Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Concentration wanes over week in school?

I need your input. A friend of mine who swears her young child is not even moderately gifted has an issue. She has asked for my help and since she won't accept my idea of giftedness, I need your input please.

Her son has been diagnosed with SPD (not sure how much is overexcitability and how much is the full SPD but that's another thing)

He is definitely ahead of his Grade 1 classmates (Grade 1 start was late Jan 2013). Has started teaching himself to read and asked his mom to help him - 8 months ago already. He can do some addition and subtraction (basic apparently) but again its more than any in his class can do.

His OT observed his classes on Monday and said she had no reason to agree with the teacher's concerns on lack of focus. The teacher says he is fine Monday and Tuesday and from Wed he loses focus and by THursday he cannot/won't stay on task, is disruptive etc.

I know what I think. I need to know what YOU all think, and if there is anything else that could cause this.

thanks

I'm thinking there could be quite a range of things that could potentially cause this, including of course being so far ahead already in academics that he's bored. Whatever it is, it sounds like it's related to school and he's holding things together well at the beginning of the week but falling apart as the week goes on. Other than being due to boredom/gifted child placed below level in classroom - here are a few ideas:

* possibly dealing with asynchronicity in development or an undiagnosed learning challenge

* personality mismatch with teacher or bullying from classmates

* buildup of sensory challenges over several days gets to the spill-over point where he can't cope with it - I have a dd who was diagnosed with SPD when she was his age, and she could bottle up quite a bit for a day or so in the classroom, but over several continuous days in class it started to take a toll on her.

* is there something in the classroom environment that he's sensitive or allergic to?

* could it be as simple as he's getting a good night's sleep on weekend nights, goes to school well rested on Monday morning, then doesn't get the same type of quality sleep during the week so it catches up with him by the middle-end of the week?

So - what I think is, I wouldn't have any idea without knowing a lot more about the boy and his environment. I hope his parents are able to gain a good understanding of what's up and find a good fit for him re school.

Best wishes,

polarbear

This was definitely going on with our DD a *lot* when she was 7 and 8; now that she's 9, we aren't noticing it as much. She usually has trouble getting to sleep (wants to read instead) and it was definitely catching up with her during the week--by Friday afternoon, she was usually literally falling asleep in her after-school music class and had tremendous difficulty concentrating and behaving. Now it seems better, but I'm not sure what made the difference--we tried all kinds of things to get her to sleep before and nothing really worked well.

But as polarbear says, it's hard to know. Good luck to your friend!

My DD is 9 in 4th grade and in her previous school boredom definitely was taking its toll. She's not as bored in her new school and they do a nice mix of things for learning in the classroom. However she still wanes over the course of the week though at her age she has learned to manage herself behaviorally (sp?) much better. For her it's definitely 2E with writing specifically and still sensory issues which we continue to work on. Talking about them to her to reduce her anxiety of not understand what's going on, and having her "outsourced" to understanding qualified people here and there (they're not easy to find) like riding therapy or art therapy also helps.

One thing that I'm learning now that made sense logically before but I didn't understand the importance of was how much the sensory issues contribute to or interfere with learning and socializing. Sensory issues really need to be addressed if present to help the child along, they do learn to manage them but need support to decrease the downside of the effects when out in the world.

I'm sure you're right that the child is gifted. Why doesn't the mom see that? Are there others in the family who are bright but don't have challenges and she is comparing him to them? (That's the case in my family because the cousins are all "above average overacheiver" types for whom school and any gifted enrichment pull-out type programs are designed for and have been a perfect fit and support to them. That's what's defined as "gifted" in my family.)

It sounds like maybe the combination of misfit issues in the school environment, both for his gifts and his challenges could be the source of the problems. But as other posters noted, you have to find out more details.

Good luck to them. I'm glad he has an advocate in you - come back if you know more, you'll definitely get sympathetic "ears" here!

That seems like really low expectations for starting first grade. My ability to tolerate cr*p generally gets worse over the week.

Personally, I would put my money on this one.

This rings true for me... combine it with the class work being too easy, and by the end of the week you'd have an off-task child for sure.

thank you everyone! Its school break time here currently, she is considering stopping the OT and trying something else as the OT keeps saying one thing to the mom and another to the teacher and a third to the child and and and.

I will chat to her some more about your responses too. I will definitely bring an update as we go along.

I think the reason the mom wont see the giftedness is because she keeps comparing him to my boys, who are possibly higher up the spectrum. she also has a mom who is an old-style traditional school teacher who has always told her to not let him learn things since toddler days, and lives in an area where academic requirements are lower in level but higher in repetition. I think his learning style is also different to hers and so she just doesnt see it. I hope to unveil the wonder before her eyes if only for the little ones benefit.