I wonder now if some of his emotional hypersensitivity is because he is always fighting with his LD. If everything is a struggle, you're bound to get worn out and feel touchy. He's a very defensive kid a lot of the time. I thought that was just his personality, but I wonder now if it's a reaction to his LD.
I see defensiveness and LD as hand in glove for just that reason. Plus, at school kids are being compared to each other all the time, and he may 'sense' that he is smarter than what he can accomplish. ((Opps - is he at school?))
Here's an alternate take on the saying aloud question.
At least 50 times in my life, I've written down direction, or a shopping list,but (red face) found out that I've left the paper with the list at home. Although my memory isn't great, I'm always delighted to see that the act of writing things down itself is enough, and I can remember most of the list or directions without the paper. I think that the act of writing helps me focus my mind better, facilitating moving the information from short to longer term memory.
((BTW - Does anyone roll their eyes when they read about short and long term memory as if there are only 2 places to park information? I feel like I've got 'super short' 'short' 'medium short' 'medium long' 'long term but often used' and 'deep storage' compartments that the information is being shuttled back and forth between frequesntly!))
Another perspective is the old 'Executive Function Disorder' (which some feel to be the same as ADD) where the act of saying the information aloud, slows down the process and strengthens the ability to aim the attention apparatus enough to use it.
My son, age 13, feel that the more gifted a kid is, the more likely they are to have ADD. I'm getting the visual image of the brain as a really fancy clockwork device, and imagining that the 'bigger' the brain the harder it is to 'aim.' Sort of like that series of books about cities that wandered around consuming each other. Perhaps the PG kids who have no trouble focusing are the ones who happen to also have PG Executive Function, and the normal experience of elementary school aged unusually gifted boys is to be 'sort of a mess?'
I hope that doesn't offend anyone, because I know lots of PG boys who are polite, calm, obedient, athletic, focused, popular, coordinated and are handling their asynchronous development really well. But I also know lots of PG boys who aren't. Maybe some are just a bit more or less asynchronous than others?
Love and More Love,
Grinity
