I haven't posted here in a while, primarily because I forgot my password, but still read regularly and still learn and appreciate hearing about everyone else's experiences. Here's where we are now...
My son G turned 4 on Friday. He has been in a very play based church pre-school/day care since March. We like this pre-school because it is very focused on big motor skills, lots of gym time and outdoor play time, has seasoned teachers and a long standing, very well regarded reputation in our community. He needs as much of that as he can get. Although we have not yet had him tested, I suspect that G will test at highly or profoundly gifted.
After about 3 months at his new school, his director suggested that we ask a specialist from our county's mental health center to come in and observe G at school. Specifically, G has been having sporadic temper tantrums, but more importantly, has not formed any significant relationships with any of the other students, preferring the company of his teachers at all times. The director has also stated that she has never had a child at G's level of advancement in her program (and she's been there for about 20 years) and wanted some advice on how best to engage him.
We went ahead with the observation and this morning we met with the therapist and the teachers at the school.
The meeting was good, no big cause for concern, the therapist shared a DECA assessment with us. She does recommend "play therapy" one on one for G with a therapist at their facility. She described it as a way to teach Graham how to interact through creative play, how to better manage his emotions, etc.
Although that sounds really nice, I guess my question is how will play therapy with an adult help him connect with other children? And there's a small part of me that thinks that maybe they want to do this with him because the therapist (admittedly) hadn't come across a child like him in all her years of assessment. I sort of got the vague impression they wanted to get a look at him in captivity, if you know what I mean.
This county mental health service is mainly employed for children who have behavioral or mental issues as a result of trauma, abuse, etc. I'm concerned that these folks have no experience dealing with the issues of gifted children.
Before this recommendation, we were planning on having G assessed a year from now by Dr. Amend here in town and getting some guidance from him on how G was doing as well as some help with school decisions. G would be a very young 5 starting school in fall of 2010.
What would you do? Go ahead and start play therapy as suggested? Bump up the timetable with Dr. Amend and get a 2nd opinion even though he's only newly 4 and I'm not sure testing should be done yet? Do nothing and stick with the original plan of waiting until next summer?
Help!?!
And thanks....
