Originally Posted by dv8
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

True for comprehension or just decoding? Does he grasp fiction at the same level as nonfiction?

Originally Posted by dv8
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?

Could well be Asperger's. The irrational meltdowns (intense for no good reason) have been a key problem for my DS9 (AS).

I'd take him to a neuropsych, with a diary of events and a list of the issues you're seeing in hand, and ask them to do a full eval. It is very important to get an outside opinion; a school psych is not qualified to make medical diagnoses.

At the same time, give the list of issues to the school (in writing) and ask them for a full educational evaluation. They'll look at slightly different things than the outside eval will, and you'll put it all together and come up with a plan for school.

If they find nothing but bored gifted, then you haven't lost much.

If he has AS, the fastest way to stop the meltdowns is probably going to be to medicate for the anxiety. We did this in first and immediately got significant gains. We have also used ABA (behavior therapy) to work on coping, and it's been very useful to DS.

We eventually medicated for attention too, but the anxiety was the main driver of the meltdown behavior. AS can cause serious attention problems as well as anxiety issues (some professionals diagnose ADHD on top of AS, some don't).

HTH,
DeeDee