Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums GT Research early identification necessary

Welcome rocksea,
sounds like you are part of the "Gifted Movement" now!

Yippee that you can homeschool! You can post resource requests here.

As far as the "we do it for disabled kids" argument - i agree that it's ugly. How about we take the high road and try to educate EVERY child in a way that works for them, without discriminating against anyone, including gifted? Remember that parent's of disabled children have been organizing politically since the 1950's and have put a lot of hard work into their results. We should learn from them and win their support. (Of course some of us or also them - wink)

Welcome and Love,
trinity

It would be great if there were something that could be done in addition to what parents do at home. We have over 200 books for my son, plus he loves music (can play drums, harmonica), loves to dance, loves to color and paint at 12 months.

What have we heard the most from people "don't teach him too much - he will be bored in school".

Having programs that encourage gifted young children would be great!

Given that children can have such severe asynchronous development that it can impair their learning, I think it's imperative gifted children be identified as soon as possible. The earlier the better.

Frankly I think the health care professions need to take responsibility in identifying gifted kids. It is a need. It is a special need. It needs support, and in some cases, medical interventions. When the health care professionals start to realize THEY are preventing children from getting the interventions they need to be educated and thrive, we will see a shift in the field of education. I wish oh wish Mite and DS15 had been identified when they were young. I wish I had pushed harder. It may have made a huge difference for them.

jmo,though.

LOL - What have we heard the most from people "don't teach him too much - he will be bored in school".

You must learn to tune out that piece of advice. I "stopped" doing anything remotly educational with DS10 when he entered kindergarden, for that very reason. They the critics, from me, that I tried it, and he was bored in school anyway. I can pretty much guarentee that regular school isn't going to be an issue for your family.

I do agee with WG that it's the Pediatricians who are best situated to inform the parents about a child "asynchronous development." I'd love to see us reach out to them and be part of Pediatricition education. Not sure how to do it. In my experience, many pediatricians are themselves gifted and have gifted children, and are still in the place of "trying hard not to offend or out anybody." But it is a special need. A real need. And if thoses needs aren't met - - - watch out!

Trinity

Hi,

As usual, some great conversation here.

This message thread really hits close to home for me. Initially, my wife and I knew very little about gifted education until it sprung itself upon us via our son about one year ago(currently 8 years old).

Part of the solution is to educate the parents about giftedness. Forums like this and DITD website are a real blessing. To be honest, until we discovered our son was gifted, we just thought he was an above average "bright" kid (early reader, speaker, etc.) and our friends' children were not as bright (no insult intended). As mentioned, we did not know about gifted children and therefore, we didn't know what to look for.

When applying to schools, we tried to do the right thing and we actually held him back one year because he was a summer boy. We were advised that summer boys should be held back a year due to maturity issues. In Kindergarten and the beginning of first grade, he told us he was very bored but we told him to stick with it. I still feel guilty about this response as he could have easily shut down. Fortunately, de did not.

Thankfully, his first grade teacher alerted us last year (November 2005) and we were able to have him tested and design a better program for him (we finally decided on home schooling). And, as parents, we were able to educate ourselves.

Part of the challenge, in my opinion, is that giftedness, by definition, covers such a small part of the population - anywhere from 1% to 2%. The school system is setup to deal with the vast majority of the children who sit in the 95%. And, the school systems (public and private) are challenged dealing with the norm.

I like Trinity's idea about having some basic milestones. These milestones should be given to all parents when they put their children in pre-school. Or, as WG states, by health care professionals. This would help alert parents to the world of giftedness if they see the milestones.

When I talk to friends about it, I compare discovering our son's giftedness to another parent discovering their child has dsylexia. Obviously, giftedness is a happy event. However, both "conditions" must be dealt with and the school system does not know how to deal with them because they are way outside the norm.

Just my two cents...

