Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Upcoming IQ test: question

Thank you all. Say, Dottie, can you explain further? He once seemed to be gifted in math but now is a nervous wreck trying to find ten bears on a page. Will he still do well? How would you recommend bringing up his confidence and his skills? I appreciate ANY information you can give me.

Hi gifted-tic-cyhyper - Welcome (and what does your name stand for ???)

I would say that 'trying to get through the rest of the year' is a questionable goal. There is noting wrong with midyear gradeskips or emergency homeschooling if needed (which it sounds like it is!)

This is also a golden opportinity to try out that fancy private school at a 'pro-rated' price to see if it's going to work for him. You didn't say so, but I'll bet a nickle that the reason you didn't go with the 10K school is that you had no faith that they would do a better job, yes? This time of year is great if they will take him, and you should definitly play the sympathy card, because then you can try it without committing to the whole 10 K, see what I mean?

Love and More Love,
Grinity

I would suggest getting your child evaluated by someone who specializes in GT kids as they can also support you as a parent and help you make decisions.

Many private schools will provide scholarships and do acceleration. You have to ask. Many private schools are just as bad as public ones.

An acquaintance was told by the top school district in my area that they could not help him with his DD6, so he went the eval route which gave him a lot of info. They settled on a private school in the area - they help his family with tuition.

He did not even look into the one public gifted program in the area that would have placed his child with others like her and then radically advanced them as a group. He was done with public schools. Finished.

A coworker is now going the same route with his DS6 who can do 3 x 3 digit multiplication in his head. He is also upset with the Public Schools as well.

Grinity,

The name describes DS6: gifted, ticcy and hyper. Hee, hee!

Your advice is great. I just met with the psychologist who's going to give him the WISC and WJ and I am thrilled. She totally knows what she's doing and wasn't phased by any of our experiences thus far, educational or developmental. On top of it, she said that she's willing to help us advocate at the school. So, that's very positive. The test is early March.

DS has lost all interest in reading and math. I have to get him excited about learning again because he has totally shut down. So, I've put together an afterschool curriculum that I hope will re-ignite his engine. He has to learn that it's o.k. to be smart again before the WISC or else he's going to play dumb or be lazy. Unfortunately, he's so tired from a long day at school that he doesn't want to do more work when he comes home. So, I'm trying to decide how to resolve that. I could either ask the principal to consider diffrentiated curriculum or I could just pull him out for the remainder of the year.

His new teacher knows how to handle him and his behavior has improved. However, he's telling me that the work is still baby work. He said, "It's funny because our desks are set up like we're older kids and if anyone walked in they would think we were doing hard work but it's still just baby work...I mean, kindergarten work."

I'm not sure whether I need to wait until the results of the IQ test come in in order to begin phase two of my advocacy process (i.e. getting him harder work). What if the IQ results don't impress them? I am concerned that DS's new and improved behavior won't last much longer if we don't give him a greater challenge.

We are moving the family in April to a bigger city where there are about five different gifted magnets, which is good but it prevents me from putting him into a private school right now. Also, I don't know how I'm going to get him into a good school for next year in the big city when we are just now starting to understand what his needs are! Sorry I'm just blathering on...

I like Dr. Sylvia Rimm's comment in a presentation, you hold a Ph.D. in your child. No one, no professional, no school adminstrator knows your child the way you do. We all, ok maybe mostly me, like to hide our heads in the sand. But stand tall momma, you know in your heart what is going on - don't let them smell fear :-)