Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy How to get what she needs?

This is hard becaue many preschools have group lessons like this during circle time. When DS was 3, I put him in a program that said they were not very academic in the 3yo program, but were more academic in the 4's...so I thought he could just play and interact with kids. But during this program I observed them all on the rug reviewing shapes and colors, and doing some letters and numbers too. They held up a circle and asked DS what it was..and he said "an octagon" and laughed. They asked what color (it was white) and he said "pink" He then said the right answers after they encouraged him. But they would review letters during this time, and sing basic heads shoulder type songs, etc. Consequently he started to hate circle time (and instead ran in circles at this time). Granted, this wasn't a big part of their day...but it was at least 20 minutes. They Anyhow...I have noticed that many schools do this, even though they aren't teaching these things one on one as much, they do it as a group. Of course your program could be different, they may sit down with her and do them. His program also had "reading" where the kids would just pick up books and lay on the rug and "read" to themselves. So DS would actually read..and this time was only a couple minutes so when it was time to put them away he would be in the middle of reading a book and would be a little annoyed. DS4 is just starting to realize that he knows things that some other kids his age (and some adults)do not know. It is an interestesting revelation to him.

Yup. Better no academics than the wrong academics at that age.

...Maybe at any age, actually! A GT kid will figure out a way to learn if given the time and resources. But getting the wrong academics gives GT kids all kinds of wrong ideas about themselves, about school, about authority figures, about life! Not good!

You might want to find a presentation from Dr. Reis on talented readers. I'm looking for one I remember - until then here is some info. In short in the presentation I saw - she said talented readers should - need - to be reading slightly above their level NOT below to develop comprehension etc. When the case we are so used to hearing is no - read Junie B in second even though you read it in pre-school - to develop more reading related skills. Arm yourself with some research. Can't promise it will help - but in the right teacher's hands... maybe.


From Dr. Sally Reis' et all work on Talented Readers:

Needs of Talented Readers
Researchers who have examined practices for talented readers agree that regular reading instruction is often too easy for talented readers (Collins & Aiex, 1995; Dole & Adams, 1983; Reis & Renzulli, 1989; Shrenker, 1997) and that talented readers need different reading instruction. The appropriate match between a learner's abilities and the difficulty of the instructional work must be sought, and the optimal match should be instruction that is slightly above the learner's current level of functioning. As Chall and Conrad (1991) state, when the match is optimal, learning is enhanced; however, "if the match is not optimal [i.e., the match is below or above the child's level of understanding and knowledge], learning is less efficient and development may be halted" (p. 19).



Talented readers have responded well to

high interest literature geared toward the students' reading levels rather than age (Renzulli, 1977),

instruction geared toward the students' strengths (Renzulli & Reis, 1985; 1997)

focus on developing higher level comprehension skills (Collins & Kortner, 1995)

use of higher level questioning and opportunities to incorporate prior knowledge in reading experiences

book discussions can also provide talented readers with the opportunity to interact with intellectual peers and to discuss their ideas in greater depth
reading conferences facilitated by a teacher and focused on themes and ideas rather than on facts and plot summaries (Halsted, 1990).

Unfortunately, using textbooks, basal readers, or even self-selected reading material that may be several years below students' reading level may create both halted development as well as motivational problems for talented readers. Some of your most talented readers may have learned to be lazy readers and may not react well to your attempts to challenge them to read at higher levels. The emphasis in school, however, must be on finding books that challenge and help talented readers to make continuous progress.




http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/semr/using%20bookmarks.html

Let me add, I think finding a pre-school that is play based and focuses on social, school, and leadership skills is perfectly ok for these kids. It is unlikely to find a program that will teach at their actual level - so enrich at home - and avoid a program that tries "teaching" unless it is really at level. I'd rather my child learn social skills and little leassons about life, people, nature... then looking a a wall of colors or alphabet letters and being bored silly. But that is just our experience and based on the options available/affordable to us.

Thanks for posting this kickball. It's nice to have the research that backs up what my "mommy gut" says. The bookmarks are great too!

Thanks so much kickball... this info was very helpful!

The teacher can make all the difference in the world. I am having issues w/my DS teacher too. But last year the teacher was amazing and I had no complaints at all. I have a feeling those teachers don't come around often!

A less structured preschool might help. I don't know how a "formal" preschool works, my kids have both gone through play-based daycare centers. At these centers there are many picture books (these are much more difficult than the beginning reader books). Kids can read any book they want, they can read on their own, or to a teacher, or ask a teacher to read to them. Same with other activities: they can choose math toys, puzzles, art projects, pretend play, building blocks, board games, or anything that is available. Teachers simply guide them on whatever they choose. The lack of structure might make some wonder what exactly the kids learned, but our experience is that it actually fostered intellectual growth really well.

Thanks everyone. I really wish I had known all of this *before* putting dd3 in preschool. I honestly hope others will read this and learn from my mistake. Since my daughters strength was academics, and since she loves to learn so much, I believed that an "academic" preschool would be a good match. I did not know she was so far ahead until after she started. I am hesitant to move her since it took her so long to get used to going to pre-school to begin with. The preschool runs from 9-2, during that time they only do 60 minutes of academics...and she is only there three days per week, so I hope she is at least enjoying the more "social" parts of her day.