Our boy was "diagnosed" with this during his tests when he was 4.5 At this age you cannot logically tak to them about stepping up to challenges, they are just not mature enough to wrap their heads around a complex concept.
What we did was engage him in a musical instrument (piano) and as he progressed (rapidly it seems), I showed him how his practice with the piano every day was the reason he could play all these new and difficult pieces. i then told him his homework was the same way, that it was a practice session that would allow him to try more difficult work at school and then reinforced this with the reality that he was already several years ahead of his peers thus showing he can do it.
It took us about a year for that to sink in, so there is no silver bullet. Consistent positive re-enforcement along with associating homework as "practice" similar to the musical instrument (which I feel all gifted children should be strongly encouraged to do ) has made him now eager to accept a challenge.
He was just tested at 6.5 and the Dr. stated that the avoidance to challenge was no longer present in her examination.
Last edited by Cawdor; 10/21/10 07:42 AM.
