My ds Benjy, 5y6m, is in kindergarten and recently identified borderline EG/PG -- given the WPPSI subtest ceilings, his score is in a gray area. His public school has not been making many accommodations for him -- they'll give a harder worksheet, but not teach anything else or follow that worksheet up, etc. So we're going in for a meeting tomorrow with his k teacher, the principal and the gifted teacher to figure out what to do for him.
Ex-h is pulling hard for a grade skip NOW, while I'm just not sure Benjamin is ready. Then again, I can't figure out how many of his "issues" in school could be due to his tuning out a completely non-stimulating environment. He needs to be called repeatedly sometimes to get his attention, he isn't particularly careful with his backpack, lunch box, etc. Typical kindergartner issues ... and his handwriting is right on par for a first semester kindergartner. I'd rather wait until the end of the school year so that we can get him a little closer to where that next age group would be.
On the other hand, I think that, with encouragement and the right environment, that he'd thrive with a skip now -- he might actually have to *learn* something, gasp! At least there would be more work and more chance to stay engaged at school.
The other thing is that he's *very* suggestible through the behavior of others -- if the other kids are doing it, naughty or well-behaved, he'll be doing it too. So I'm thinking that if he were placed in an environment that was more suited to his needs, quite a few of his issues will clear up pretty quickly. He's also pretty good at consequence-type reinforcement; we had a reward system to help him get "green marks" for behavior at school when he was getting in trouble, and that worked like a charm. So a similar system may work well with his organizational issues -- again, if the school will work with us.
I'm talking to ex-h tonight so that hopefully we'll be on the same page tomorrow ...
Anyway, wish us luck!
Mia
