DS8 has always had perfectionist tendencies. They have improved dramatically in the past several months, but part of this is because he has not had very challenging work in school. For the most part, he can half-listen to the instructions and then do the assignment correctly. So he is not used to having to listen closely and pay attention to the details.

So, now we finally have some math enrichment, (which took me several months of advocating to get!) and he comes home with a note on his worksheet that he had trouble understanding the directions even after they were explained 3 times and maybe some 1-on-1 at home would help. So I look at the problem, which was something I knew that he was capable of doing and asked him what happened. At which point he had one of his trademark perfectionist meltdowns and didn't want to talk about it. Sigh. I finally got the gist, I think, of what happened. He didn't listen very well to the instructions and just did it and then when she told him it was incorrect he just shut down. So she thought that he didn't understand it even after the additional explanations, but he did he just didn't want to do it at that point. Then, when he finally did decide he should do it, the class was over.

So we talked about how he will have to pay attention more in this class and listen(!) and even if he sometimes gets things wrong that's ok, that's how you learn new things. He goes to enrichment again today, so I have been wondering all day how it went!

I guess my question is: should I talk to the teacher about this or just leave it alone? The enrichment is taught by the GT teacher who is also in the process of evaluating for the GT program that starts in 3rd. But also, I don't want him to end up being taken out of the enrichment because his perfectionism is misunderstood as lack of comprehension (this hasn't been suggested, it's just my concern). He was perfectly capable of doing the assignment at home once he got past all the drama. And he really needs to develop those listening skills. I feel like he's gotten a bit lazy because he doesn't HAVE to pay attention, usually, in order to do well in a class.

If anyone has any suggestions on how (or if) to approach this with teacher and with him, I would greatly appreciate your insights!