Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy figuring out what the issue is

Hi
Strange question because I am not sure what is troubling me and I might just be jumping the gun as we have a mtg with the teacher on Monday.

DS 5.5 is in K, gifted school, its been as good as we could have hoped for without actually meeting all his academic needs, but then I didn't expect it to. Anyhow, so teacher, who is very attentive and emails and follows up, made mention a month ago about his writing issues - she spoke to the school OT and got some strategies - writing while leaning on a loose leaf binder - so making a slanty desk has been great - they also give him all sorts of tasks to do so he can get up and move around to deal with his fidgets. We had an outside eval in pre-K which id'd some issues but we only did 8 OT sessions for a whole host of reasons.

Fast forward to now, he was a reluctant writer and drawer but now does more, but its not his preferred activity, but from my point of view he has been improving exponentially in a short period of time. And she also noted the improvement. We then shared the OT report we had. So I just received an email from the teacher saying she shared it with the principal (why?) and now she is commenting on the fact that he is falling out of his chair. And she wants to talk about it in the conference.

Part of me wants to think they understand what they have with him and are trying to figure out how to accommodate him - the rest of me thinks this is the beginning of the road to labeling him something.

So sort of venting - sort of looking for advice - I guess I should just wait to see what she has to say and try to calm down. We have a lot of other stress right now and DH thinks I am focusing on this to avoid that - he may be right - or this is the mom gut tingles.

Thoughts?

DeHe

I think, not knowing all the particulars, just looking at first glance, that this is more the teacher trying to help and maybe reaching out to the principal to see what more they can give him? It sounds like your school has been accomodating and I think you should go with the past positive experiences.

Believe me, I know ALL ABOUT negative school experiences

Also, the principal SHOULD know what is going on with her students, something like an OT report is factual, not a judgement based on his attitude or their perception...

Deep breath...exhale...

I just wanted to mention, even a non-gifted child can sense stress in the home and will act out in school as a result. I would imagine your child, being gifted is even more aware of the things that are stressing our you and your husband. Just something to consider. Good luck, it sounds like you've got a good school there.

My daughter had similar issues at that age. My daughter had the binder on the side as well. She was also taught to properly keyboard at that age.

Maybe you could work with the OT on finding a seating a solution.

http://www.ballsnbands.com/childrens_exercise_ball_chair.html
This seat seems to be an improvement compared to the one we had which was just a ball that sat on the floor with 3 tiny feet.

When she was in school the teacher let her stand since she was between sitting and standing and that habit contributed to falling out of the seat or flipping it. She was also the size of a three year old so the tables were too high for her.

When they are younger it is easier to O.T. weak areas.

Interesting because I notice a big difference between my DD8 (and only 26th percentile for height/weight) sitting at the kitchen table vs the table in her room with a smallish chair and 3 height adjustments. She too has a tendancy to sit on the edge of a chair, swing her legs, fidget, things like this. She is fairly agile though so she tends to just balance there and not often actually fall...

Last year's teacher said they do that until about 4th grade, when it suddenly all seems to catch up that the mind can control the body, lol!

MoN
I don't know how long they expect him to sit at a given time but whatever he was doing was enough of a concern or just different enough from the others that they took steps. I am fascinated by your point about integration DS is very very thin. He does fall out at home but from my perspective it's related to how he starts - I have never seen him fall when all the way on the chair,legs in front, sitting properly. It happens when he only has one cheek on! Almost like he is planning an escape route. He also walks into walls, forgets to get off the bus. I suspect he is thinking about all sorts of other stuff - although he says no. He says it's because he want to get up and move around. He also said the other kids aren't supposed to watch him so he's not a distraction - he mentioned that today, made me a bit uncomfortable to hear him say it. I couldn't tell how he felt about it.

DeHe

DS isn't unagile but is not what you would call coordinated - LOL - nice to know there is a time frame on all this.

DD also told me the chairs at her school are less comfortable than ours at home and she also has issues with the size of the school desks...at home it's fine...

and she is like a cat, btw, lol!

Is the teacher against letting him stand once in a while? My son has ADHD and sometimes just needs to get up and stand instead of sitting. His teacher is very accommodating and as long as he isn't being a distraction and is getting his work done, he's allowed to stand and work.