Our DD8 got a DYS score when she was 7 and I lurked here and read many books about giftedness, trying to find the secret lever that would unleash her potential. We could not find one.
What we did find invaluable was the insight into how asynchrony affected our child emotionally and intellectually.
She is happy now in a gifted 3rd grade class for social rather than academic reasons. She feels like she fits in, given the number of other quirky gifted kids she is around. She gets mostly A's, complains about doing homework, and is considered "in the middle" performance-wise by her teacher.
I believe many gifted children--almost certainly mine--suppress their superior intellect as a survival mechanism. I can think of many reasons they do this: to fit in with friends, traditions and role models; to ward off anxiety caused by their superior insight and logic; to just be average kids. DD has questioned and known that Santa and the Tooth Fairy are not real for years, but you can tell she wants to believe, probably at this point because her friends still do. When she asks us point blank, we do the prudent thing and ask her, "What do you think?" And she does not respond yet because she'd not ready.
So maybe the question I/we need to ask is: If our gifted child is not achieving or performing at a level closer to their potential, does that indicate a problem?
Last edited by Pru; 01/25/12 04:33 PM. Reason: typo
