Thanks so much for all of your replies:).
DD had a piano for Christmas so we are hoping that will help, and we are also looking at drama lessons.She attends art and craft at the local environmental centre on a Saturday, which she loves. I'm just not sure where all the money is going to come from! We also have an appt. with a developmental optometrist.
We live in Western Australia. There are no specialist schools for another five years, and our G&T extension program doesn't commence for another two. As per the psych's instruction I contacted GATCA (the G&T Assn. of WA) and they advise that the subtest discrepanancy is likely due to learnt behaviour: i.e. as dd has never been sufficiently challenged at school her pervasive fear of failure will have stopped her from attempting any questions when she wasn't 100% sure of the answer, apparently research shows that this can be the case with as many as 1 in 3 kids, particularly if they are exceptionally gifted. This makes sense as the psych said she kept crawling under the table and hiding behind the couch during the PRI questions. To be honest I have imposter syndrome and am struggling with the fact that Em is apparently between 1 in a 1000 to 1 in 10,000, statistically speaking. Homeschooling has been advised, even if only part time in conjunction with a grade skip, more as a form of emotional therapy through appropriate level intellectual stimulation than academic progression. Apparently even in the long term a 'gifted'school will not fulfill all of dd's needs.
I am also struggling as I have been advised that my bipolar diagnosis may be off the mark, and I am more likely to suffer similar symptoms due to G&T; after being directed to the SENG website I read an article on gifted 'ex-children' and cried! The G&T specialists we have consulted seem pretty sure that that if a misdiagnosis has not been made, at least a dual diagnosis should be considered.Yet again, the research backs this up but potentially accepting myself as 'gifted' rather than having a pathology is extremely hard. I feel quite emotionally overwhelmed.
Sorry, for the long post! I just don't feel that discussing this with friends will get me anywhere. I feel that understanding that 'bright' equates with issues is hard for them to understand. It's almost like they think it's a lack of discipline and that I should tell her that 'she's a child so she should act like one'. Pretty difficult when on many levels she's more thirteen or more inside, not eight. Not to mention has little confidence and suffers from depression and anxiety! Not sure a shouting match until she agrees to time out in her room is quite the way to go!!
Thanks for listening. And Grinity thank you so much for taking the time to write such long and helpful posts, the compassion shown by all of you is sincerely appreciated.
Thanks again,
K x
