Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Newbie/school accomodations/adoptee

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1) Does her school have any sort of gifted/talented-type program? What grade does it start? What does it entail? Differentiation? Random projects and fun stuff? Is it full-time or a pull-out?

These questions are important in deciding how to approach the school.

2) Do you have achievement testing? Most schools don't really seem to either care about or understand IQ testing. Achievement testing is typically very helpful though.

Once you've got achievement testing you can decide what you want - in-class differentiation? Does she need to go to a different class? Should she be subject or whole-grade accelerated?

Don't feel bad! I don't think most people just assume their kid is going to have an IQ north of 140! We didn't get our son tested until he was 8.

What grade is she currently in, btw?

Welcome greenlotus,

As Amy suggested, I'd start by finding out what programs are available in your school district for intellectually gifted students. I'm also curious - your other dd is apparently subject accelerated in math (?) Is she older? How did her math acceleration happen - was it teacher-suggested, test-led-to-school doing it, or did you request it? If it happened due to some type of school prompt (teacher, testing, whatever), and if your dd is in the same school, I'd suspect you might have input from the school as a follow-up on her Iowa and Gogat scores. *Maybe!* (there are many of us here who haven't!).

You might also want to check into private schools and/or alternative public schools in your area. It took awhile for us, but we found a good fit through private school which, even though it's not a gifted-specific school, has teachers that understand gifted children, a flexible program that offers advanced academics, and an all-around good program for social development through the elementary school years.


I think it's important to realize that all kids are different, even highly and profoundly gifted children. The idea of an extremely high IQ child running around reading medical texts or doing advanced mathematics at an early age is simply a stereotype- nothing more. Someplace, somewhere (and I'm sure likely here at this forum) there are a few kids doing that. I suspect there are just as many PG kiddos (perhaps many more) who are out playing in the sandbox or with their Barbies when they are young. The thing that always stood out for me, with my EG ds (who, btw, is again, just one example of one gifted kid), was his insight and the complexity of questions that he asked at a very young age, as well as how quickly he absorbed and retained information.


The social issues might be related to a not-great fit at school in terms of intellectual peers - or it could be a not-so-great fit simply in terms of other peers. Early elementary was like a mine-field socially for one of my dds, not because of IQ differences and lack of challenge in school, but because the girls in her grade were testing social stuff all over the place, creating clubs, breaking up clubs, vying for friendships one day, tossing them out like the wind the next. Social stuff at school can be tough in many different ways. Your dd has wonderful insight and she's asked for help with it - I'd try to help in two ways. The first is to look at school fit - what exactly is going on? Is there more than just an academic/intellectual mismatch? The second is, I'd honor her request for finding a way to work on social skills - even if you don't personally think she needs the help. It doesn't have to be actual therapy - maybe you have a friend who's also a therapist who could meet with her informally, take her out for an ice cream date or something, and talk to her about this. Or you could work with her (if she's ok with that). Or you could brainstorm other ways of working on it with her - things like playmates etc.

Hope some of that helps!

polarbear

1) Yes, the school is currently pulling her out for math which she takes with the AIG teacher (on recommendation of grade school teacher). My daughter insists it's not math (because it's too fun). She will get AG services next year for language and math because her Cogat and Iowa scores. It's pull out several times a week. I need to get the details (older sister gets pulled out for math 4 days a week for I think 45 minutes - AIG)
2)Yes, to tests. 99% on Cogat and Iowa. How can I use this info to decide what I want? I don't even know what I want except that I want her challenged - but I don't know to what degree. How do I use these scores when I discuss all this with her teacher? Do I need to bring in the AIG specialist right off the bat?
3)She's in third grade.
Thank you for answering!!

Hello Polarbear! I mentioned this in my other reply, but my older one (by 14 mos) received AIG math due to her Iowa and Cogat scores. Little one gets pulled out for math because her teacher recommended that she gets services. I know that because of those 99% scores on the Cogat and Iowa that she will get AIG services for both math and language next year in 4th grade.
Thanks for reassuring me about our lack of "giftedness insight". Both are girls are bright so I just didn't know that what was going on was unusual. My mom, an AG teacher, was rumbling about her smarts, but I thought it was just grandma talking!!
Yes, the social issue - it's hard to know how it works. It might be a combo of intellectual mismatch and trauma issues. She is bossy and doesn't understand why kids don't like being told answers. She comes across as a know it all. She's baffled as to why somebody wouldn't want to know all these facts she has in her head. Her best friend in K and 1st just took her aside one day and said that they didn't want to be friends. Very painful. Now she says that it's just easier to be alone. Oh that's hard. She is in chess, Chinese school, band, and Girl Scouts (wow, that sounds like a lot, but they don't meet all the time so she does have down time). She looks like she has fun in GS.
We did take her to a therapist for friendship help. Didn't seem to do any good. The psych. who tested her said to find a psych. with experience with gifted kids.