Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy SST Meeting - what would you do?

I would first look at this meeting for what it is (from the school's perspective) - from what you've written, it sounds that it is being put together to address concerns about behavior. It also sounds like the school has done a good job of bringing in people who can provide meaningful input to the meeting - that's all good. It does not sound like the intention of the school is to address gifted differentiation, which is one of your goals (unless I misunderstand your question). So - my approach would be two-pronged: first and foremost, think through what you need to to understand what's going on at school that's related to the behavior concerns and go in prepared to have a discussion focused on that. If you think that lack of gifted services is part of the equation, prepare yourself to address that. One of the things you can do is to request that a gifted ed rep be present at the meeting - if there's a gifted teacher at your school that could be the person, if not, you could ask for a gifted rep from the district.

The next thing I'd suggest is to really think through sharing the evaluations. I am not sure I understand why you haven't shared them - if your ds is dysgraphic and stealth dyslexic, then he most likely could use accommodations or possibly remediation with academics - have you asked for that previously? I've found with my own 2e kids two things that are key:

1) sharing a private evaluation with the school doesn't guarantee that the school will accept the results or feel they need to act on them, but it also has never ever hurt to share an evaluation. For my kids, it has helped, because it gave the school a context in which to better understand their strengths and challenges.

2) Challenges with behavior in early elementary were as often related to the 2nd e as to the first - often more so. It's really easy as the parent of a gifted child to think that behavior issues in the classroom are due to low level of challenge or boredom etc... but it's really *really* important to put necessary accommodations in place for the challenges. When my ds was struggling in early elementary prior to diagnosis, not one adult recognized that his problem behaviors were happening because he was very aware that every other kid in class could do something he couldn't do. Mix that in with a high cognitive functioning level, and he was overwhelmed with not understanding *why* he was different. Putting accommodations for his disability in place asap was key to helping him function in a way that allowed for his gifts to be apparent to others. He's in high school now, and although those early elementary years were tough for him (and for me as a parent, because I felt he should be receiving much more academic challenge)... getting accommodations and remediation in place paved the way for him to have access to the gifted education he wanted and needed in middle and high school.

Did the previous evaluators give recommendations in their reports for either remediation or accommodations? If so, is your ds receiving those at school? If not, sharing the reports would be extremely helpful. Even sharing just the diagnosis should be helpful.

Best wishes,

polarbear

eta - I also would try to not worry about someone thinking stealth dyslexia isn't "real" - it's a term that isn't technically defined anywhere (as far as I know) outside the world of the Eides. The reports you have from the private evaluators most likely have enough language that is familiar that you don't need to even mention the term "stealth dyslexia" - mention weakness in ____ (you fill in the blank) etc. Quote from the parts of the report that state relative weaknesses in specific skills. etc.