Hello,
I am new here, and I wanted to ask for some input on a situation with my daughter;
She is 7 years old, and in the 2nd grade. She has always had a rather large
vocabulary, and she taught herself to read and write within a 3 month time span when
she was 5, so that she could interact with her friends on Minecraft. She is a very
emotionally sensitive child, and will start to cry if she sees other individuals cry. In fact,
if she gets too upset, she will break out in hives (we have seen the doctor about this
and he has no idea why this happens, therefore, our solution is to keep her from
getting too emotionally distraught). She uses rather large words like occupation
instead of job (her favorite words are actually, and basically), and she asks me "what
would happen" questions constantly. Recently, I bought her a lego set (mid sized) to
see how well she could put it together, and she told me to "let her do it" and finished
the set in about 30 minutes all on her own (she had never touched a lego set prior to
this). She can build elaborate worlds in Minecraft, and all of her friends age ranges are
11-13 rather than 7-8. I tested her reading last week as she is currently reading 5th
grade chapter books. Her testing came out at 6th grade mastered, and 7th grade
proficient; I brought this up to her teacher, who told me that my daughter could not
possibly comprehend reading material at that level. In response, I went to the
bookstore, and I purchased some advanced reading comprehension books that I went
through with my daughter. She read the story, and then I asked her a series of
questions pertaining to the story; she got all of them correct. On Friday, my daughter
brought home a paper that said the students were going to write a short informational
piece in class, and that they needed to brainstorm ideas on things they want to write
about. It gave examples like: making a PB&J, or baseball. I asked my daughter what
she would like to write about, and her response was "I would like to write about the
gas giants".
All of the students were given a pre test during their first week of class, and then
conferences were scheduled with parents. My daughter tested out of 2nd grade at
that time, but the teacher acted like that was normal, and I didn't really think anything
of it, but, it is becoming more and more apparent that my daughter may need to be
tested. She has recently confided that she is lonely at school, and doesn't have many
friends, because the kids her age think she is weird, and she talks about weird things.
I am in a state that apparently has zero regulations or funding for gifted children,
and, schools are not required to identify nor help gifted children. Therefore, where do I
start? Who can I have my daughter tested by? Would the doctor be a good start?
What about a neuro? Any input would be greatly appreciated.
