Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional How can we meet this child's needs?!

Perhaps something like this would work?
http://www.livescribe.com/

I know a few people on this board have personal experience with it. This coupled with a camera phone or even a webcam recording of the lecture could be amazing IF the teacher is open to accommodations (which they should be legally).

I would first define the problems such as writing down assignments, turning in homework etc. and combat each problem one at a time. You can ask for accommodations such as typing or another students could take their notes during class on "carbon paper" and your child could receive a copy of it. Turning in homework could be worked with teachers such as a folder your child carries to all classes and hands to teacher. None of these would be disruptive to the class and requires a small amount of understanding and co-operation.

Our school uses online progress book where I can check homework assignments and grades every day if needed. It all comes down to teachers wanting to work with you or expecting your child just joining GT classes without any regard to his 2E. I think leaving him in GT classes would be better and working with the school to come up with a workable solution. Each child is unique and the school can't just expect to accommodate one aspect of a 2E child.

I hope it all works out for you!

Jen

I appreciate the great replies and suggestions, thank you!

I'm going to take time to read them again more thoroughly, but for now:

Yes, my son is in public school.

What is ARC? I'll try googling, but I suspect I'll come up with many responses, so I thought I'd ask for a more specific description of what this is.

Also, are there any alternative ideas to a camera phone for the blackboard copying? My son doesn't have a cell phone, and we're reluctant to get him one for many reasons (not the least of which is his penchant for losing expensive items--like musical instruments).

I should explain that my son's special needs are nearly as new to us as his GT qualification is (both of these developments just came around--or I should say were just identified--within the past couple of years), so we're desperately trying to get our bearings and scramble for information so that we can advocate for him. It's really overwhelming, as I'm sure you all know.

It's great to finally have some actual names for the problems he's struggled with from an early age. I have had to push and push and push just to get him tested. Now it feels like we're beating out heads against a brick wall to make sure these test results aren't ignored.

We're trying to look into some alternative/charter schools (I'm driving 2 1/2 hours away tomorrow to check out a new one that serves 2e kids) to see if it's feasible for us to relocate and get him the help he needs, but for now, we have to figure out what can be done in his current public school setting.

I think your advice of leaving him in the GT program and taking things one step at a time is great. We'll see what we can accomplish with accommodations and start looking into some helpful technology for him.

Please tell me more about ARC.

ARC http://www.thearc.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1386

In our area ARC has a student advocate that is available free of charge for consultation. They will be present at IEP meetings and help advocate for your child's needs. I firmly believe this is why we were able to get my DD services and dual enrollment. The parent is still obligated to do a lot of research and really understand the law and what they want, but it was helpful to have someone there that I could turn to and let speak for me at times. (My DD has speech services, sees a social worker, and has accomodations for her dysgraphia.)

Thank you all so much! We're looking into all of this valuable information!

I might add that ARC deals with LD's. They will not work solely on GT things. They will work for accomodations for a child to be taught at their appropriate level with accomodations for LD's, which is what it sounds like the OP needs.

My verbally gifted 11 year old son has dysgraphia and a sensory processing disorder. I think my son might have similar problems if he were in public school.

When my son types, he rarely makes spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors and he uses a much higher level vocabulary. In order to write legibly, he has to write slowly. He sometimes forgets punctuation. He sometimes writes the first several letters of a word and leaves off the rest in a futile attempt to write fast enough to keep up with his thoughts. When he is finished he realizes he took a long time to do the writing and he is in a hurry to turn it in to me (he is homeschooled) so he doesn't edit it and it looks like the work of a younger child with occasional letters reversed and punctuation ommited and some words not capitalized. When he types, it is a different story. Typing is automatic for him where writing never was. When he types his work, it looks more like the work of an older student, but he does sometimes have a little trouble organizing his thoughts, especially if he is having a bad day. Assistive technology (like the Livescribe Smartpen that someone else already mentioned) allows him to take notes and learn at the higher rate he has the right and a need to learn at. My husband was so impressed with the pen that he showed it to his coworkers and the IT guy is going to order it for everyone in the office. None of these people have a writing disability. It just makes things easier. It will help them take better notes at meetings. I don't see anything wrong with a sensitive gifted kid using it to compensate for a disability when it allows him to feel a little less different.

