Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School "They Don't Understand Me!"

This is so sad to hear. Do you think (even though he is so young, of course) that it might help him to think about helping the other kids understand him? You know, by using shorter words or concepts that they might already know about? Then maybe he could focus some of his energy into figuring out how to explain it to them, and also might be able to communicate with them better, and also help teach them things (!). It would take a lot of emotional and social maturity to do that--but maybe it would help him cope, even though at best it would just be a band-aid to help him deal with the situation he's in--long term he clearly needs some quality time with 'brain age' peers, so it's great you're working on that. Also, I think it never hurts to bring some issue like this to the teacher in a cooperative, friendly manner--as in, this is what we're hearing at home; do you think there's anything we can do about it, or help him to cope better with school. A good teacher will take the ball and run with it. Good luck!