Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy I need input - integrated kindergarten concerns

Our school has an integrated kindergarten (where kids with special needs are mixed with the 'general' population). My daughter starts K this year, and she got put intot that class. I'm very concerned. While she's not been tested yet, her older brother is gifted and I think it's at least highly likely that she is as well. My biggest fear is that she will get no attention (because the special needs kids require more time, understandably) and that she may react by either 1) disengaging ('why bother') or 2) by getting attention however she can (e.g., misbehaving).

Has anyone ever been through this? Can you either reassure me or convince me that I need to get her changed? I don't want to be "that parent," but I also don't want anything to detrimentally affect her education.

It is very likely that your daughter is also gifted if her older brother is. Though it may "show" itself differently.

You have every right to be concerned and even though you are not "that parent" others may misunderstand, but you still have to do what you can for your daughter.

Do you know what the plan is for K class? What will they be learning? What is daughter already capable of?

I'm sure more people will chime in soon with more experience. If you have options for change, then definitely consider them. Many gifted children don't necessarily need to be in K at all. (A rather vague statement, sorry, but ... many don't need it as they already know everything in K when they were 3-4 years old.)

So, depending on your situation ...

I wouldn't worry because she is in an inclusion classroom, I would simply worry whether she should have a grade skip.

My sister in law is an autism specialist and she works in an inclusion classroom. Her special ed. training included way more GT info then most regular classroom teachers, so she is an advocate for GT kids (and I think this is true in many states, that special ed. teachers have way more GT training compared to regular teachers). So you may find this works to your advantage. Having the special ed. kids means that the teachers are all more attuned to teaching to the individual kid, as opposed to the group, which is v. helpful for GT kids.

So, don't jump to conclusions. However, if your child is well beyond the K curriculum, that is a different issue (and would be regardless of whether they were in a inclusion classroom or regular K classroom).

Cat.

Workingmom: We felt the same way when we were considering preschool for our son. It was recommended that he be in a school for kids with autism and we were against it because we thought it would cause our son to scream or bang his head or "act weird." It turns out it was the best thing ever, because as Cat noted, those teachers are often more attuned to differences in abilities in kids. He absolutely flourished with the individual attention that was provided. The classroom was filled with asynchronously developing kids so there is no way the curriculum could be "one size fits all." Their individual needs were determined and met! I wish he could have stayed there longer, but he did SO well, that it was time for him to move on to a "typical" classroom. Nan

I want to thank you all for your input, it was valuable in making the decision. We did decide to stay in the integrated program. She started last week. So far it has gone very well, and it's nice that the class has additional staff (the other K classs have only a teacher). I have already had her tell me about how one child overcomes their limitations, and it gave us an opportunity for a really good conversation.

Crossing my fingers that it's a good year, but I feel very optimistic at this point.