Hi all, first poster.
My DD 9 is a bit of a mystery. She�s in fourth grade and has always been highly erratic at school. I�m posting to get some advice about how to support and understand her.
Some background.
This lovely kid has been quirky since birth. She was an unusually self-contained newborn - she studied the world with great seriousness and attention at a few hours old. By a few weeks old, she was showing preferences re who held her and when, and how she spent her time.
She hit some milestones early, but not all. She would play involved imaginative games by herself for many hours by age 2, and had a sophisticated early vocab. At the same time, she wouldn�t really engage in activities imposed by others. She wasn�t interested in children�s books or songs, and bounced around the room when read to. She was listening though.
By 2-3, she was interested in adult concepts and adult themes - justice, conflict, belief - and we were trying to match the factual content to her emotional development!
Fast forward to school. She was very quiet at school but content and making friends. She did so-so in early class work, and was quiet enough to fade into the background. I began to notice that she was giving school the same attention as she gave many things that didn�t interest her. So we tried some class work at home. She rapidly (in 20-30 mins) demonstrated an ability to do maths work years ahead - and then she went back to doing her own thing. The whole exercise seemed to annoy her.
Reading-wise, she acquired reading in a matter of week or months at 5 without really ever reading a book. She was years ahead within months of starting, and remains years ahead in reading and comprehension. And still won�t usually read by choice. Although she does love to be read to.
Maths-wise, she underperformed to age 7, then started getting perfect scores on standardised tests (>99pc). Most of the time.
Fast forward to now. She performs >99pc in both literacy and maths in standardised tests more often. But it�s still hit and miss. She does not like multiple
choice, especially in literacy. She�s more reliable in maths than literacy. She�s happy, sociable although introverted, and feels mostly positive about school. She has a range of passions she pursues at home, which has always been her preferred place for really being herself.
At 7, we had WISC V (core sub tests only) done out of desperation to lobby the school (who believed her to be of average ability, and ignored occasional outlier results). From our perspective, DD was clearly under challenged and completely disengaged from the class work
The psychologist who did the WISC was lovely but had no recent experience with WISC administration and no experience with gifted children. She (the psych) found the experience a bit overwhelming (by her own admission) and said DD was pretty hard to keep on topic. The outcome was a fairly even spread, with relative strength on VCI, relative weakness in processing speed, and an IQ in the mid 120s.
We have family peppered with HG, PG and above. However, the erratic performance and selective engagement of DD is unfamiliar territory.
Her school is doing much better at acknowledging her capacity and she has Maths pull-out. They are considering other ways to engage her.
I didn�t want to get a WISC in the first place - although it was necessary for advocacy. And I don�t really want to do another now she�s older. But i don�t really understand her capacity, her learning needs or the best way to support and advocate for her. I also don�t know if there�s a problem to solve, given she�s pretty happy and slightly less erratic over time.
I don�t really know if the wisc was accurate, given how unwilling she has been to engage in externally imposed tasks. I don�t really understand what she needs from school to help her feel excited and engaged. Should i be doing more, or should I let my lovely kid sort out her relationship with school in her own time? Is there a problem to solve?
Thanks for your insights!
