and having a teacher who got how smart he was, but didn't know that gifted kids could be behind in other ways sure didn't help.
She slipped in one of our many many meetings and said,with passion "If only he tried, this is baby stuff" and then choked off the words 'baby' stuff. So there is was, an admission that the work was way below what he needed intellectually and an admission that she saw his lack of output as a character flaw issue rather than a disability.
That's what we are dealing with right now. ~~sigh~~
Our list:
Slow at dressing. Unable to tie shoe laces -- yep
Barely legible handwriting -- yep
Immature drawing and copying skills -- they are age level, but it's difficult for him
Limited concentration and poor listening skills -- sometimes
Slow completion of class work -- if writing is involved, yes
Continued high levels of motor activity -- yes
Problems with co-ordinating a knife and fork -- yes!!
My son is 3.5yo, so some of this stuff is age-appropriate, but the difference is...he needs therapy to keep up with his peers because it is more difficult for him. Luckily, we caught it early and it shouldn't be a problem in the future.
The way his OT explained it....
His brain is going so fast, his body has trouble keeping up
also
It's like watching TV with the sound 30 seconds behind
Because of his highly asynchronous development, his brain is not developing in sync with his body, so some of the messages get lost. He is compensating with high intelligence and natural athletic ability, so it's not as noticeable as it could be.
Every time he has a growth spurt, we hope that his brain will stop developing and give his body time to catch up!
