Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy How and when to advocate at school?

Thanks so much to everybody for the support and kind advices! I have been neglecting the issue because I didn't realize that he could actually have vision issue this early! And you made great points too about potential reading problems and test scores problems. What the test revealed was that he seemed to have scanning issues, hence the hypothesis about vision problem. I googled it last night and it seems that if a child has vision issue, block design is the only score that is not likely to be impacted, since he won't need to distinguish fine lines between shapes. I will check our local pediatric ophthalmologists and ask if he needs glasses. I am a bit sad that he is not avoiding our genetic "defect", but as both parents wear glasses, it is not likely that our kids will be spared.

Don't be sad! Glasses are so much nicer than they used to be, and when he is older, he can choose contact lenses if he likes!

Even if he's managing well without correct, it may be irritating or tiring him without him knowing (since his eyes have always been that way). We have noticed many differences for the good since DS had his vision appropriately corrected.

Thank you! we just asked our pediatrician for a referral, and will take him to an ophthalmologist.

Our school district is all about "horizontal differentiation" as well. And only in circumstances where there is actually a good teacher or an advocating (to them, "pushy") parent. Otherwise all kids do the same math regardless of ability. Basically they take the "enriched" materials from the curriculum for that grade level. The ones that are put out by the publisher. So the kid might have to explain 3 different ways to solve 15-10 rather than just doing it one way. My first grader scored >99.9th percentile on the math section of the Woodcock Johnson and the school still insisted on this horizontal differentiation and said that would be all that is necessary. Otherwise there would be "gaps" (for instance the poor kid would miss the unit on how to measure with a ruler and it would ultimately mess up the state standardized testing). Finally we took him out of the school and put him in a different district school. The teacher seems to get it and did a bunch of above-level assessments on him. She took the results (for instance the report on the computerized testing stating "suggested learning objectives") and is basically following that and printing out worksheets online. He has brought home above- level homework on graphs, probability, converting measurement (like how many feet is 986 inches). So, the rest of the class might get 1st grade graph homework, and DS might get 3rd grade graph homework. She works with him while the rest of the class is on the computer learning their 3+2 math facts or occupied with other things. While the rest of the class is doing 1st grade math and she is working with them, she also sometimes puts him on the computer (or ipad?) to do Adapted Mind Math on his own. The work that he is doing on there is above grade level. She does not make him sit through 1st grade math lectures (thank god!).
Next year, I don't know what is going to happen with a new teacher, but for right now he is being vertically accelerated within the classroom. The ideal situation would be to have him move to a different classroom with kids who are doing the same level work, but the district doesn't do that anymore and won't allow it under most circumstances.
The teacher says that she will work with the teacher next year to explain what she is doing, the results of the assessments, and what works/doesn't work so that hopefully there will be some continuity. Once there is a teacher that gets it and makes it work, it would be pretty hard for a new teacher to say "I'm not going to do that anymore."

blackcat, can I borrow that math teacher for my DS?

Haha...if I could clone her I would. Honestly, I don't know if this is just who she is, or if she's scared I'm going to pull him out (because we transferred schools already), or what. I don't know, I just let her do her thing.

blackcat, now I am feeling more concerned A parent from this school told us that her kid learned advanced math in the afterschool program (at some other center), and the school teacher told her that the kid needed to learn several different ways to do the grade level stuff. How bad is this?

I have been ignoring these largely because our son has not been prepared. We want to know what his true talents are, and the extent (and to be honest, we are too busy and frazzled, with a baby and busy jobs). We even didn't take it seriously when the HG director told us he might have vision issues. But we do want him to be able to accelerate if he chooses to do so later (without us pushing him). We are going to consult a math teacher in a couple weeks to see how we can do math home schooling, so that we can observe early whether he'd need to transfer. We are a bit concerned that prepping him in math might dig the hole deeper for us (in terms of inability to blend in at the school), but maybe it is better to know early whether it is a problem.

Anyway, I am going to do my job as a mommy now and email our clinic to have him seen by ophthalmologist.