Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Finding Help for our Kindergartner

As others have mentioned, children often find this type of testing "fun" or at least not terribly upsetting. The psychologist will also give you feedback re your child's behavior during testing, ie, were they on track and focused, did their attention wander, were they bouncing off the walls etc. If he doesn't want to do the test, you won't have the test results that you won't, but you'll have another tiny bit of data - that your ds refused to take whatever part of the test. Sometimes it simply takes time - a lot of time - and more than one journey through testing before all the pieces fall into place and we are able to understand what's going on with our kids.

I'm curious if it's a neuropsych eval that your ds is going through or what type of testing? Are behavioral surveys or executive functioning etc testing included?


It sounds like you are looking at behaviors and framing them from the perspecitve of gifted traits - that's not a "bad" thing to do, but I'd also caution you to not dismiss things such as sensory issues etc as OEs that are sometimes seen in gifted children. That may be what's up, but whether it's related to giftedness or not, it's still a potential challenge for your child and you'll need to figure out a way to help him deal with it.

Another tricky thing about sensory issues - sometimes they are just that - sensory issues, sometimes they are something different that just shows up looking like a sensory issue. Sorry I am not explaining that very well today!


I am not sure who at school has told you this? If it's his teachers, yes, that's true. They really don't have time to figure out what's up. They can give you valuable insight into what's happening in the classroom with behavior and academics, but they aren't psychologists or drs and they aren't trained to diagnose. If you want help with understanding how your ds is impacted with respect to academics you *can* request that the school/district perform an assessment for IEP eligibility, where a team made up of teachers, SPED staff and school psych will evaluate and potentially give you insight into what your ds needs to be successful at school. OTOH, most of us here who have 2e kids have also found that a private evaluation is much more beneficial for the long-term and in understanding your child, because that's where you'll be able to get unbiased feedback, you'll be able to ask all the questions you want to, and you'll most likely get a diagnosis along with treatment/accommodation/remediation/etc suggestions that you won't necessarily get up front from the school where the school might have to fund them.



Can I ask how you ruled out ASD? If it was through a developmental ped or a psych, then you should have a report, and if the issue is raised again, share the report with the school. If it wasn't an actual ASD eval... please consider that some of what the school may be seeing may be valid data. It might not be ASD - many different types of issues have overlapping symptoms - but the key is, the teachers are seeing *something*. It may feel "rude" because you don't like what they are saying it is, but try to focus on keeping the lines of communication open, and listen to what they have to say even if it feels rude. I really had a tough time with this with my own ds when he was little - he was not performing *at all* in 2nd grade and his teacher was convinced he had ADHD. I was convinced his teacher was stubborn and bull-headed and was misinterpreting gifted traits as ADHD. It turns out we were *both* wrong - but I am so glad she thought he had ADHD, because that's what sent us to a neuropsych who diagnosed what was really going on.


I wouldn't worry so much about how you would handle the gifted traits in homeschooling - those are things you are going to have to recognize and learn how to handle anyway as he moves through whatever school he goes to and you advocate for him. OTOH, I am glad I left my ds in public school when he was young and struggling, because I really did mistake a lot of the symptoms of his challenges as "gifted traits". He is absolutely gifted and he absolutely has gifted traits, but there were a lot of behaviors driven by his 2e challenges that I didn't recognize as challenges - and had I pulled him out and homeschooled him I supsect we would have worked around those challenges for several years still not recognizing them, rather than finding out what they were early on and having the early years to focus on how to accommodate etc, which was ultimately so important as a first step to allowing my ds to be able to take advantage of gifted programming later on in school.

Best wishes,

polarbear