Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums GT Research PG? Husband is a skeptic, I am on the fence

Peanutsmom, an interesting article for you to read - spatial ability is mentioned further down. Both of my DYS kiddos have very strong spatial abilities and scored highest on PRI subset. My DH struggled through school - although he is successful in his career, it is not well suited to his strengths. I often wonder how different his life opportunities would have been had his VS abilities were recognized and nurtured when young.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/a...a-45-year-study-of-supersmart-children/#

I should clarify - when I say too much language, I am not talking about word problems. Real word problems are awesome, and AoPS is replete with them. The kind of contest math DS loves is almost all word problems (and visual puzzles - yeah!). Do trust your own experience with your DS, and don't let math education experts (let alone the likes of me) undermine your confidence in your own judgement. FYI, I've seen tons of positive feedback about Singapore math on this forum; it is a great exception to the type of curriculum I am describing. And I'm always bugging DS not to do too many steps in his head, so that he can see where he's made a mistake. So totally agree with you.

What I'm talking about instead is taking the math out of math (so it's not scary any more), and turning it into a language arts activity. 20 pages of worksheets where each page has one or two basic calculations, and you must spend the rest of the page on at least six sentences per calculation describing how you did the addition (and then of course write out your answer in a full sentence). Write your own 1-page math story. Endlessly. The kids might spend 1 minute on something vaguely mathematical (basic, repetitious calculation that it is) for every hour of paragraph and essay writing.

This is how my writing-disabled math monster came to think of himself as bad at math. Unquestionably, he couldn't do the tasks assigned in math class.

I'm also not talking about showing your work where there is actual work to show. Again, we have lived the deep contrast between our curriculum and AoPS. The on-line AoPS course required a detailed, full sentences, explain how you got your answer proof every week. BUT - you were dealing with a problem of sufficient complexity that there was work to show and thinking processes to explain. DS actually enjoyed creating these proofs, even though they tended to take around a full type-written page each. They challenged him to articulate - and back up - his mathematical thinking, coherently. This is a very important skill (and my impression is Singapore math does this pretty well).

Hope this helps.

Thank you to you all, you all are very kind and generous in sharing your experience and knowledge! Please keep the input coming, I am following this with interest. Slammie, it is interesting that you mentioned your DH's experience. I was probably tilting towards VS too, but was never tested. I was raised with poor math and science curriculum, in crowded classrooms. I ended up with perfect math grades at high school but there was no acceleration. It got fixed when I went to University but the first year was very rough. I ended up with rigorous math training, but I don't think I was an extended-norm-gifted type of kid, but one who worked very hard. I am unsure, these 99.9% kids, do they work extremely hard, or do things just look very easy to them at whatever level.

I have favorable impressions as well about Singapore Math so far. I think my DS also has the tendency to rush through to solutions, so it is good for slowing him down some and help him to look at the problems more carefully.

So after some research, we decided to open up to the school and tell them about the testing. We are meeting the psychologist soon to get explanation of the scores and then will meet our school counselor afterwards. I am open to any outcome, but wondering how to best approach this, I've never done this kind of advocating. The counselor told me today she will then talk to teachers to see what support may be feasible. I am also applying for Davidson program soon and will look at CTY support, as it seems as a second grader he might be eligible for CTY.
I am looking for resources for supplementing school instruction in math and science.

We are meeting the neuro psychologist today for follow up questions about the test. Any suggestions on the questions to ask? I am going to ask for the raw scores as well.

I asked DS yesterday whether he liked Math. He said yes he likes it, except that it's too much homework. I watched yesterday how he did his math work, and he did it very fast, i.e about 5 minutes to do 5 pages of problems. Now I am baffled how come he said he was not good in math? I noted that he dilly dallied a lot. i.e. he spent maybe 20 minutes looking at his book and arguing, not wanting to do it. Then I promised that I'd play a game with him when he is done, and then he completed it all in just 5 minutes.

There are some good threads on advocating on this forum, you might find some by searching. Also, the Davidson public website has some excellent articles on working with school teams. I'd start by reviewing those.

Thanks for the pointer, ConnectingDots! Maybe I should move to those sub threads.

There is a roundup of advocacy threads and resources in this old post. Beginning here may save you some search time.

Thanks Indigo!

We met the psychologist yesterday. He actually solved all the block designs, but he slightly went over the allotted time for one of them. The psychologist said the only way he could have gotten better raw score would be by doing it faster, but that would be a meaningless.