Originally Posted by SiaSL
Nothing exceptional there, there was always at least one other child in my classroom which had skipped one grade (so, about 8%?).

My 4th grade teacher was the one who arranged me skipping 5th -- she couldn't take me being an all A student without putting in one ounce of work at school. That was more unusual, true.

So I'd say solidly MG, right? I wish I could get my hands on those test results from 4th grade, just to know. Though I had to laugh when reading some of the testing threads -- I still remember driving the evaluator wild on what was probably the first Similarities question: plum and apricot. I spent 5 increasingly desperate minutes going though answers like "they are both from the genus prunus? both have flowers with five petals and sepals?..." while thinking "oh my, this is really hard, I am going to flunk the test"... and she finally broke down and told me the answer was fruits (probably thinking "FRUITS! What's wrong with you???" wink ). And then sitting back in my chair thinking "well, that was dumb!" rather scornfully.

It's possible that you are MG, but this isn't convincing me. What percent of that 8% got skipped again? Or even As without an ounce of effort.

But I think your story is more important that it shows that while a skip might be necessary to reversing underachievement, it's isn't always sufficient. I think the 4th grade teacher was on the right track, but that you would have needed an adult to really look at the world through your eyes and see what skills were missing and what motivations would be strong enough to help you move into that uncomfortable territory. We were kind of lucky in that my son's 'social drive' provided motivation for him to get As in any classroom so he could take what was - in his mind - his rightful place in the social rank.

I hope the program is helpful, and I would encourage you to seek out chances for him to interact with other gifted kids. I used to joke that the more concerned I was with my son's social well being, the farther I would drive to events.

Keep us posted! Your Comfy chair is here.
Grinity


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