Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Kindergarten woes

Thank you all for your responses.

indigo - The school has a great "growth mindset" program and lots of posters hanging up about mistakes and "I can't do it YET", but it either isn't resonating with him, or his experience in class is not consistent with what they're saying they believe. As far as the drawing/no recess thing, after speaking with him again and with his teacher on the phone, she actually did say it but she didn't think it was a big deal because he finished his work and did get to go to recess. I still think that is a strange punishment for kids since that is their only chance to get outside, run and play. A lot of kids may be able to let it go because it didn't actually happen, but not my son. He stresses about it and worries about the next time instead. Thank you for your advice, I will be keeping a closer record of what is happening.

Portia - I have been thinking of homeschooling for a few years now due to my own thoughts about education, but am very overwhelmed and nervous about taking that plunge. However, now that he is having a hard time, I might need to take a look again. He said just this morning "I don't like that I can't learn what I want to learn. I can only learn what they want to tell me." So there's that to consider too... As far as testing, more than IQ I was hoping to figure out if he could have a more specific processing problem with what is happening in a situation. He always understands what is happening in books and can tell what is happening from a picture just fine, but he reacts so strongly inside to things sometimes. He used to shake if he would watch Daniel Tiger and the mom was upset or two kids were arguing. As if he over-intensifies anger or frustration. He still considers a lot of things scary that most people wouldn't really think of as scary. I love your idea of a safe "mess up" time to set aside for us. I will be trying that right away.

extmom - I didn't realize they could separate tests. I know very little about testing, and what they can glean from the tests. Thank you for sharing your experience! I will look more into dyslexia and dyslexia laws.