Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy An interesting weekend discussion....

Good points, G3. I guess it wouldn't have mattered to me who gave me info -- the doc, the nurses, or even the wall of pamphlets in the room! I just wanted to be given some resource other than "wait until he's school aged." But I suppose the couple years of worrying that my child was going to be bored when he got old enough to be in school isn't really a horrible problem.

I guess when my then just turned 3-year-old was getting angry because he had to use the "baby" eye chart instead of the one with letters, I would have liked someone to point me to a resource to show I wasn't crazy in thinking we might have future educational concerns. We did get lots of comments from folks in the peds office and the ped allergist office about "kids don't usually do this/know this yet," so they were noticing unusual behavior. What was missing was a little follow-up of information. (granted, my kid is one of those who had more visible early verbal/reading skills - if his signs of giftedness didn't show up until later, the peds office wouldn't have noticed anything, and neither would I for that matter.)

I think even just getting confirmation from the pediatrician that you're not crazy and that it's smart to be thinking about future educational issues is nice.

For me, knowing that 4+ years earlier my kid's doctor had noted that we might wind up homeschooling certainly made it easier to think that our choice was probably a good one in our situation. It sort of gave me permission to think outside the box that is standardized education. And I think that for parents of HG+ kids, the biggest thing we have in common is the need to think outside the box--in any of the possible ways to do that, including HSing, grade-skipping, subject advancement, private GT schools, etc.--if we want to serve our kids' needs!

And if we learned something from the doctor's office, instead of some strangers on a public internet forum, we would have a little more credibility in convincing our spouses of our suspicions too...

(I'm very much kidding, because this forum is truly where I found all the information and support I was looking for.)

I love this forum, but it's true that the credibility of a pedigreed source is nice. My parents were wary about homeschooling, but they did back off a bit when they heard that our pediatrician recommended it! (And he's not a kook or a wacko, even! <sarcasm, sarcasm>)

Well, I do have a lot of conversations with myself, and "Dottie says..." works great!

Well, tell him, "Kriston says that I'm the brains of the forum!"

Surely *that* will impress him!

Well, I think that DD is MG. But she actually started saying "hi" when she was just two or three months old. I sort of didn't believe it myself until my mom noticed it and then one time we were shopping and DD said hi to a little girl in the store. The girl was surprised and said, "Daddy! That baby said hi to me!" DD also used to say "ickle" for "tickle" when she was that age.

DS talked earlier than average, starting about 8 months. His first word was "nuh-nuh" (his word for nursing). By the time he was one he would ask for "nuh-nuh" and then ask for "other side nuh-nuh."

My DH is equally dense, it does work on DS lately, though. And the idea that the person he knows IRL, actually IS Dottie, well that please him very much! He is so impressed!

I had a conversation today that made me think of the original topic of this thread--what professionals think of GT kids and families.

I was at DS12's school to drop off a form today and the principal stopped me. DS is in middle school 6th grade. I had met with her last spring to get DS set up for this year. I was nervous, but she listened to everything I wanted. She got DS in 3 periods of advanced English/writing/reading. One of those periods only had the 3 most GT kids. He got Algebra with the advanced 8th graders, Orchestra, and then the other usual 6th grade classes (keyboarding, PE, Social Studies and Science). He had a great year.

She said that there was child who was "almost as bright as your DS" who will be starting in 6th. Here is what she said, "The family has been meeting and meeting and meeting with me. They don't believe that we can provide what their DD needs. And I keep thinking we've done OK by your DS. So I wanted to make sure that we really were meeting DS's needs." I told her that they really were doing a good job. And she said, "I just don't know what else to tell them. Could I have them call you? Maybe you could reassure them." I told her I'd be happy to.

Anyway, the story is not to make any of you who have been advocating feel guilty. I advocated too. But I wanted to share the perspective of a hardworking principal who is doing a good job. I am sure that working with parents can be it's own challenge!

On the other hand, maybe their child does need something different from what your DS is getting. Or maybe they see that the principal is not really "getting" their child.

I run into this all the time with the food allergy thing. Principal says, "But this was fine for another student who has a peanut allergy. Why isn't it ok for your daughter?"