Hi everyone
I've been lurking for some time but was never convinced our eldest DS7 was truly gifted - he doesn't check all the boxes on the gifted checklists you know? But there was always something different about him - initially he was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder, so we started OT, which helped. DS also did an iq test as part of a school readiness assessment - at 5 his results came back as dead average which I honestly found hard to believe - no, I didn't think then that he was gifted, but he was definitely bright and it seemed weird that his results - except for one subscore - were centered on average. Looking back I think he could tell the psych he saw then didn't expect anything more than average, so he did what was expected.
Anyway, we've always had issues with him not doing classwork and being distracted etc but he always tested well.. this year that changed and the more I tried to work out what was going on, the more it came down to two options - gifted or LD... and since it seemed big variations in subscores could point to LD, we thought the best to have an iq assessment done - this time being careful to use a psych with lots of experience with gifted kids...
Big difference this time around, and from what google tells me he is moderately gifted... we were given two scores but I was too overwhelmed to take in which was which, so not sure but one was 132 and the other 138... waiting for the report to see for sure.
We are in south africa so we don't have gifted programs or IEPs or acceleration here... the psych's recommendation was to ask the school for extension work but also to ask for accommodations for sensory stuff as well as fidgets and an air cushion as he is a kinaesthetic learner.
I would love any suggestions for how to request these in what I'll assume will be a hostile situation... I suggested - or tried to - that the issue might be boredom and was shot down very quickly. This is the best school in our area that we can afford so it's not really an option to change schools.
I also would like thoughts on what people usually do in terms of telling your child they are gifted or not..? What's the consensus?
He will need to go for play therapy to address some emotional sensitivity/maturity issues that seemed related (to me anyway) to never knowing previously what it was about him that was/is different. He also has a really hard time trying new things for fear of failing...
Any thoughts or general advice will be greatly appreciated! It's all very new... I thought I'd be announcing the results to the world, where now I find the reactions of the few people I have told have made me feel like zipping my lips in future.
Thanks in advance!
