifted, I'm not sure how useful a reference from me would be. We learned so much from you about how his level of intelligence fits and doesn't fit with the way the schools are set up, and about what we can do to help him and make sure he doesn't become an underachiever or aim too low for himself. If that counts as useful for a recommendation, please use us!" - parent of moderately gifted boy.

"We are so grateful for the guidance, direction, reassurance and support you have given us this year. You are a blessing to us." - parents of two very different, special boys.

"We felt it was very helpful to meet with you. You were able to provide us with a wealth of information and most importantly reassurance that we weren't alone." - parents of precocious toddler.

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This site was last updated 05/12/07