Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Testing insight--any idea what this might be?

I see defensiveness and LD as hand in glove for just that reason. Plus, at school kids are being compared to each other all the time, and he may 'sense' that he is smarter than what he can accomplish. ((Opps - is he at school?))

Here's an alternate take on the saying aloud question.

At least 50 times in my life, I've written down direction, or a shopping list,but (red face) found out that I've left the paper with the list at home. Although my memory isn't great, I'm always delighted to see that the act of writing things down itself is enough, and I can remember most of the list or directions without the paper. I think that the act of writing helps me focus my mind better, facilitating moving the information from short to longer term memory.

((BTW - Does anyone roll their eyes when they read about short and long term memory as if there are only 2 places to park information? I feel like I've got 'super short' 'short' 'medium short' 'medium long' 'long term but often used' and 'deep storage' compartments that the information is being shuttled back and forth between frequesntly!))

Another perspective is the old 'Executive Function Disorder' (which some feel to be the same as ADD) where the act of saying the information aloud, slows down the process and strengthens the ability to aim the attention apparatus enough to use it.

My son, age 13, feel that the more gifted a kid is, the more likely they are to have ADD. I'm getting the visual image of the brain as a really fancy clockwork device, and imagining that the 'bigger' the brain the harder it is to 'aim.' Sort of like that series of books about cities that wandered around consuming each other. Perhaps the PG kids who have no trouble focusing are the ones who happen to also have PG Executive Function, and the normal experience of elementary school aged unusually gifted boys is to be 'sort of a mess?'

I hope that doesn't offend anyone, because I know lots of PG boys who are polite, calm, obedient, athletic, focused, popular, coordinated and are handling their asynchronous development really well. But I also know lots of PG boys who aren't. Maybe some are just a bit more or less asynchronous than others?

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Thanks for posting, Grinity. I appreciate your take on things.

The psych and I don't really see evidence of ADD. She said that with sloppy mistakes, that's usually one of the top things on her list. But not with him. He's appropriately focused, no behavior problems in K, and other than normal 6yo squirreliness, he's got no problem with sitting still and working on something that interests him.

(BTW, you're right that he was in public school K this year, Grinity. We will homeschool/"school-for-homeschool" him next year, however.)

I have wondered a bit about some executive function issue. I'll have to go back and look at the usual symptoms again, now that I have the new info from the testing. 6 months ago, it didn't seem quite right. But I'll revisit.

I think the fact that he misses the problems if he *doesn't* say them out loud is more important than the fact that he gets them right if he does. What is it that's *not* happening for him if he tries to do it silently and on paper? That's why an auditory processing issue--or something to do with the voice in one's head, whatever might be responsible for that--seems most sensible to me.

Ah, this whole thread is so helpful to me! Thank you!

Saw this test for inner speech in an article on dyslexia and thought of this thread. Throwing it out there for you to consider.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1263307/Do-hear-voice-head-read-If--dyslexic.html
P.S. Here's a longer test on the web site:
http://dyslexiavisualldeafauditoryblind.com/yslexiavisualldea.aspx

But how does he compare to other 6 year olds when it comes to working on something that doesn't interest him? And of course, he will be in that situation a lot more than agemates...

WHOA! Thank you SO MUCH, inky!

I just gave DS6 the first test with the counting. He counted aloud to 26 with no hint of trouble, of course. Easy-peasy.

10 seconds into the silent-counting part, he broke into tears and said it was too hard! I calmed him down and asked for his help even though it was hard, and after I spotted him 1 and 4, he said "1, 4, 6, no it's 8, 12, 13..." before he started to cry again. At that point, I ended the test.

It's VERY clear to me that he's not hearing an inner voice. Wow!

I didn't try the other tests on the website. I thought the pschologist might want to try them with him, so I passed these links on to her with a note about how he performed on the counting test.

Wow! Thank you for this! It's the first time I haven't felt like he's got this weird problem that no one has ever even considered. It's being studied! Wahoo!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting that, inky! You rock!!!

He's normal. Probably better than average from what I observed in his class. The K teacher said of DS6, "I wish I had a whole class like him!" He never received any sort of disciplinary measures in 3 years of pre-K and K--nothing! He is quite content to sit quietly, raise his hand and wait to be called on at circle time. He didn't run around the room when they were supposed to be working, as some of the kids did.

In fact, he tends to look very unfavorably and impatiently at kids who don't behave in class. I had to talk with him more than once about not being nasty about kids who act out.

Really, this is not a problem. He's extremely well-behaved.

Just wanted to say that I am really thankful for your questions, Kriston. I so want to know what is going on in my DS's brain; so Inky and Grinity's answers were helpful to me as well. I am going to try the test on mine too (in the morning, when he is fresh). The whole 2E thing really makes it difficult to figure things out. I feel like all I do is research/read. Thank you, ladies!!!

Good, I'm really glad to hear it. I know I'm getting so much out of this thread. I'm glad you (and hopefully others?) are, too.

I appreciated the information very much! So happy I found this board!

You're very welcome!