Ok, I�ve been a lurker for quite a while here and am so incredibly thankful for everyone sharing their stories/struggles and opinions. So here�s my turn.
DS6 is in a HG program (supposedly have to be 99.5 IQ and achievement to qualify) with our school district, yet even in this group he is an outlier. We had him tested at 4 by a local psychologist because of my concerns for Aspergers (spaciness, social immaturity, incredible focus on certain things but oblivious to others, getting very upset and difficult to calm in certain circumstances, large motor issues, sensory processing issues etc). At that time the psychologist did an eval and gave a dx of Anxiety NOS. The psychologist did an IQ test at that time which put him in the gifted range (high 130�s to low 140�s)
So fast forward to now. 1st grade in a HG program which is an �enrichment type program�. He�s reading at 6-7th grade level, Math at about 4th (had to strongly encourage the school to test him for placement in the 3rd grade math class). The majority of his �HG� 1st grade classmates are working on about 2nd to 3rd grade reading, 1st grade math (single digit addition/subtraction), simple spelling (of, that, send, etc.) (he adds his own words for spelling practice � last week these were Athena, citizen, earthquake, nemesis, cider)
So here�s the problem. He was so excited about going to 1st grade, but now not so much. He has been having a meltdown at least weekly, he is disrespectful to school authorities during these meltdowns, but the rest of the time is very respectful, wants to be a good kid, is what I would describe as a gentle creative, quiet boy. The meltdowns seem to be triggered by relatively minor things that he thinks are unfair, but he is very difficult to calm down and as I said above he becomes very verbally disrespectful to everyone around him. He�s still very spacy during class � playing with his hands � pretending they�re spaceships, staring through the blue color of his clipboard when he�s supposed to be listening to the teacher, fidgeting with and dropping his pencil/ his paper , but has no problems keeping up with the schoolwork.
So meltdowns, spaciness, social immaturity; Is this twice exceptional behavior? Aspergers? ADHD � inattentive type? Bored gifted? Asynchronous development? Dombroski�s overexcitabilites? �..All of the above? His IQ scores put him at the same level as the other kids in his class, so why is he so different?
Just venting and sharing....what would you do? The school officials seem to be at a loss of how to deal with his meltdowns. They want their school psychologist to do an behavioral eval � she�s sweet, but just graduated from college with no special training in gifted behaviors. Part of me wonders if a lack of challenge is part of the problem behind his behaviors, but I don�t think a grade skip or two is good because of his immaturity, and his handwriting (which is about typical 1st grade). Any suggestions to help stop meltdowns or provide more engagement in the classroom so he�s not so spacy?
Thanks for letting me share.
