Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Active Threads

To clarify, I wasn’t suggesting that a child has to be globally advanced to be eligible for acceleration. I merely described that in our experience, it certainly helped make acceleration successful in mainstream schools which do not have any particular policies or provisions for gifted students.

School principals, who are responsible for the welfare of the whole student body, are most likely to support any proposal which minimises disruption. For my son, who remained with his age peers, the simplest way was to allow him to engage in parallel activities as a form of informal acceleration. I’ve given examples before - completing multiplication homework in Roman numerals, other number bases and choosing his own set of spelling words for each week’s activities of finding definitions and writing. By upper primary, he was given a lot of free time on class computers without being singled out - the teachers announced that anyone who finished assigned tasks to standard could spend self-study time on the computers - DS would very quickly finish the set tasks, thus meeting all of the school’s obligations for student assessment, and be allowed to spend a lot of time in self directed study.

The different acceleration strategies for my kids were all seamlessly effective.

Acceleration during the formative school years also sets the stage for the future years. Accelerating the student to the level at which the tasks become challenging for that individual but still mainstream for the cohort may meet their most basic needs at that stage of development, but doesn’t provide as many opportunities for the gifted individual to explore outside the box, whereas keeping DS with his age cohort made it obvious that he was so far ahead of his age cohort and even his teachers, that they were willing to support strategies that let him forge his own paths. At one of our top ranked universities now, he has usually mastered each course within the first few weeks of each semester and is at or near the top of every course, most recently being the only student to correctly solve a fluid mechanics question in a test, because he not only used the conventionally taught approach, but applied what he called a ‘sanity check’ and then critically analysed the solution to find a common trap of thinking. That is exactly our hoped outcome of education.

I'm not a parent yet, but perhaps I'll have kids in the next few years. For now, I tutor students, and many of them have asynchronous development and yet wish to skip grades.

There have been a few main issues that seem to recur:

1) Rigid authorities
I knew many of them would say the students have to be mature socially, emotionally, and physically (compared to their age) as well as academically to skip 1-2 grades, but I know this isn't quite true. Yet some of my students think to not skip because the gap felt insurmountable even when perhaps it might not be. Also I knew many students with disciplinary issues who still wanted to skip - is there a way to advocate for them?

Any tips or help for this? Theoretically they can improve their aerobic capacity and listen to learning materials by Zone 2 and 3 runs and their top end speed by Zone 4 and Zone 5 runs? As for social and emotional maturity perhaps we could find some tolerant people to help improve their social-emotional maturity?

2) A lack of study skills
As similar to Faylie's post - How to get child to actually "study" - I have seen this in many students who think the gap is insurmountable but actually it can be closed with study skills and discipline. Yet I knew students who can't even finish 5 minutes of proper study in one go - any tips for improving this? If they cannot even finish 5 minutes of proper study then how would one manage 2-4 hour exams later on in education?

3) Social backlash (potential discrimination and harassment).
Especially if the students appear to struggle at first even if the struggle was merely temporary that could be fixed by improved studying, or assessing them for 2e (taking into account their developmental level, not chronological age)? Some people said that if they were struggling in their age grade and things they need to learn without the pressures of university-level academics (for middle and high school students) but the alternative is that the pressure of university-level academics is a wake up call for them to improve before they may be on a course of destruction. Does anyone know how to distinguish between these? In some cases the social backlash could meet the threshold of discrimination and harassment so perhaps labelling and official psychiatric letters declaring minors fit for college could be necessary?

Feel free to ask though you may need to advocate and get the adjustments necessary

Which grade do you intend to put her in? Maybe start her in 10th or 9th would do this year as last year she was above average for 8th grade test, but bear in mind that "above average" does not necessarily mean as great as what some may think. 75th percentile in the class is the upper quartile but not necessarily the top. I was 98th-99th in grade level before they let me skip and for me 1 skip was enough to get into a very top university afterwards.

I agree with that and that is a reason why I would prefer labelling - if only to have a report stating that her skills are way above average and therefore to accommodate her. At least that's the official paper to support you in case there are any conflict or worse - legal matters (imagine discrimination against 2e).

My opinion is to report her as grade 10... but it depends on that 8th grade test to be fair. I would prefer AP rather than CLEP for international transfer and standardised benchmarks. I'm OK with her in in person campus at 15-16 full time starting off with AP credit. My concern is more to do with any potential age discrimination and harassment rather than any capability issue - if you do so perhaps have a lawyer on call in case there is serious age discrimination from the university.

I think the best would be to have a good amount of hobbies, CLEP/AP and then go to university in-person at 15/16 that is what I would do. Even if she goes a little bit wild I am more concerned about others' reactions to her (which we could fix with mediation or legal action) rather than her own capabilities.

I would continue what you are doing for now; it's not simply regarding the concepts but also the study skills as well as applying the things to paper. I would say that sometimes brute force dictation could help for languages and perhaps ask her to blurt out the things she remembers as well as summarise notes and give herself quiz questions? That might work? Any past papers? That could also be fine.

