Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment What are the chances????

I finally feel like I had an honest conversation with the PS in our area. They maintain they have "never" had a child like our son with abilities completely spread out through elementary and middle school. They have no idea how to help him. I know he is average at best on the forums. LOL He is HG+. I have read the breakdown and/or chances of getting a GT kid with various IQ scores based on the "Losing or Minds" book. I realize that the chances are maybe 1 out of every 2 grades that there is another child like him in his school.

My question is "If you have a 2e child, what are the chances of coming across another kid like yours?" Does that make them really "rare"?

Just off the top of my head, I'd say that they think they've never had such a child because they are probably not used to really "seeing" 2E kids. They're there, just hidden from view. It's only when their giftedness is enough to compensate for and surpass their special needs that anyone notices. So, that's why only the more rare kid gets noticed. HG+ kids are rare enough, but throw in the 2E and they're even harder to see.

Take my dd for example. She's only in the MG range, a far cry from HG. In regular public school K, she performed completely "average" according to the teacher. (Actually, she was performing below grade level for reading but somehow the teacher didn't even figure that out.) Likewise, an HG+ kid's gifts could be well hidden by their special needs, and maybe they merely seem "bright".

I took my daughter in for an evaluation at a well known university when she was in 5th (now 9th). The program director at the U testing clinic told me that my daughter was significantly 2E, but she hardly ever sees a kid like her because most people can�t �see� it.
Four years prior to that (in 1st), we had two independent psychologists tell us that she was definitely 2E, but the public school testers disagreed (one actually lectured me about �pushing� my child and another implied that gifted kids don�t deserve services for �relative� disabilities).

I used to wonder about this and still do sometimes. Our school special ed director/educational psychologist, teachers, and the principal (a relative of mine who knew my son) all told me they had never seen a kid like mine and since it was a small town school they couldn't do anything for him. My special ed teacher friend and mother of two of my son's gifted friends told me there was a child several years younger in the school now that reminds her a little of my son.

I think my son understood even before I did that it wasn't likely that he would find another kid like him, but I think he secretly hoped he would. He wanted me to post things about his abilities and disabilities and I think it was because he wanted to know if there are others out there like him. I did find a few, and I read those posts to him, but it was usually younger kids, and people on this board have suggested reading materials about gifted people with disabilities and this has been very helpful.

I think my son's combination of gifted with a mild disability, a hidden disability not noticeable to most people, does make him rare, but it has also given him a rare opportunity to see things from a different perspective, made him seem more mature because he has thought about things that most kids his age don't have to think about, and has left him with a rare ability to keep a sense of humor and not only laugh, but make others laugh with him when things are difficult.

A few years ago he described his body as a Model T and said he was trying to race with race cars with much better handling packages. His Model T gets him where he needs to go and some people collect them because they are rare.

Thanks for the input you guys. To me he is "normal". I always knew he was very different but did not consider him rare. I guess it is GT denial or something. I like the Model T analogy and I agree with snowgirl that a lot of the GT traits get overlooked by the "intense energy bouncing around the room". It is much easier to label that AD/HD and medicate (Not against medication when it is warranted). I also agree with you, delbows, I have been cautioned not to "push" or "single him out". I wonder how I could possibly single him out more than he already feels...

It is so disheartening to me that the school personnel in charge of finding these "unique" kids just doesn't have the knowledge of what to look for. The "Unique Learner Coordinator", as she is called, actually asked me if I thought he would outgrow his strong reactions to injustice (OE) and sensitivities. I thought that question should have come from a parent not the other way around.

Our tester informed me that my son is 2E although I don't have the actual scores yet. People can see it and always comment on how bright he his and they also comment on how hyper he is and even will go so far as to say that those two things often happen together. I think where the system fails is in not knowing what to do with these kids. They focus on the behaviors more than they focus on getting them the right challenge level without understanding that a lot of problems go away when the kids are properly challenged.

In my DS6's case, I called his school before the school year to let them know about the possibility that he has AD/HD and that he's continually demonstrated high abilities in the classroom. His prior teacher had recommended a grade skip to at least first because she said that he was very smart and he would act out when the work wasn't hard enough. The new school "heard" me and said that she "knew exactly where to place him." Come to find out, all LD kids are placed in the same room. This clustering approach isn't discussed out loud, but I figured it out while volunteering and working with some of the other kids in the room. It was clear to me that each of the kids had a problem whether it be sensory, low intelligence, Asperger's or AD/HD. Sigh. The teacher paired DS up with one girl who had clear perception and comprehension problems. DS probably has AD/HD but perception is his strong suite so you can imagine what being placed in that room did to him! He developed tics and became fidgety, hyper and naughty. The teacher suggested meds. That didn't work, so the teacher (who teaches a GATE class at night!), recommended that DS be looked at by for admittance into special ed. The teacher felt that he was probably on the autism spectrum because he wouldn't look her in the eye (he hated her), talked into a monotone voice (because he was disheartened and bored) and very advanced in math (which we know from "Rain Man" is the almighty autism marker...ha ha).

We asked that he be pulled out and placed into another room. They put him into a room with bright 5 year olds which is a step up from his prior classroom of 6 year olds with academic problems. Well, all of his behavior problems have disappeared. No anxiety, no AD/HD symptoms, no tics, no hyperactivity, nothing. The school is mystified. However, DS now complains that while the behavior standards are higher in his new room and the kids are cooler, they are still only doing baby work and he's totally bored to tears. He often refuses to do his coloring and writing letters worksheets and fake reading. I work with him after school so I understand how disparate the work is to what his capabilities are. Poor guy.

The school has a lot to learn. I do not want them to learn it on DS's time. We are outta there!

I would love to be able to give you some stats but haven't seen any anywhere. My DD is 2E with similar situation in that her abilities span late elementary into middle and high school. It took us four years for the school to admit the same thing. They were long years. For us a partial school enrollment and homeschooling are working for now, otherwise the school has no clue what to do. I agree that they don't "see" the problem in most cases and certainly don't have the resources to deal with them otherwise we might see some numbers.