This is not a troll question, I'd honestly like to know re: AAP Centers and "quirky" kids

[Anonymous]

OP here. The answers got a bit off track there for a bit, but I thank those that addressed my initial query. My dilema is I have a child who I think needs much more work on his social skills than academic at this point. He's not on the spectrum or anything, but he can have trouble relating to kids that aren't just like him (quiet but with know-it-all-tendencies). If he's going to succeed in middle school, high school and life in general, this needs to change.

[Anonymous]

The nice thing about AAP for a kid with know-it-all tendencies is that there he will encounter other kids who also know it all. He will likely find that trait annoying in other kids and might eventually change his own behavior accordingly. Maturity helps a lot with this tendency, also.
In the regular classroom, he likely will usually know more than many of the other kids, so he won't get the experience of having a peer who might know more about certain subjects than he does.

[Anonymous]

Actually, I have. Of course, I have never understood what quirky means. Does quirky mean aspergers? Or is quirky kids the ones that are as happy to talk about astronomy as play tag?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. The answers got a bit off track there for a bit, but I thank those that addressed my initial query. My dilema is I have a child who I think needs much more work on his social skills than academic at this point. He's not on the spectrum or anything, but he can have trouble relating to kids that aren't just like him (quiet but with know-it-all-tendencies). If he's going to succeed in middle school, high school and life in general, this needs to change.

This was also our concern for our child when she was younger. She just didn't relate to her peers at all and teachers also treated her differently (given different work or assigned to help others) which I think set her a part in the other kid's eyes as well. We chose to accept the AAP offer more in hopes of finding a better social fit than anything else. It worked for her. She slowly came out of her shell in third and forth grade. We also encouraged lots of sports and activities outside of school that allowed her to interact with other kids where academics didn't figure in. By middle school, she was a social butterfly with friends in AAP and outside of it.

[Anonymous]

I use quirky to describes kids who are excited and enthusiastic about subjects that are out of the mainstream and very different from what most of the other kids are interested in. Typically, other kids don't "get" them and may even look at them funny when they talk about the subjects that so interest them.

So, yes, the kids who are as happy to talk astronomy as play tag.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actually, I have. Of course, I have never understood what quirky means. Does quirky mean aspergers? Or is quirky kids the ones that are as happy to talk about astronomy as play tag?

Yes, when many parents describe their child as "quirky" they mean that DC has a mild of autism. It could mean mild Asperger's or mild HFA. IME, it also means the child has peer to peer engagement issues. It seems to be in the "mainstream" as it was part of a joke on 'Big Bang Theory'.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, I have. Of course, I have never understood what quirky means. Does quirky mean aspergers? Or is quirky kids the ones that are as happy to talk about astronomy as play tag?

Yes, when many parents describe their child as "quirky" they mean that DC has a mild of autism. It could mean mild Asperger's or mild HFA. IME, it also means the child has peer to peer engagement issues. It seems to be in the "mainstream" as it was part of a joke on 'Big Bang Theory'.

I disagree. Most kids have quirks. Some have many quirks. Some have social difficulty in addition to quirks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, I have. Of course, I have never understood what quirky means. Does quirky mean aspergers? Or is quirky kids the ones that are as happy to talk about astronomy as play tag?

Yes, when many parents describe their child as "quirky" they mean that DC has a mild of autism. It could mean mild Asperger's or mild HFA. IME, it also means the child has peer to peer engagement issues. It seems to be in the "mainstream" as it was part of a joke on 'Big Bang Theory'.

I disagree. Most kids have quirks. Some have many quirks. Some have social difficulty in addition to quirks.

However, it is the word that is used in the ASD community to describe a mild ASD child. The meaning of the word has changed in the past 5-10 years. English is a living language and different words evolve. IME in the ASD community and beyond social difficulty is the main reason parents call their children "quirky".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I have two profoundly gifted kids. Nothing is going to make them like the other kids. My kids have decent social skills. They just fit in with kids that are 2-3 standard deviations below them in intelligence. The problem isn't that my kids are lagging in social development. The problem is that the other kids are lagging behind them in in intellectual development.

+1000 I was so tired of watching both of my kids wait for the class to catch up...yet another year of watching them wait to catch up. Couldn't take it anymore and moved them to a more rigorous school. Everyone is happier.

OMG - the OP's question was about quirky kids in AAP centers - not how "PROFOUNDLY gifted" are your kids and how far ahead of the rest of the world are they?

+1000

My kids are no where near proudly gifted. Even the admin says that the school is too easy.

[Anonymous]

After years in AAP, I saw very few quirky kids. The real quirks were in gen ed. As they got older I saw more "party down" kids in gen ed -- at 10-11 years old. As for know it all -- that is fine in AAP, the teachers just roll with it. It is just another behavior. GL, OP -- it will work out fine.

[Anonymous]

LOL proudly gifted oops, profoundly gifted -- not mine! Do not need to be so very gifted to do well in AAP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, I have. Of course, I have never understood what quirky means. Does quirky mean aspergers? Or is quirky kids the ones that are as happy to talk about astronomy as play tag?

Yes, when many parents describe their child as "quirky" they mean that DC has a mild of autism. It could mean mild Asperger's or mild HFA. IME, it also means the child has peer to peer engagement issues. It seems to be in the "mainstream" as it was part of a joke on 'Big Bang Theory'.

I disagree. Most kids have quirks. Some have many quirks. Some have social difficulty in addition to quirks.

However, it is the word that is used in the ASD community to describe a mild ASD child. The meaning of the word has changed in the past 5-10 years. English is a living language and different words evolve. IME in the ASD community and beyond social difficulty is the main reason parents call their children "quirky".

I consider my kid to be quirky, and he is nowhere near the spectrum. Quirky kids have fun and interesting personalities and do things in an out of the box way, as opposed to the stereotypical dime-a-dozen kid. Quirky should not imply disability. I suspect that using the word "quirky" to describe a child with actual defecits is just a misguided euphemism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, I have. Of course, I have never understood what quirky means. Does quirky mean aspergers? Or is quirky kids the ones that are as happy to talk about astronomy as play tag?

Yes, when many parents describe their child as "quirky" they mean that DC has a mild of autism. It could mean mild Asperger's or mild HFA. IME, it also means the child has peer to peer engagement issues. It seems to be in the "mainstream" as it was part of a joke on 'Big Bang Theory'.

Yeah, there is even a book about quirky kids which is smaller print says something like it's a guide to working with kids who have Asperger's, HFA and ADHD. Doesn't mean all kids with quirks fit these dxes, but some do.

[Anonymous]

Nope. Never heard "quirky" as a word for kids on the spectrum. Quirky is what odd, different, peculiar. Maybe parents of kids on the spectrum like the word as it sounds better. But, please, do not be misguided. It means what it means. Nothing more and nothing less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I use quirky to describes kids who are excited and enthusiastic about subjects that are out of the mainstream and very different from what most of the other kids are interested in. Typically, other kids don't "get" them and may even look at them funny when they talk about the subjects that so interest them.

So, yes, the kids who are as happy to talk astronomy as play tag.

Yes, while those in the autism community may use the word essentially as code for various behaviors on the autism spectrum, that is not the way most people would use and understand the word. The majority of people will use the word in the above manner.