I've posted a couple of times about my son, who we were starting to think was somewhere on the GT spectrum. As he gets older, I no longer doubt that he is an outlier of some kind, probably far surpassing my partner (ID'd as gifted as a child along with his sibling) and myself (no formal ID, as no gifted programming and no reason for ID, but very high test scores with very little effort, intensities, and the like). Both sides of the family are populated almost entirely with likely GT individuals, though I have no idea what part of the GT range.
Now we are wondering what is going on with DS(4)'s older sibling, DD(6). She just started first grade. One of DS(4)'s "gifted" abilities is teaching himself to read at 3.5 or so, and now at 4 reading at at least a 2nd-3rd grade level with comprehension, but decoding literally anything put in front of him (adult books, whatever - I recently had to pull "One Flew Out of the Cuckoo's Nest" from his little hands, then rearrange shelves!). But his big sister is still struggling with words like "hot" or "spot." She basically can't read at all, despite being in pull-out reading help during her K year. She is very frustrated by this, yet resists doing any practice at home with us - she'd rather do anything than try to read (including math games - she's quite good at math).
At the same time, she is a true book lover. She will listen to us read to her without limit, and this has been true since she was 2 years old. She can memorize picture books after 1-2 exposures, which lends the appearance that she's reading. She's very adept at figuring out words from picture clues as well. She has now discovered audiobooks, which keep her occupied for hours. She enjoys listening to relatively advanced books, such as the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, and has a very rich oral vocabulary for her age. She has expressed a longing to be able to read to herself more times than I can remember. She asked me to teach her to read the summer before she started Kindergarten, but it quickly became frustrating for both of us, and we agreed to stop and let school do its job. However, she hasn't made much progress since then. She told me wistfully, the week before starting first grade: "I hope this year I'll finally learn to read." Now, a week later, she says, "I hate first grade." (but she likes her teacher and her school - huh?).
I should also mention that when I read descriptions of gifted kids, especially things like OEs, making unexpected connections across contexts, asking complex questions, etc., my DD is summed up to a tee. She has an incredible memory and will suddenly spout unexpected knowledge that she apparently picked up 2 years earlier on a trip to the zoo, a video, etc. She's also quite an artist and dancer, very creative, and seems to see art/construction projects in her head and then bring them to fruition with few or no intermediate planning steps needed.
Thanks for sticking with me so far. I guess that the main reason I'm posting is my own self-doubt about whether my perceptions of my older child's progress are being overly influenced by having a younger child who is so advanced. But regardless of my younger child, I am concerned about the level of my older child's frustration, the gap between her interest in and enthusiasm for books, and her apparent (in)ability to learn to read them herself. It's a battle between my gut (something is wrong!) and my head (she's only in first grade, why should she be able to read!).
Please let me know what you think. The school is not concerned at this point. Is it crazy that my partner and I are?
P.S. I can give lots of specific examples of the types of reading mistakes/substitutions she makes if that would be helpful.
Last edited by Emigee; 09/07/17 09:20 PM.
