Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Underachievement in elementary school?

Afterthought... have you looked into the plethora of articles on the Davidson database regarding underachievement? Often when reading through a large body of work like this, parental intuition will click with recognition upon seeing something in one or more of the descriptions. Time consuming as it may be, becoming educated on various topics can pay off in the long run because parents know their children best. Reading up on this now may save time down the road by knowing key terms, various theories, identifiers/triggers, and what to look for in general.

some links -
Davidson database: http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/
Davidson database, search for underachievement showed 175 results! Lots of resources.
UConn article: http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/Siegle/Publications/GCQDifferentiateUnderachieving.pdf

Soapbox: If anyone may say "underachiever" please reject that as fixed mindset, preferring "underachievement", which denotes a temporary phenomena and exhibits the strength of a growth mindset. (More information on growth mindset and fixed is found on the Davidson database; Search for Dweck) One aspect or application of a fixed mindset is that gifted kids, in order to be seen as "right" or "smart", may stop taking appropriate risks, possibly shunning a challenge and preferring easy work which may represent a level of underachievement. A fixed mindset may work against them and be exhibited as a lack of resilience.

Hmm. Is it possible that math in particular is not giving him enough challenge and he's just meandering along in frustration?

Yes, he may be a cheetah in need of an antelope to chase. If given only rabbits or zoo chow, he may not run. He may be in need of a challenge worthy of his potential?

Link to Stephanie Tolan's metaphor, "Is it a cheetah?" http://www.stephanietolan.com/is_it_a_cheetah.htm

Great set of questions.

I'd also add-- is he "high average" in ability in those domains? Or does something about them seem "off" somehow relative to his verbal expression?

Some of that can be asynchrony, but if it's extreme, or if it just feels... wrong... then it's possible that there could be something under it, like dysgraphia. While his troubles may not be extreme enough-- yet-- to stand out to a teacher used to age-appropriate ability, if it's a major discontinuity with what feels like SHOULD be his writing ability, then that raises some red flags.

Dysgraphia and dyscalculia are often very easily missed in high potential children until much later in their academic careers because they have so many awesome compensating skills that hide the underlying weaknesses.

If he is not focusing in class, but focueses better alone, I would strongly consider ADHD. Not all ADHD kids are hyper, some appear largely as space cadets if there is too much stimuli around them. Is he slower with his work than the rest of the class, on average? Is he losing stuff, forgetting stuff, off-task?

7-year-old DD has ADHD and can focus for very long periods of time at home, if it's something she's interested in (even when she's not medicated)--for example read 2 chapter books in one sitting or do a large jigsaw puzzle--so that threw me off for a long time. I had to actually go in to class and see for myself what was going on. There's just so much stuff going on at school she can't focus or stay at task and little to no work gets done. She is "normal" on meds, however.

^ kids with processing disorders can also exhibit a lot of the same types of signs at this age.

Indigo....I love the cheetah article, thanks! We are definitely still looking for his antelope, though I fear sometimes we are looking in all the wrong places. His passion and strengths definitely lie in the realm of history, just need to get the other areas caught up so he can explore further--there is only so far he can go with someone else reading to him.

Audiobooks?

If you have a wireless-enabled e-reader, you might see if your state has a digital library that you can access.

I love to listen to Barbara Tuchman books while I knit or exercise.

So glad you like the cheetah metaphor, I enjoy sharing that link.

Agreed, any issues need to be addressed. Meanwhile there are many books by experts encouraging ways in which parents can focus on strengths. Being aware of one's own strengths, enjoying them, forming a part of one's identity based on them, feeling a sense of affirmation for one's strengths, being motivated to pursue areas of strength and interest... are things which a child will leverage to pull himself or herself through.

To indulge a non-reader's love of history, you may wish to look into DK books (Dorling-Kindersley). They are richly illustrated, often with tools and artifacts of a time period. One can learn a lot from the fascinating pictures and this may keep him well occupied when adults are not available to read to him. He may wish to mark pages with tiny sticky notes to indicate things he has questions about or would like to discuss. This may help him hold his thoughts until an adult is free to help read the captions or text.

DK books are definitely a staple in our house and they are well worn. Unfortunately growing bored with them. Have exhausted the public library. Just wish there were more history based resources I could access for after schooling like all the great math ones I have found for my other kids.