Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Thread Like Summary - Looking for advice on how to proceed...

My son (9) was diagnosed with ASD when he was 6. I have no doubts about this diagnosis at all so this is not about that. We have suspected for some time that he was gifted mathematically (was very good at puzzles early on, was doing mental math at 2, could add and subtract small numbers at 3, taught himself how to count above 10,000 and how to multiply at 4, etc), but I was advised to wait until he was older to test because of verbal difficulties.

He was tested by the school 2 weeks ago for that as well as a suspected learning disability with writing, here are his index scores (forgive me I don't have the breakdown of those scores):

VCI: 116
VSI: 132
FRI: 144
WMI: 91
PSI: 98

FSIQ: 120
GAI: 133

He had a meltdown while he was copying sentences during the test and refused to finish.

The outcome was that he was rejected for both a GIEP and an IEP. They said that "he gets all of the enrichment needed by small groups based on MAP scores". Small groups for math do not exist, they only exist for reading scores...he was also dropped down a level because of his behavior last year. They also determined that his writing problem is caused by "laziness" and being unwilling to do something he doesn't enjoy. The school wants us to accept a 504 which gives him nothing more than he already has (which is 30m a week to talk to a therapist not affiliated with the school). I am unsure how to proceed and would appreciate any advice given. Thank you.

Since it’s been a few years, I thought I’d come back with an update:

My son just finished middle school. He was subject accelerated in math and science in 6th grade and has several high school credits on his transcript already. He was on the honor roll every year in middle school and finished 8th grade with above a 4.0 gpa. Even though writing is still a relative weakness for him, he has improved tremendously with intervention and accommodations. He’s had no behavior problems since he was in elementary, and he even started participating in clubs, sports and team activities. His current passions are DnD, swimming, violin/viola, video games, chess and riding his bike. He and his friends meet once a week to play DnD and other board games, and he’s planning on joining the high school chess club next year.

I just wanted to give an update to show how much everyone’s advice here helped. He has made tremendous progress since 3rd grade and I don’t know how to thank everyone who helped us when we were struggling with the school district.