Hi SFParent -

"In Kindergarten and the beginning of first grade, he told us he was very bored but we told him to stick with it. I still feel guilty about this response as he could have easily shut down. Fortunately, de did not."

Please stop feeling guilty over this. You did the best you knew with the information you had at the time. Same with us, and "shut down" DS did - luckily quite loudly! However, know that DS10, from the perspective of 3 years down the road, really values the life experience he gained during that rough patch - so who knows?

Trinity

Thanks Trinity!!

I am a combination of Jewish/Catholic guilt so it is hard to let go easily.

I really enjoy all the posts and I read most of them. My goal is to participate more and more.

Take care.

I didn't say it was easy - SFParent - LOL! I didn't say that I could do it. But I do try...that's all we can ask, right?

I'm looking forward to hearing more about your challenges and successes!

Trinity

Hi Jill!
The computer says you stopped by. How are your son and daughter? Did you get services for DS? DD sounds so "take no prisioners" - my kind of female - obviously! What are you plans and hopes?
Trinity

Hi Trinity,

Thanks for asking!

My DS got unofficial services this year - gifted testing just started a couple weeks ago. He's in a classroom with a gifted trained teacher who has been really good for him. The start of the year was pretty rough because he developed some pretty bad habits last year. (Typical smart kid stuff - no need to pay attention, so he didn't.) The new teacher makes a point of asking "thought questions" as a part of regular instruction and providing lots of opportunity to expand on the topic. My DS didn't like the fact that she expected him to pay attention.

The teacher does a more open ended math program than the standard 2nd grade program and he is eating it up. I've been explaining at home how to represent his word problems in algebraic notation and teaching him how to program formulas in Excel. The teacher gives very open-ended math projects each week & he's been delighted to use his new tools to solve the problems.

DS's teacher also does an open ended reading program & there are other kids in the room who read well. He picks books with a reading partner. They decide together how much of the book to read as homework each night and then write a reponse for the next day's discussion. My DS is not that fond of writing but he loves the fact that he has some control of what he has to read. She's also very supportive of his desire to read his own books when he is done with his work. For a while he brought Harry Potter and the 1/2 Blood Prince to class, and was really pleased that no one teased him about reading it. (Teasing about his books was an issue last year.)

I just hope this continues to work because I am sooo relieved that he is a bit happier with life these days.

My DD is driving me nuts, but in a good way. (It's the energy it takes to keep her stimulated that makes me crazy.) We are homeschooling kindergarten right now because she is not old enough for school and preschool was so not working. I also signed her up for Spanish lessons. That's been pretty cool, because I've always thought that the lack of integrated foreign language lessons from an early age is a major problem in the American education system. It's fun to hear her talking and suddenly say something like "when I was riding my new bicicleta roja (red bike)...".

My DS has never displayed the uber-geek personality that her big brother has, so I have to admit that I was really suprised to discover that she has a real talent and love for math and science. I feel like a bad Mom - I'm SUPPOSED to notice stuff like that! I got a Saxon homeschool K math program & she's almost done with March. The K program is really too easy in many ways, but it gives me ideas for cool projects (like doing all of the shape and color lessons in Spanish), and parts of the program address new topics. Saxon uses lots of hands on activites, which are great for a preschooler. The program is adaptable enough that I will probably buy the 1st grade program to start after Christmas.

She's also been writing her own books for our science program. The first one was "DS Grows" - reproduction and the first year of life. (Egg and Sperm. In the uterus. ... DS is born. ... DS talks. ...) Now she is creating a book called "Plants Grow". She is growing lettuce and writing and drawing pictures about the project.

Friends keep asking what about next year because DS will start K already reading, doing math, and so on. I jokingly reply that that's the school's problem, but I do worry. Most of my friends don't realize that DS is already reading, writing, and doing math at more of a 1st grade level than a K level. This time around, my husband and I plan to ask for TAG screening immediately. We hope to head off some of the problems that DS encountered.

Jill