I get the feeling that many of us with HG kiddos originally underestimated their LOG until after they were assessed with a cognitive test. For us, my spouse and I were downright shocked when we sat down with the psychologist who had administered DS6's WISC-IV and went over the results. My first reaction was, "There has to be some sort of mistake because he seems so normal!" The psychologist, in response, laughed for a good 5 seconds at me before explaining that it is nearly impossible to get a false high on the WISC.
But it certainly has me wondering about my perception. I've talked with close friends, and they were not surprised at all about his LOG, which makes me wonder what it is I am not seeing. I'm his parent, after all! Shouldn't I be able to see this better than most people? So now I'm trying to look harder at how he thinks and how he expresses himself. For instance, he's always been really good at playing with whatever kids he can find on the playground. It doesn't seem to matter age, gender, or personality. He will find a few of then and they will be stuck to each other like glue after a few minutes. Sure, I think if given an infinite supply of children, he'd gravitate towards playing with girls 3 or more years older, but whatever the situation, he makes it work. He will drastically alter his playing style to whatever seems to suit the crowd. I've always just assumed that this was normal behavior, but now I'm wondering if it's some kind of social intelligence-based ability? I'm also afraid that, now that I am looking for things, I'm seeing "giftedness in everything" when it's simply normal most of the time. It's hard: I'm trying not to be that guy but I'm also looking for "tells" that I can hold onto.
And now I wonder if he's been adaptive like this not just on the playground but everywhere. I think he behaves more like an adult when in the company of adults and more like a normal 6-year-old around the company of 6-year-olds. We get the "You have the most extraordinary child"-type comments all the time from friends and strangers alike. Yet his teacher says that while he is bright, he's not brightest in a class of 14 (we were told this was a reason they did not want to accelerate him when we asked).
Next year, we are going to try a private gifted school (which the whole family is excited about), but now I'm wondering... if his classmates are mostly mild to moderately gifted, will he blend in "too well" like he does everywhere else? Will his teachers even recognize that he may need further acceleration? And how would I know if he's not getting what he needs?
Anyways, thanks for listening!
Last edited by George C; 05/07/15 08:13 AM.
