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I'm not a parent yet, but perhaps I'll have kids in the next few years. For now, I tutor students, and many of them have asynchronous development and yet wish to skip grades.

There have been a few main issues that seem to recur:

1) Rigid authorities
I knew many of them would say the students have to be mature socially, emotionally, and physically (compared to their age) as well as academically to skip 1-2 grades, but I know this isn't quite true. Yet some of my students think to not skip because the gap felt insurmountable even when perhaps it might not be. Also I knew many students with disciplinary issues who still wanted to skip - is there a way to advocate for them?

Any tips or help for this? Theoretically they can improve their aerobic capacity and listen to learning materials by Zone 2 and 3 runs and their top end speed by Zone 4 and Zone 5 runs? As for social and emotional maturity perhaps we could find some tolerant people to help improve their social-emotional maturity?

2) A lack of study skills
As similar to Faylie's post - How to get child to actually "study" - I have seen this in many students who think the gap is insurmountable but actually it can be closed with study skills and discipline. Yet I knew students who can't even finish 5 minutes of proper study in one go - any tips for improving this? If they cannot even finish 5 minutes of proper study then how would one manage 2-4 hour exams later on in education?

3) Social backlash (potential discrimination and harassment).
Especially if the students appear to struggle at first even if the struggle was merely temporary that could be fixed by improved studying, or assessing them for 2e (taking into account their developmental level, not chronological age)? Some people said that if they were struggling in their age grade and things they need to learn without the pressures of university-level academics (for middle and high school students) but the alternative is that the pressure of university-level academics is a wake up call for them to improve before they may be on a course of destruction. Does anyone know how to distinguish between these? In some cases the social backlash could meet the threshold of discrimination and harassment so perhaps labelling and official psychiatric letters declaring minors fit for college could be necessary?

Hi

I have been told I fit the 2e, silent genius profile. With the "genius" being my "nature" and "silent" being my traumatised "nurture". My life long traumas being: Temporal lobe epilepsy, CEN, Arrested Development, Brain cancer and CPTSD.

The temporal lobe epilepsy was caused by a prolonged febrile convulsion at 18 months of age, causing brain death to right temporal lobe and right hippocampal atrophy.
Epilepsy was completely cured with a temporal lobectomy when I was 20. The permanent hippocampal/temporal lobe damage left me with reduced short term, working memory.
My parents didn't understand the effects of the epilepsy when I was so young so I ended up with CEN and Arrested Development.

I did a school IQ assessment in the early 1980s when I was a preteen, I scored in the high 130s. I seem to be a pattern recogniser. I see the fractal concept all around me.

The brain cancer appeared when I was 39. It had been growing for 10 to 15 years. It was an Anaplastic Oligodendroglioma Grade3 tumour, the size of a plum, in the left frontal-parietal lobes mainly effecting the Broca's speech area. Expressive aphasia, milder version of what Bruce Willis has. I can have heaps to say but it just wont come out.

The CPTSD is the overall effect of everything I have been through.

A computing analogy is that I have really good processing power, but my memory is corrupted and my comms are intermittent.

Before I turned 50, I was able to compartmentalise all my traumas and disappointments and go through life thinking "I will get back on track to a normal life soon". It was then that I realised I had run out of time, my life was pretty much over (genuine midlife crisis?).
 
Now, 2 years later, I feel like I have been through an extended Dark night of the soul. That I am probably undergoing ego death, individuation, integration etc. Feeling like I am sick of going through my public life like I have one hand tied behind my back. Everyone thinking my invisible disability, is just me being lazy and uncommunicative. I would love to retire now but I have over ten years to go.

I have been told I am at a stage in life where I need to stabilize and conserve.

That I need to consider the question:
“How do I reduce load without detonating the life structures I have built, that keep me safe?”

Plus I am on a journey to refind my 'tribe' The old ones nolonger fit. Too much trauma/memory issues to fully fit in the intellectual/academic tribe. And I find the nonintellectual (people who want simple answers to complex problems) tribe to be too limiting and closed off.

Thanx

Hi,

I’m interested to hear from people who have or who have a child/children with DCD/dyspraxia and giftedness.

How did it manifest for you/them?

My 7yr old struggles with writing co-ordination, gross physical co-ordination and organisation of thoughts around writing. He has hand hypermobility, low muscle tone and poor core strength.

He can’t get a diagnosis. He meets 3 of 4 diagnostic criteria but the 4th (significant impact on daily function) he can’t meet as they say he is clever enough to mask/strategise through his day.

Irrespective of the diagnosis, we’ve started therapies to support the deficits found but a diagnosis would be helpful to access full support from school and for my son’s well-being…he doesn’t understand why he has to have all these interventions if there is nothing wrong with him and why he is so bad at Phys Ed and free writing.

Is this issue common in the 2E community- that high cognition delays or impedes diagnosis?

Thanks for your views and for sharing your experiences.