I am brand new here today and in search of help. Hopefully there are allies who may have been there in the past!
DS10 has always been precocious. He started showing a rabid interest in science at age 2. He started reading novels by 6yrs after he was treated for a vision disorder. Subjects of interest include mythology, mycology, greek/latin word roots, science fiction, physics, biology, chemistry and insects. He was given a diagnosis of Asperger�s at age 3 but shows very little issues of social problems these days. Our school never allowed him to participate in the REACH program as they did not believe in dual diagnosis and they have since gotten rid of the program entirely. As a student he views school as a place to go for the day. Home is a place where he learns on his own time. DS has requested numerous times, starting in the first grade, to go to a different school. He has requested to skip grades but as parents, despite our belief that our child was bright, we always assumed the school knew what they were talking about when they kept insisting that he wasn�t a candidate for REACH or any other acceleration. This year his classroom teacher is a former gifted teacher. Based on her recommendation, and that of several others, we had DS tested. He achieved the following scores:
WISCV-IV
VCI 170
PRI 119
WMI 113
PSI 83
FSIQ 132
GAI 154
He was also given the SBL-M and achieved a score of 182. Mental age was calculated at 19yrs, 1 month.
We were shocked to say the least and left with more questions than answers. Most frustrating is our public school which continues to express that they are meeting his needs. It is clear that we need to do something different but have missed the cut off to apply for the local public charter school that does ability grouping. In addition, there is a long wait list for this school and it could be years before DS gets in. My questions are as follows:
Are there other parents of exceptionally or profoundly gifted kids on this board that would be willing to share their experiences and advice? I have an application in for Davidson�s but am beginning to feel that the only success we are going to get is through homeschooling. Even if not for the long term I am beginning to think it will be the best measure for now. Additionally, there are some huge gaps in DS�s processing speeds. I believe this to be due to his visual processing issues. Is anyone out there familiar with this sort of scatter or visual processing issues? Also, thoughts/ideas on how the heck do you do all this on a shoe-string budget with two parents working? It has only been in the past 6 months that we have finally paid off all of DS�s medical bills from 2010.
Many thanks in advance.
AthenasMasters
