Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Help - Accelaration Issues

Hello,
I'm new to posting but have been reading a lot. I'm from Australia and enjoy your website.

My DS7 was identified in January and testing revealed FSIQ of 143 and GAI of 153 on the WISC IV. He tested fairly similarly across the board in all but Processing Speed where he was average.

His existing school just wanted to do pull-out enrichment 2 x 1 hr sessions a week. Another local school suggested accelaration into a gifted 4/5 class. (He was 4 weeks into yr 3 at the time.)

He has been there for about 7 weeks. I have thought he is thriving. He is excited to be around such a wonderful bunch of kids and his teacher is unique. He has enjoyed the more challenging work also. He is engaged for the first time ever at school and while he has taken some time to establish a solid group of friends, he is getting there. He did start an entirely new school.

I have not had any feedback from the school in that time except when I have bumped into the teacher and she has said he is doing well, but is a little disorganised and not used to the systems in yr 4. She went on to explain that the other children have had a fair bit of time to get used to it, and so should he.

I popped in to see the teacher this afternoon after DS revealing he has extra homework because he didn't finish his in class tasks. (He can be a slow starter). I wanted to ask her could he spend time in the library at lunch time finishing off the tasks as he already has 3 hours of homework a week and it is quite a load. I also thought this might encourage him to get the work done in class time in future.

She proceed to tell me he was immature compared to his class mates and is disorganised and that it is a major problem. She also revealed she thinks he will need to repeat year 4 next year to gain more maturity!!! She also stated that the year 4's at this school are particularly mature and that any children who transfer into this school have issues and they aren't as mature. She acknowledged he is having no trouble at all with the year 4 work, however he has a writing project to do and she doesn't think he can be organised enough to do it.

I'm astounded. The school had his report and the teacher and the Principal read it before they met us. She interviewed my DS, as did the Principal and the Learning Support Teacher; all before they suggested the grade skip. His report is very clear in stating that he needs encouragement to tackle things, that he is often slow at completing tasks and that his writing could be an issue and he may need a keyboard.

I feel like he's been thrown to the wolves. She also mentioned she hadn't planned on letting me know about these issues until the end of June when mid-year reports come home!

Has anyone else dealt with this? I really get the feeling she was having a bad day. It was that 'out of the blue'.

Tory

That is very rough, Tory. I think this is a key problem about asychronous learning. The kids are certainly smart enough for accelerated curriculum, but the maturity, organization, and social skills can be an issue. I commend your school for being forward thinking to not adhere to strict grade-age divisions, BUT they don't have the follow-through down. If it's sink or swim mentality, without allowances for adjustment or homework modifications, perhaps they should have been more cautious in recommending the additional skip. What to do now? Talk to your son, see what he thinks, pros & cons, how you can help him. I would also put some of the burden on the school--what do they intend to do to help your son? Ask for a meeting. If he gets poor grades for the first part of the year, it's not the end of the world IF you have a plan.

Thanks Cym.

I still haven't calmed down unfortunately.

I spoke to the Learning Support Teacher this morning and she was quite surprised at the extent of the teacher's reaction. She said if things really went wrong, holding him back would be the last resort.

She's going to meet with the Teacher and I (on my request) to determine what strategies we can implement in the classroom and at home to help with the organisation. Hopefully that will go well.

Hi Tory,
My son got his gradeskip at age 10,to 6th after a month of 5th, and after all the stories about accelerated kids 'living happily ever after' I was quite taken aback that he 'took to his gradeskip like a mole to sunshine!'

My son hated being academically challenged after 5 years of coasting! He lied and said that he didn't have homework when he really did. He wasn't any more organized than a kid his age would be expected to be, certianly not enough for his grade. He was in a 'high output' environment. He also missed the first month of school, when all the kids started making friends, and all the teachers introduced themselves and their systems - for us, 6th grade starts middle school and multiple teachers. When the teachers told him he was wrong, he cried, or told them that they were wrong. It was rough. We sat through many meetings. We calmly explained that schools can do much harm by not giving children appropriate challenge and that we thought that it was terrific that the teachers were challenging him now, and that he was just going to need a while to get used to the new way of life.

Having said all that, we all agree at our house that the gradeskip was a good thing, a lifesaver. Being in a situation of 'enforced underachievement' for many years at school does damage that can really only be seen when the proper level of challenge is seen.

Your son does have a bottleneck in his processing speed. This means that he will be slow - especially in the begining of the year - at getting his seatwork done. Teaching him to type as soon as possible, in a relaxed but determined way will level the playing field a bit. Slow doesn't mean dumb, but lots of people think so. 3 hours of homework per week is on the high side, but probably ok, even with the extra from the daytime added to that. I wouldn't encourage him to give up his lunch, as the social side of things is so important. An hour a night is a drag, but it's doable, and soon, very soon, he will start to be familiar with the pattern of the tasks and then he will pick up speed.

Don't let the teacher's attitude sour this experience. Maybe the gifted coordinator will come to the rescue. If not, start a campagne to kill her with kindness. Let her know every single week how much he loves her and loves being in her class, what a wonder it is for him to love learning. This will work, if you can force yourself to do it. Be detailed and specific, "DS had us all fasinated during dinner wednesday night with details of your lesson on penguins - I'm so relieved to see joy on his face when he talks about school."

