My husband and I are so confused and frustrated with our son's difficulties in school. We just don't know where else to turn. I'm hoping other parents here will be able to offer some insight.
Here's the situation. Our 7 year old has always been very insightful...seems to notice very subtle things that other people miss, patient...will work on his Legos for hours and imaginative...loves art and has an ongoing make believe storyline with his younger brother. We never in a million years thought he would have any difficulty in school. Then in Kindergarten we start hearing from his teacher that he can't sit still during rug time, is humming and distracting the other kids, seems to be in his own world, very spaced out etc. This was ongoing throughout the school year. We thought he might be held back but his teacher said he obviously knew all the material and was smart, he was just sort of "in his own head". So he moved on to 1st grade.
In first grade, his teacher noticed all the same things but said a lot of this was common with "gifted" children, and she suspected this was the case with him. He was tested with the Naglieri Non-verbal and he scored in the 99th percentile which qualified him for the GATE program. Well, then we wound up moving to a different school district whose GATE program doesn't start until the 4th grade and has a whole different set of qualifications. In the meantime, he's been having all the same issues in class and his teacher is beyond frustrated. What should we do? Part of me strongly feels that these problems are tied to his giftedness. But after hearing that the Naglieri isn't all that accurate, I start to wonder if it's just ADD or some behavioral problem. We do have an appt. for him to be tested at the local University in March. They said they're going to use the Woodcock Johnson. In the meantime, has anyone else here experienced similar difficulties? I just want to do what's best for him.
