Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment A whole lot to take in- results from psy

Thank you all. I just came home totally overwhelmed yesterday. I appreciate all the suggestions. Dh and I need to talk today and I need to talk to the doctor before he leaves the island.

Collins mom- yep that is really what he said. I had not even thought about googling it last night with my brain fried. I was skeptical of that to and wish he had told me a name or more about that. I do believe he has probably seen a lot in his 40 plus years and wonder if he is forgeting the age or using it for dramatic effect. Now I am really confused and unfortunatly as of now we don't have the option of seeing anyone else. He is the psy that our district contracts with and that most bush districts here contract with now. No other psy comes to the island. Sigh. I wonder how I could ask him for more info on that?

As for what others said, I agree.... I can't not answer dd questions and he wouldn't be able to if he lived with her. I thought the same thing about needing to try it NOW verses next year. I need to talk to the superintendent. I have no clue how long that will take. Gaah.

He did suggest the horizontal stuff which we have been doing a bunch of just since she gets obsessed with thongs such as Egypt and mummification and space etc. And I am fine continuing that, and while I don't teach dd just to teach her , if she asks, wants to know, etc, I will show her. I guess he and I will have to "agree to disagree" though... And as I told him. Even when I don't show her she figures out concepts. I never showed her addition and subtraction, but when she was 2 she started doing it, I never showed her fractions or sat down and explained it, yet she uses them, reads them, and applies them during the day in life. I never told her "air is lighter than water", but this summer at the pool she told me this and said "it has to be because my ball is filled with air and it floats" I can't stop her way of thinking.

He did say that several times during testing she used very divergent and out of the box ways of doing things, even in her drawings. And that he had to count several things wrong even though the answer she gave fit.

I could take all the records on what he did to a psy in la when we govthis spring, or abphone consult with someone now that we have testing records. Thoughts on that?

Alright my brain hurts again.... Literally I feel a migrain comming on from all this. I am going to go takey medicine.

Oh and thank you for telling me to not think of the whole where she will be in 10 years. Just take it now.... And find the best fit for now.

Y'all are the best and it helps to have a place to talk and sort this out in my head.

Wow, that's a lot to process. One piece of good news...Having fine motor and other skills closer to her intellectual age is a really helpful thing that a lot of PG kids don't have. It will make the next few years easier for you.

My suggestion is that you take the assessment of her development as a helpful confirmation of much of what you suspected (even if was to a greater degree).

I am far less impressed by the rest of what you were told and I would encourage you not to focus too much on these predictors.

We had a child who was similar in intellectual milestones and I think he would have been deeply depressed and his life fractured if we'd refused to let him have academic information or stimulation. It can be hard for people to understand until they have lived with it, but for some kids intellectual stimulation is as vital as air or water. Yes, every child also needs a life of balance - exercise, social life, arts, silly fun. But, I would be very wary of anyone who tells you that by not answering your daughter's questions or refusing acceleration that you will prevent future problems.

I think your DH's instincts are right on. Do what works now, worry about the rest a lot later. There is so much that is unpredictable and you will see better as time goes on what she needs. Very few decisions in this process are set in stone. I've known kids who went to early college for a few years and then went back to high school for social reasons. She might do a first bachelor's at home and a second abroad. There are many, many alternatives and based on her interests and needs you will find options that work for her.

And, I'm with Collin's mom on skepticism about the PhD at 13 story and it makes me question the rest as well.

Okay, let me start by saying that I don't agree with the psychologist about not doing the academics and not answering her questions fully. But, there is a small part that I do agree with. My DS6 is a PG child and always chooses academic type stuff. While I realize that he could probably be doing calculus now if I focused on the academic stuff, I choose to do other things often too. Like the things you mentioned above. That is very much things that my DS would do. I don't consider those things going up the academic ladder, but just academic type things that these kids crave and love. If my DS6 asks though, I answer the questions (although lately we have to look up answers to his questions as I don't have most of them anymore). DS6 too would be miserable without more information. But I may choose things like Chess, piano, learning sign language, random languages, binary numbers, logic games, strategy games, etc... instead of just going straight up the academic ladder. Does that make sense? I am not saying there is anything wrong with teaching things that will be taught in school and my son loves doing academic type stuff, and I answer his questions, but I just don't typically teach him new skills like that that will be covered in school. There are lot of things that provide lots of learning that will probably never be covered in school. I hope that makes sense, I see nothing wrong with following their strong lead with academics...but I also haven't gone above and beyond teaching new things that will be covered in school. You can't slow them down, just keep following her lead like you have been.

He also told me twice thatcwe need to "move to a university town or someplace like the silicon valley" or that place in nexico, I can't think of the name now, " for her to find a better fit acadically and socially"

This statement seemed odd to me. I know there are not many options here as isolated as we are, but to limit like that seemed strange to me. Thoughts?

Well, I would be thinking about how I could move to Reno in a handful of years . . .

You can do this anywhere, but there are definitely some places (well school options perhaps) that will make it easier.

My thought is that she is still very young and there is no way to know what will be a good fit for her. Not every PG kids is accepted to, or ends up liking, the Davidson Academy. Yes, it is a great option for some kids,, but not at a good one for others. It would not have at all been a good fit for our PG kid who needed much more radical acceleration and didn't highly value same age peer interaction.

Every situation is so unique. I have seen some kids in more rural areas actually do better with navigating school systems because they are seen as such outliers that the school doesn't have as much fear about setting precedent by accommodating them.

Also, I think it is important to remember the child's academic needs are ONE part of a family's life. Yes, they should weigh in decision making but there are plenty of other factors to consider: economic, being near extended family, sibling needs, parents careers, etc.

So true, this is our situation...although we are not in a rural area but a suburban district that is a smaller district and doesn't have any gifted programming. They are doing an individual program for my DS6 just because of how far from the norm he is. They aren't really worried about setting precedent as they aren't going to see other kids like this around and they know that. So far so good..but when DS was 4 we were told by the psychologist that public school most likely would not work out and that we would have to find a school for highly gifted children or homeschool. So you just never know, every kid is different.

Wow those motor skills are going to help so much in the long run!

In terms of horizontal education: what other languages do people speak on your island? I remember a lot of Japanese and Russian when I was out that way. Maybe if the school cannot fully accommodate, a neighbor could do language lessons with her. Or an instrument - really any music with a teacher who gets her.

I remember this girl on the local news, written in 2004.

Fourteen-year old Alia Sabur, a Long Island, N.Y., native, has enrolled at Drexel to pursue a doctoral degree in mechanical and electrical engineering. She is the youngest Ph.D. student in the United States. A summa cum laude graduate of Stony Brook University with a bachelor of science degree in applied mathematics, Alia will study and research nanophotonics, which she describes as �the study and creation of electronic devices using optics at the nanoscale.� Alia is expected to receive her degree in 2007.

I remember seeing her on the news and she was really well balanced, with friends. Had a black belt in Karate and plays Clarinet with the Philadelphia orchestra while doing her PhD. What was the argument against overscheduling the highly gifted child? It seems they can really thrive on the challenge.

Ren

I was trying to find out if Kit Armstrong had his PhD but it is not clear. He finished Chapman U in CA when he was 10 but seemed to move into a non degree world where he just studies with the best, like now he lives in London to take music, though commutes to NY also for a music coach and studies pure mathematics in Paris. Though he did graduate work when he was 11 and 12 in at U of Penn. So when you are this high in IQ, doors open wide and the path is one you choose.

It is funny that his mother said he was reading Newsweek and Business week at 9 months and could do simple math when he turned 1 but she didn't think anything about it. Thought it was normal.

Ren