Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Disconect between Cogat scores and school work

My 6 year old DS scored pretty high on the CoGAT test, but is struggling with reading. He goes to a gifted school, but she says there is a disconnect. I see it too, he is struggling with letter sounds. I think he may be intimidated by the students and what they can do since it is a new school. His class is mixed with 1st and 2nd. I hope we did the right thing in putting him in this school, or maybe it is too much. His scores reflect he is in place. His teacher mentioned possibly bringing in a specialist if he still shows sign of struggling. Has anyone else had this issue???

Thanks

If I understand correctly, the scores that reflect he is appropriately placed are the CogAT scores, not achievement scores. Struggling with letter sounds at age six, especially in a high-cognitive kiddo, is a bit out of the expected range, and does suggest that he might benefit, first, from some explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, and likely more comprehensive evaluation by a school, neuro, or clinical psychologist. If he is genuinely struggling with letter sounds, it is unlikely that it is due to feeling intimidated by his new peers.

Does the school teach phonemic awareness and phonics skills in their core curriculum? Do you see other areas of learning, attention, or behavior that seem "off"?

dlattimore - I imagine you know this, but please keep in mind that a child can be 2e (and no less gifted!). He may need mental challenge (such as a gifted school) AND extra help (if he struggles with something like decoding, etc.).

Dyslexia is really, really, common - conservative estimates put it at 10% of the population. There are many of us on the board with verbally gifted, dyslexic children, and "struggling with letter sounds" is, as aeh notes, a big flag worth investigating.

Dyslexia can look quite different in a gifted child than in typical descriptions, however. When I researched it, I found little that seemed to relate to my child. There are several threads describing experiences of people in the forum which might be helpful, such as this one:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/217061/Stealth_dyslexia.html

Auditory processing issues can also lead to children struggling with letter sounds. Note that a regular audiologist/ hearing exam checks physical hearing, but not auditory processing. The latter is more about how the brain interprets the signals it hears, rather than whether it can hear them in the first place. (Here's a basic description: http://www.caddac.ca/cms/page.php?166)

DS is currently in speech therapy to help with speech articulation confusion. His speech teach is working with phonetic awareness, she said he may struggle because of the articulation confusion. He scored very high in the quantitative portion of the test and seems he is struggling a bit in math too. His teacher said "he should know more than he does". I do not believe he has behavior issues (other than being highly sensitive)and depending on interest level his attention span seems fine.

FWIW, I think that having a teacher who has noticed he's struggling and suggested bringing in a specialist is one very positive indication that you've placed him in the "right" school! And as has been mentioned above, it's very definitely possible to be gifted and have a learning challenge all at the same time. As the parent of 2 2e kids, my experience has been the 2nd e is going to present challenges and frustrations, but it is also going to be easier to tackle the 2nd e if you have your child placed appropriately for their intellectual abilities.

So - don't second guess your choice of school. What you should do is request that the school bring the specialist in to look at what's going on. One of my 2e kiddos has a reading challenge which she was able to compensate for in early elementary so it went undiagosed until 3rd grade. I would give *anything* to be able to turn the clock back and have the knowledge we got through her diagnosis at the time she was starting to learn to read in school.

I also wouldn't spend much time trying to think through - is he intimidated by the older kids' abilities in his class. Maybe he is - but otoh, maybe he isn't. It hurts *nothing* to have a reading specialist give him an evaluation - and if what you find out at the end is "everything is a-ok" that's great. OTOH, if you put off having an evaluation because you make an assumption that it's something else going on that will pass with time.... if there *was* an issue that needs remediation... later on when time has passed and nothing has improved and there's still an issue, you'll be wishing like crazy you'd had the evaluation now.

One thing to be aware of with reading challenges - they aren't all "dyslexia" - there are so many different skills that are a part of reading.

Best wishes,

polarbear

Thank you everyone!!!! I am feeling more confident in our choice to put him in this school. Sounds like we are not alone. I do believe if he was in a regular school his reading struggles would go unnoticed because he is able to compensate. I am going to request a specialist be brought in, like you said poalr bear it won't hurt anything.