Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Difficult and depressed

Since DD6.5 started school, we thought our challenges would be finding the proper academic fit for her. She was not challenged, but things (socially) were going fine in kindergarten. But this year in first grade, she has become, I don�t know how to describe it�. difficult and depressed at home? (She is still sweet and well behaved at school.)

Reading some of the other posts, why do things seem to fall apart most often in 1st and/or 2nd grade?

DD was doing okay socially last year. But this year, she is saying she does not really have any good friends or friends she could talk/play with. The frequency of headaches and stomach aches has increased exponentially. She is tired and has little energy. The number of her meltdowns this year is more than the previous 5 years combined. Dealing with her emotional issues has been so draining and usually set an awful mood for the rest of the day. Does this get better with time?

Sometimes I feel like although her IQ is a couple of years ahead of her chronological age, her EQ is 3 years behind her chronological age. I know this is part of the asynchronous development. But, this big of a gap?

To make things even more difficult recently, she is upset with me and little brother because I spend more time with little brother. When DS5 and I wait for DD to get out of school, we played at the playground. When DD is at soccer practice, DS and I play on the side (DD wants us to stick around during practice).

Since she is miserable at school, we have decided to take her out of school for a while and figure out what to do. In the mean time, any advice will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Mag

Had a very similar situation with my DD when she was in 1st grade. In her case, the depression was boredom and the social issues were due to not having any like minded peers. Gifted kids are different and tend to get along better with other gifted kids. This was all going on for us before I had any testing done and had no where NEAR the knowledge I now do about gifted issues. We are very lucky that there is a fabulous private school for gifted kids where we live so we moved her there in November of her first grade year and she has been there ever since! (Now in 4th grade).

Hi kacb and Ace,

Thanks for sharing your experience and input. We will see what happens once we start home school in late November. We were going to pull her out this week, but DD wanted to participate in the Thanksgiving show/feast. It will be okay, I will have a little more time to prepare.

It would be nice if we had a good gifted private school or magnet school around. But we work with what we have.

Thanks again,
Mag

This pretty much sums up my DD6 soon to be 7. The only thing that I can say is that as difficult as HS is for us, she seems to have 'matured' quite a bit. She handles situations much better now. She's not always overwhelmed emotionally. Picking her up from school (JK) was horrible (lengthy meltdowns from the moment she got in the car). We've been homeschooling since SK and much of the little brother envy has melted away simply because we spend so much time together. I find with DD that she is making large EQ leaps lately, although still she is unlike other kids her age. I too hope that it gets better in time and have been assured that it will. I'm still crossing my fingers though:)

A.