Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional evaluation refused

Ok, let me re-phrase my question. If the directions on the school assignment said "Write a paragraph answering this question", would it be a well-organized response that made sense? I think you have to try to separate out whether he could write a decent response if he knew that more than one sentence was expected. If he can not, you still don't know whether it's impaired language that's causing the problem or if it's poor EF (or both). If you find a good language test that is accurate with gifted kids, and it comes out fine, then you can probably assume it's a written expression issue caused either by poor instruction or poor EF.

I think he can do this, at least at grade-level, if he follows a specific format. His writing skills are considered strong but what I see is his writing does not appear to have matured in several years. This could just be a motivation or attitude issue--I just don't want to assume anything after reading so much here!

Then again, not to generalize too much I do remember from teaching that *most* (not all) gifted boys did not write as well as gifted girls, in high school. So maybe I don't need to question every little thing and assume pathology.

I am guessing that if you looked at some of the other kids' papers, you'd see equally silly responses. I bet the problem is that the directions are not specific and they can get away with short, one-sentence answers.

To tell the truth, the questions are really boring and not GT at all. They are straight out of the book and regurgitation type questions, at least in the one class where he keeps doing this. He might come up with more interesting things to say if asked more interesting questions--but then there's always the chance that he'd be so way far out (he is WAY divergent) that would be a problem, too.

I just found a piece of writing for his CA class--they have writing time where they have to do something--he's written an entire page (humorous) about being forced to write against his will--and being afraid he might not survive. He then goes on to list all of his belongings and to whom he wills each of them.

It's really funny and I'm pretty sure his CA teacher will think so, too, but this is the sort of thing that makes me really nervous these days...

2E PTSD.

I feel a lot better today having made a little bit of a plan for DS. Thanks for all the help here, everyone.

What if the question were 'Would you rather be a serf or a lord? Explain why.' Woud that work better? Or would he argue that the question incorrectly implied that society was made up of serfs and lords only?