Hi All
I have a question about my daughter who is almost 6 and has not skipped or been subject accelerated at this point. Upon reading the psych testing and our suggestions, the teacher did try to send her to upper grades for reading but she would not hear of it and stubbornly refused to go. As an overview, she was an early self-taught reader at 2, first words at 7/8 months, singing tunes at 12 months and wholes songs at 18 months, speaking in 2 or more sentences at 2 years sometimes up to 10 words per sentence. Used big words like 'frustration' at 18 months. Rote counted to 10 from 13 months - could one one one count to 20 approx 2.5 yrs. Due to her early milestones, testing was suggested for educational purposes. She tested at iq score 99.7th percentile on the weschler preschool test (verbal at 99.8th, perceptual at 99.6th and processing speed brought her down somewhat) and her WIAT reading words was at 160+, with a reading comprehension score of 8 years when she was only 4 1/2 years - which I suggest at around 5.2years was 9 years and would be (from my non-expert assessment) around 9.5 to 10 years now. Maths not as high - but 130. Her reading progress has slowed a bit as she is not as interested in books since being at school. We decided after must thought and discussion to leave her with her age peers (acceleration had been recommended by psych). This year has been quite a shock as the teacher tells us that she is not at all interested in doing anything academic like reading, maths and particuarly writing - all she wants to do is create art, draw, play make believe (with younger kids in class) or play on the monkey bars. She tells me her favourite subject is sport. The teacher says whilst the other children are putting up their hands in drove to write, read and do other academic and/or 'enrichment activities', my daughter is politely saying 'no thanks' I'd rather sit over here and draw a picture. The teacher says this remains so despite the fact she has quite complex books, puzzles etc out for her (I don't know how complex but she pointed to one which was colour by numbers (you had to add eg. 7 + 2 = 9 and 9 would be red). She says that around 10 other children in the class can write pages (and can write better) than my daughter already who just refuses to write. I wonder what is going on, she tells me "she is not comfortable doing those things in the classroom environment" (her words)and the teacher is forcing her to sit by herself and read more advanced books (the teacher says this is not true there are others at the table) The teacher says DD tells her DD does those things at home and just wants a break from them at school. I was astounded as she does these things of her own free will at home (although I have always provided my kids with books and other resources) - the teacher says she appears to be compartmentalising. However, you can tell that the teacher is now thinking the test results and everything is wrong despite the fact she was blown away by my daughter's reading at the start of school (when she actually did read at school). She later commented that any child would read like that if she had been read to as much as my daughter was read to at a young age. She said that she has had a child write entire scripts at DD's age adn DD is not doing any of that. The current teacher tells me that a relief teacher (who took DD's class for 4 months) did not know what she was talking about when she asked how DD was doing - she has no idea DD was GT. The current teacher also looked at me like I must be mad/stupid when I even mentioned subject acceleration. Yet, I am still consistently being told by other parents how bright she is (by the things she tells them, her reasoning and vocab she uses etc). I would be very grateful for any suggestions/comments or advice you may have for me as right now I am at a loss as to what is going on? Should I be concerned or not at all and let things evolve in their own good time?
Thank you so much for listening,
T
