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Eagle Mum - does he have ADHD or ASD? I assume he was disappointed of the grade 6 booklet as it was too easy? I suppose you could've pointed out that contemplating infinite sets of rational/irrational numbers and doing regular work are not mutually exclusive. At least he could've saved a significant amount of time. But what's done is done. And if he's happy it's fine.
No, he definitely does not have ADHD or ASD. He was just extremely focused for that age in his preschool years. He has since developed in the arts of multitasking and social interactions. He was extremely successful in high school, academically, as well as in sports and music and is at college now. Last year, as a sophomore, he was his college’s head sports coach, Div A athlete, sports rep, choir pianist, band keyboard player, chess representative, talent show winner (with blindfold speedcubing) and student council member. All whilst maintaining a perfect GPA in engineering, an active social life and working as a tutor and proofreader of commercial maths resources (he’s been employed since age 14 because his focus enabled him to find mistakes that more mature proofreaders missed). We have no regrets - the path we let him choose for himself, at our local public school, allowed him freedom to self develop.
WRT to OP’s choice of school options, in this digital age, kids can access resources without the school needing to provide it. There was no robotics club at our local primary school, but DS had already taught himself programming with free Python and other programs, so the P & C committee asked him to run a robotics club during lunchtime. Unfortunately, he declined because it would have reduced the time he had to play handball, but the point is, there are options to implement new things if there is the need and desire.
Advocating for gifted children can be challenging, especially in areas with limited resources. Here are some suggestions to consider:
1. Individualized Learning Plans: Request personalized learning plans that challenge your children in their areas of strength and interest.
2. Enrichment Opportunities: Ask for enrichment programs or projects, possibly with mentorship from teachers, to keep them engaged.
3. Flexible Grouping: Encourage the school to allow flexible grouping in subjects where your children excel, so they can work with peers at similar levels.
4. Professional Development: Request additional teacher training to better accommodate and challenge gifted students.
5. Social-Emotional Support: Seek support for social struggles, perhaps with guidance from a counselor who understands the needs of gifted children.
6. Advanced Coursework: If possible, discuss opportunities for accessing higher-grade level materials or classes.
7. Parental Collaboration: Stay involved and offer to collaborate with teachers to support your children's education both at school and at home.
For your daughter, closely monitor her progress and advocate early for any signs she might also benefit from similar support.
I am diving into the world of gifted education and would love some insights from anyone who is been on this journey. My child has recently been identified as gifted and while I am thrilled, I am also feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything there is to consider. I am curious about the different paths people have taken to support their kids’ learning and social needs.
How do you decide on the best programs or activities to keep them engaged without overloading them? Also for anyone whose kids are in regular schools have you had success working with teachers to adapt their learning environment or is homeschooling private schooling a better option??
One thing I learned is that there’s no “one-size-fits-all.” Some gifted kids thrive in traditional classrooms with a few accommodations; others need a more radical change like homeschooling or specialized schools.
My son has a diagnosis of written expression disorder. Some people group written expression disorder under dysgraphia. Others separate it as dysgraphia as more of a motor issue and written expression disorder as a cognitive issue.
Anyhow, what you’re describing is struggling with “written expression”, not a motor issue.
It’s super hard to find any data on this diagnosis. Understood.org has some high level information.
Some things that have helped my son with written expression:
Learning models or formulas for writing paragraphs and essays. Hamburger paragraphs is a common model. He learned 3 and 5 paragraph essay models at school.
Learning the writing process. Particularly prewriting.
Working memory can be a component in written expression problems… prewriting, highlighting/underlining sentences to reference, creating an outline can help
If you can sit with your son and talk about what he’s going to write and you write a rough outline of what he’s planning, that models Prewriting and helps with memory. (This is called scribing)
My kid has an accommodation at school where he gets a graphic organizer for his regular written responses. It’s not a fill in the blank worksheet. At the top will be the question he needs to answer, then a checklist of what is expected in his response. It’s usually something like this: - give a basic answer to the question - support your answer with information from the text: - paraphrase - quote the text - summarize your response Then there’s a checklist for proof reading: capitalization, understanding, punctuation, spelling
Speech to text can be helpful if he finds speaking easier than writing. (Although hard to use at school b/c it’s noisy)
Scribing can be helpful - you write what he says. You can use this as a scaffold. Something like teaching a paragraph model, having a visual of that model, having your child read a passage about some information, then asking him to write a paragraph using the model… but when he “writes” he’s going to say it to you and you are going to do the writing. At first, you can maintain the grammar, spelling, punctuation. As he starts to get the hang of it, you can be a little sloppier & have him fix the spelling/punctuation/grammar. Later you can just write notes or an outline. I might write 1) sally is sad 2) quote about tears 3) paraphrase quote on pg 14 4) conclusion. then my kid has a rough map about what he needs to write, but is doing most of the work.
As for who to look for… I’d look for someone who tutors writing and has experience with dysgraphia, written expression problems and ADHD. I’d tell them specifically what types of assignments he has trouble with. I’d ask them to tutor on those writing types and use visual models like writing process & paragraph and essay models. From my understanding ADHD and written expression problems often go hand in hand, so I would guess that a lot of writing tutors have experience with this.
My kid has worked with an SLP on written expression. That’s an option, but probably best suited for kids who have larger language issues.
I find it easiest and most useful to tutor him at home using his homework. That’s where we’ve made the most progress.
Watch for anxiety, prior bad experiences writing or with writing instruction. My kid had bad school experiences from having an undiagnosed and therefore unsupported writing disability. There was anxiety, avoidance, big emotions that we had to work through too. Try to come at it from a position of I’m trying to support you and help you understand yourself, rather than you have a problem and you need to be fixed. There can be a lot of emotion wrapped up in the struggle. Feeling like there’s a road map to improving those skills (rather than staring at a blank sheet of paper) and being patient with the emotions eventually worked itself out. He still has a writing disability, but he has a bunch of strategies to approach writing.
There’s a book called “late, lost and unprepared” that is about executive functioning. There are a couple pages in the book about executive functioning & writing and practical tips for helping with this… that may be helpful to you.
This is awesome—thank you for sharing! We just got our kid’s MAP scores too, and I was scratching my head trying to figure out what the numbers really meant without percentiles. Your calculator makes it so much easier to understand. It’s funny how we’re always trying to measure things—whether it’s test scores or random stuff like the rice purity test (yep, that viral one people take just for fun). Seriously though, this tool is super useful—appreciate you putting it out there!
I have tutored various students of many ages before, though I do not have kids.
As for being emotionally mature because they excel academically - there is some merit to this.
For example, with higher IQ, those people are less likely to show symptoms of ADHD. And when they do have it, it is less severe. This is likely due to their intellect compensating for these symptoms.
According to various studies, IQ correlates with decent behavior. This is why nowadays, many psychiatrists take into account IQ when diagnosing people with disorders. The higher IQ, the more compensation, thus milder behaviors can count as disordered.
I have seen various cases of students like this that turned out to be 2e. "On the go like a motor" (ADHD stereotypical symptom) presenting as being very studious and productive, has been seen sometimes in my students.
To me, the intellectual growth comes first, as without the intellectual growth, how would they be emotionally satisfied? Many will act out over this.
I would rule out potential neurodivergencies, or physical/mental health issues first. But there are many approaches - for example delayed gratification, meditation, etc.