As for her predicitions of failure,
a) be glad it's now while he's young enough to get plenty of help from you, and he'll have plenty of time to catch up to his intellectual side
b) you can always transfer him back to his regular school with the skip in place if he can successfully finish up the year here
c) if she is really mean to him in front of the other kids,then perhaps he can stay in the same grade and get a new teacher?

You may have to act as your child's 'executive secretary' for a while while he learns organizational skills. I know it's not optimal, and could easily lead down a path of dependency, but our kids have unusual needs and sometimes you have to make a strange situation fit. Donna Goldberg's book on organizational skills is terrific, and there are many other good books for you to read, and then teach him in small bites.

He will improve. He probably will even catch up. With his processing speed bottleneck, he might not ever quite catch up, but even if that's so, he still is learning and learning to work hard. He's enjoying school. He is years and years from having a 'permanent record.' He can always take a Gap year between high school and college, or between middle and high school if maturity is really a continuing issue. Meet his needs now. In the future you will figure something else out. You have a lot to like about your current situation.

Sorry about the sucker punch the teacher pulled, but good for you for following up and getting to know it now!

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Thanks so much for your replies.

Well the worm has turned again. His teacher really was having a bad day and, as she's so busy, I suspect she didn't appreciate the unannounced visit.

I dropped in to my son's classroom yesterday morning and we organised his tote box with clear plastic folders etc so he can find things more easily. His teacher was excited by this and pulled me aside.

She said she might have given me the wrong impression the day before because I seemed to have a shocked look on my face.

She said she didn't mean he would have to repeat year 4 but should stay in the 4/5 class as a year 5. She apologised. (I'll have to get my hearing checked). I thanked her and she noted she thought my idea of asking the learning support teacher for ideas on strategies for getting him to be more organised was a good one and that 'whatever we need to do we'll do; we work together!!!'

Anyhow, I used the opportunity to remind her of his fear of failure stopping him from proceeding through exersizes and tasks if he perceives he can't do something. She acknowledged she had been leaving him alone to complete things as she hadn't wanted to pressure him.

Yesterday when I picked him up he had received an in-class award for being organised all day and had managed to complete all his tasks for the day (with his teacher gently encouraging to keep moving forward in one task he seemed to be stuck on). Woo Hoo!!!

What a roller-coaster!!

Thanks for the support and advice Grinity and cym....very much appreciated.

YEAH!!!!!!


Grinity - I have a question. You mean the op's son's processing speed bottleneck which she stated was average. Is it a bottleneck, even though average b/c all the other scores are so high? You wouldn't consider a kid w/ say IQ=110 with avg processing speed to have a bottleneck, correct?

Hey Tory. Pleased that your situation resolved itself positively. Sounds like you've got some new processes onboard now so that the good outcomes continue.

Can I add that I've also learned not to (over)react to things that teacher's say at unscheduled chats? Of course, I have to remind myself not to do this on a weekly basis. But Miss 7's teacher made an off-the-cuff comment recently about Miss 7 not progressing to year 5 next year. I really took it to heart, but in hindsight think that it was more of a reflection of where the teacher's head was at on the day at that particular moment. I will be interested to see if she still feels the same way at parent-teacher interview later this term. In an ideal world, I would like to be able to say something like "that's an interesting observation. I'm interested in talking to you about your views in depth at a more convenient time" in response to ad hoc comments. I find that there's so little feedback provided these days that I hang onto every little thing the teachers say about my daughters. And sometimes I just don't think they're comments were intended to be gospel. Guess I'll find out soon enough...

Anyway, pleased things resolved themselves and I hope your son keeps up his new organisational skills... jojo

Thanks Jo Jo,

yes, I am still new at this and I have learned two things:
- NEVER surprise the teacher with unschduled visits and;
- do not overeact

(Or should I say 'try':)

Bottleneck is a pretty informal word. Scores by themselves don't mean anything, but if you kid's 110 is bothering you or them, then the word bottleneck might help you keep it in mind. Asychrony is a big part of every gifted kids life, but kids with very high highs have a lot of room for 'near average' scores make a difference in their daily life.

I believe that 'statistically speaking' there isn't much difference between a score of 90 and a score of 110. Any math people care to correct me? Dazy, if the score had been a 90 instead, would that 'impress' you?

Tory - I'm so happy to hear your new news. I agree with that old song about 'The Gambler'

you got to know when to hold 'em!
Know when to fold 'em!
Know when to walk away...Know when to run!

((Ohhh - I gave myself goosebumps!!))

Grinity

Tory, I would disagree with your assessment that you should never surpise the teacher with an unplanned visit. IMO, it seems as if your visit spurred the teacher to express the negative thoughts she's had towards your son's performance in class.

You may have headed off the question about holding him back for the next year. Personally, I wouldn't have wanted to deal with this in June, now you have time to work on any improvements he should be expected to make before the end of the school year. I think this actually all worked to your child's advantage.

Neato