Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Observation ok?

My child is an extremely gifted 1st grader with imaginational over-excitability. She reads at a very high level, seems to know math intuitively, and is the most amazing artist I've ever taught (I am an art teacher).
Some of her quirkiness has lead to past educators wanting to label her Autistic. It's like the Misdiagnosis/Duel-diagnosis book was written for us.

She just started 1st grade and performs excellent on one-on-one testing by her teacher, but during class activities she slips into her imaginary world, singing quietly to herself, playing pretend, or leaving her seat in imaginary play.

Her teacher asked me yesterday if it was ok to bring in a specialist to observe her to come up with strategies to help her stay more focused and on task. Is this a good thing? Are they trying to modify the classroom environment to aid in her learning? Or is this just the first step to another attempt to mislabel my daughter? Should I support such intervention or resist it?

THOUGHTS?

It depends if the use of Adderall (and other pharmacological fixes) is viewed by the school system as a general purpose solution to clasroom behavior.

Diagnose...medicate...problem solved?

You need to talk to other similarly situated parents.

I would want to know what this "Specialist" specializes in. Is s/he a Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Educarional Specialist, Social Worker...etc. Then I would want to know what kinds of recommendations this Specialist is capable of making...medication, accomodations, behavioral therapies. etc.

I am very leary of schools making these decisions based on experience with our younger dd.

It would be tempting to say that an observation couldn't hurt, but depending on who the specialist is and what the school is planning to do with the information the specialist presents I think it could lead you down a path you don't want to go, specially if there have already been problems with them labelling her.

I agree that you need to find out as much as you can about the specialist, but you also need to find out how the school intends to use the information from the observation. What do they see your role as being in all this? What happens if they want to put something into place that you don't agree with? Could you bring your own 'specialist' in?

Most likely the school has the best of intentions, but this type of thing can snowball if you don't make sure you are clear on the process and involved at every step.