Hello,
Our son is in pre-K in a bilingual French-American school in the Bay Area. A couple of days ago, we had a parent-teacher conference during which his teacher strongly suggested we have our 4.10 year old tested for his unusual development.
We knew he was advanced but we only have one child and have no way to truly compare. After all we all feel our kids are the brightest, right?
On one hand he displays advanced skills for his age: he reads almost fluently in English, reads the time like any adult (was told that's a measure of development?), he understands a lot of French and reads a pretty good number of Chinese characters (he goes to an after school Montessori Chinese school. On the other hand, he is emotionally unsettled and cries easily at the least frustration and is pretty headstrong although he is generally a very well adapted kid who enjoys the company of others and participates eagerly in class. He also is spontaneously drawn to older kids (7-8 years old) and seems to look at younger kids (his age or younger) like oddities.
Anyway, the question put to me is, does he go to Kindergarten or skips to 1st grade? Do we hold back his intellectual development until his emotional development catches up to his age? or is his emotional state tied to his intellectual advancement and we should instead nurture the latter?
I'm not too comfortable about branding my son a "gifted child". I don't even know if he is particularly gifted but I do want to better understand what we are dealing with so I can be better prepared to help him grow. Who should I meet with first? a pediatrician? a psychologist? another specialist? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
A concerned dad