I know there are people who would say my child just needs to keep practicing writing until he can write as well as anyone else. He doesn't look like he has a disability, he doesn't talk like he has a disability, yet he has a very real disability. He does still practice writing but not to the point where he doesn't have time to learn what he wants to learn.

In math, I sometimes let him use a calculator but I have him do enough math problems without it that he can do multi-digit division and multiplication without using one. I don't think it is reasonable to expect my son to do as much writing in math as everyone else when it takes him twice as long and he has fatigue issues. He can finish his work in a reasonable amount of time by allowing a calculator for some things, using mental math part of the time, and writing only what he absolutely has to and he uses Life of Fred books that he enjoys. My son is learning to compensate for his disability. At the moment he does math in bed because that is the only place, other than in the shower, that he doesn't have to wear a scoliosis brace that distracts him and makes it harder for him to concentrate. We do what we have to do for him to continue learning no matter what anyone else thinks of it. Learning is the most important thing now. It is important for his mental health and self esteem. He is happy that he is still on track to start the Life of Fred algebra book in March even though he had to deal with a lot of physical pain the last several weeks.

I really struggled with letting him use assistive technology until I remembered someone I knew with cerebral palsy, a very bright person by the way, that used a motorized scooter. She could walk a little, but the scooter allowed her to keep up with everyone else. Should she have been made instead to walk with a walker and keep trying to walk better or just accept the fact that she had a disability and do what she needed to do to make her life easier and more productive and not worry about what everyone else thought? That is the way I have to look at it.

Hi, I have three sons all of whom struggle with handwriting. My husband and his brother also struggled in the same way, and were sent for OT when they were children. Their handwriting is still terrible, and it still takes them longer to hand write anything (of course it did not prevent them from earning PhDs at Yale and Stanford respectively). I wish I had an easy solution for you on the handwriting concern. However, I can tell you my two older sons are teens now, and the handwriting is no longer a real issue in school, for the most part. (Sometimes there are concerns when there is a written essay section on a timed test, and that is the only time it is a problem). I don't know if that is helpful. One thing I would like to say though (and I hope it does not make you angry): please do some research on the sensory processing disorder diagnosis. This is very, very trendy as a label, but is not well supported scientifically. My oldest had some genuine and severe disabilities (including autism) and we wasted much time with the sensory processing diagnosis and sensory therapies, before learning they have not been shown to be helpful in PROPERLY structured, scientific studies. Now youngest ds has been identified as having this (at school) and we resist going down that path since we saw it was not helpful for oldest brother. These therapies are a business and there are big financial interests. Nobody says the kids don't "look" like there is something like that going on, but when one applies the identified and purported treatments for this supposed diagnosis, it gets you nowhere. I am not aware of any medical doctors or even any other licensed professionals who are legally able to diagnose a child and who will give this label. Was your child given this "diagnosis" by an OT? Buyer beware.

I should add youngest ds is 8 and we are REALLY struggling with the handwriting issue now. The biggest problem is the schools seem to invest it with such importance. Ds is very bright (gifted seems to be a dirty word where I live), but his handwriting makes him look slightly impaired. In NYC having any kind of label of a "problem" appears to bar one from entering schools where there are opportunities for greater challenge. This ds is doing EPGY math and scored very highly on JHU CTY (so will travel with me to LA for the summer and will do CTY day camp). I feel like I have to get ds through this tough time in school when the kids are judged by handwriting and such rather than reasoning and other higher level academic ability. I am not in a position to home school right now, but for all practical purposes we are home schooling, just fitting it into evening hours! If anyone out there DOES have a suggestion for improving handwriting, I would love to know what it is. Alternatively, how about a suggestion for getting lower school teachers to see that in the broad scheme of things, handwriting is not really terribly important, and certainly a child should not be judged based on his fine motor ability!