I think that she should apply herself to regurgitation in the form of questions and there is a reason why we memorise formulas in mathematics and sciences - it is probably far easier to solve the models if you already have the formulas in your memory rather than having to derive them out.

Even if developmentally her executive function may be on par with age peers, if her IQ is genuinely extraordinarily high that could still indicate an EF disability. But this is complex - I know psychiatrists who even extend this further into maturity and personality.

I think that the daughter should try to apply herself in small periods of time, perhaps that may work better? Also she should learn how to finish the things she promises to start within the time she promises to do so - it is a very important skill.

If she finishes 99% of the way to her university/high school applications and then forgets a few documents to finally enrol, by the end then she effectively is forced to take a gap year. Don't forget about that. That became me. I still regret it to this day though fortunately because some people were stupid and chose to harass me I have legal recourse.

Map report says Norm reference data : 2025 and User norms*

8th grade DS scores dropped a few percentages out of 99%

Also having a rough EF year bc they removed his IEP for ADHD. Can anyone tell me if this drop is perhaps from the reference data or if it is most likely accurate and maybe dt/ less support? And FWIW they have embedded EF tasks into course grading and he is miserable.

Being held out of Gifted and Honors.

Hi

I have been told I fit the 2e, silent genius profile. With the "genius" being my "nature" and "silent" being my traumatised "nurture". My life long traumas being: Temporal lobe epilepsy, CEN, Arrested Development, Brain cancer and CPTSD.

The temporal lobe epilepsy was caused by a prolonged febrile convulsion at 18 months of age, causing brain death to right temporal lobe and right hippocampal atrophy.
Epilepsy was completely cured with a temporal lobectomy when I was 20. The permanent hippocampal/temporal lobe damage left me with reduced short term, working memory.
My parents didn't understand the effects of the epilepsy when I was so young so I ended up with CEN and Arrested Development.

I did a school IQ assessment in the early 1980s when I was a preteen, I scored in the high 130s. I seem to be a pattern recogniser. I see the fractal concept all around me.

The brain cancer appeared when I was 39. It had been growing for 10 to 15 years. It was an Anaplastic Oligodendroglioma Grade3 tumour, the size of a plum, in the left frontal-parietal lobes mainly effecting the Broca's speech area. Expressive aphasia, milder version of what Bruce Willis has. I can have heaps to say but it just wont come out.

The CPTSD is the overall effect of everything I have been through.

A computing analogy is that I have really good processing power, but my memory is corrupted and my comms are intermittent.

Before I turned 50, I was able to compartmentalise all my traumas and disappointments and go through life thinking "I will get back on track to a normal life soon". It was then that I realised I had run out of time, my life was pretty much over (genuine midlife crisis?).
 
Now, 2 years later, I feel like I have been through an extended Dark night of the soul. That I am probably undergoing ego death, individuation, integration etc. Feeling like I am sick of going through my public life like I have one hand tied behind my back. Everyone thinking my invisible disability, is just me being lazy and uncommunicative. I would love to retire now but I have over ten years to go.

I have been told I am at a stage in life where I need to stabilize and conserve.

That I need to consider the question:
“How do I reduce load without detonating the life structures I have built, that keep me safe?”

Plus I am on a journey to refind my 'tribe' The old ones nolonger fit. Too much trauma/memory issues to fully fit in the intellectual/academic tribe. And I find the nonintellectual (people who want simple answers to complex problems) tribe to be too limiting and closed off.

Thanx

Hi,

I’m interested to hear from people who have or who have a child/children with DCD/dyspraxia and giftedness.

How did it manifest for you/them?

My 7yr old struggles with writing co-ordination, gross physical co-ordination and organisation of thoughts around writing. He has hand hypermobility, low muscle tone and poor core strength.

He can’t get a diagnosis. He meets 3 of 4 diagnostic criteria but the 4th (significant impact on daily function) he can’t meet as they say he is clever enough to mask/strategise through his day.

Irrespective of the diagnosis, we’ve started therapies to support the deficits found but a diagnosis would be helpful to access full support from school and for my son’s well-being…he doesn’t understand why he has to have all these interventions if there is nothing wrong with him and why he is so bad at Phys Ed and free writing.

Is this issue common in the 2E community- that high cognition delays or impedes diagnosis?

Thanks for your views and for sharing your experiences.

Welcome NT!

Unfortunately it seems as if the school has misguided views on giftedness. You can be gifted while struggling with one aspect and not be able to demonstrate it academically.

I'd personally push a little bit harder but don't push too much, perhaps lean on supplementary Ed Psych report or transfer him elsewhere.

Any other concerns? While enrichment may be sufficient to maintain a child's intellectual curiosity, it may not work as well for 2e. Also... perhaps be transparent and remember that for gifted children they do not need to "fail" in one area to be learning disabled or dyspraxic. If all other areas are highly superior but one is average, that suggests a very clear weakness.

Perhaps typing or a laptop might suit him better as an accommodation in some areas.