|
19:37: Look closely at the Davidson requirements-- WISC and portfolio might be an option? Best of luck with your special girl--a lot of what you say resonates.
|
| 19:37 you could have describe my daughter in a lot of ways, though they have said she is ADHD. I am inclined to agree given my mother and two siblings have it. That said what you say about peers is huge. I just see so many of these kids growing up so fast that that it scares me and I have deliberately not allowed that in our house- we don't have cable, careful with movies etc. But what do you do about 4th classroom peers that have tongue rings? |
19:37, you have also really described my DD. She is a 4th grader, in a GT program, but still feels like the kids think she is weird. She also loves her dolls and definitely "plays young" vs. many of her classmates who are well into the pre-teen thing. A lot of the things you said really resonate. And yes, a teacher who "gets" her totally makes or breaks her school year.
Her scores were VCI 146, PRI 135, WMI 114, PSI 118, FSIQ 138, GAI 153. She is not diagnosed ADHD, but definitely has some of the behaviors. |
|
Well, maybe she is weird. So were Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Albert Einstein. They marched to the beat of their own drummers. My DC is weird too, really, based on what our culture currently expects. Think about it -- the ability to produce in certain ways, under certain time frames, certain work as they engage their peers and adults in even more prescribed ways. Lake Wobegon children -- all the children above average in everything. Are we all good at everything? No, we have strengths and weaknesses, which we allow ourselves to have as adults. But our kids in school? Nope. All skills, all the time with the right social norms on top of it.
Is your beautiful child "weird?" Most likely. And may have trouble gelling with the mainstream kids. My advice is to help her feel confident in your love for her so she can always have home as a sanctuary. And find multiple social outlets for her so she has more than school as a potential peer group (church or synagogue, scouts or camp fire, non-profit communities or volunteer groups, etc.). Best of luck to you all. |
|
19:37 here.
Have any of the posters with kids who share some of my daughter's traits ever read anything about Dabrowski's over-excitabilities? A teacher once suggested she might be ADHD but we didn't see it at all. After probing a bit and listening to our daughter I did some research and found articles on Dabrowski. When I first read about his over-excitabilities I was amazed at how closely much of it tracked with my daughter (and one of her siblings to a lesser extent), especially her keen senses. She has 20/10 vision, can hear the grass grow, tastes everything, feels everything (no labels in her clothes anymore) and smells everything to the point of distraction. As she's gotten older she has learned to tune out some of the barrage of sensory input that she receives. When she was in the early primary grades she was exhausted at the end of the school day and wanted nothing more than silence for the car ride home. This is an aspect of her world that teachers have had the hardest time understanding --- they think it's a huge advantage to have such keen senses but they don't realize how hard it is for a child to manage all this stimuli and concentrate when you hear every creak and whisper. And we do have a policy of not putting too many eggs in one basket. Our kids have their nuclear family, extended family, church community, neighborhood, school, summer swimming pool, and sport's teams to draw on for companionship. And they've happily ignored network television --- they do, however, love this show on cable called "Cake Boss." |
|
I'm new to this discussion but my DS sounds a lot like some of the children highlighted. Crazy WISC scores on everything but short term memory. He can't remember anyone's name unless he can associate it with a face on an on-going basis and then he never forgets it!
I just read one article on the over excitables. Boy do they hit home. Why hasn't someone told me about this???? |
|
New poster here. I wanted to make sure you guys knew about Feynman school in Mont Co. It's a school for gifted kids. The school is highly sensitive to the special needs if this population. They are very caring and knowledgable about managing issues like overexcitabilities and asynchronous development. Their guidance has been so helpful to me with my little guy and he is absolutely thriving there. My guy is super sensitive to the point of vomitting if his friend's lunch is too smelly, he'll hold his ears for extended periods if there is any chance of a loud noise and will literally break down sobbing if you play certain pieces of classical music that are particularily moving to him. He's a very bright boy who just turned 4. His current passions are musical theater (specifically Annie - his favorite song is Maybe....he says it's sad but filled with such hope) and ancient Mayan culture. I'm having a particularly tough time fielding the questions about the conquestadors......I can't wait for school to start this fall so I can tell him to ask his teacher! Her guidance in answering the "big" questions that come far earlier than expected has been invaluable.
They currently serve preschool through first grade so unfortunately it's not an option for for some of you at this point. You may still want to call and inquire because if they have a great enough demand for a higher grade earlier on they may be able to accommodate it. I'm really not sure but it couldn't hurt. They will eventually serve through grade 8. They are adding one grade a year to expand. |
|
[quote=Anonymous]19:37 here.
Have any of the posters with kids who share some of my daughter's traits ever read anything about Dabrowski's over-excitabilities? A teacher once suggested she might be ADHD but we didn't see it at all. After probing a bit and listening to our daughter I did some research and found articles on Dabrowski. When I first read about his over-excitabilities I was amazed at how closely much of it tracked with my daughter (and one of her siblings to a lesser extent), especially her keen senses. She has 20/10 vision, can hear the grass grow, tastes everything, feels everything (no labels in her clothes anymore) and smells everything to the point of distraction. As she's gotten older she has learned to tune out some of the barrage of sensory input that she receives. When she was in the early primary grades she was exhausted at the end of the school day and wanted nothing more than silence for the car ride home. This is an aspect of her world that teachers have had the hardest time understanding --- they think it's a huge advantage to have such keen senses but they don't realize how hard it is for a child to manage all this stimuli and concentrate when you hear every creak and whisper. And we do have a policy of not putting too many eggs in one basket. Our kids have their nuclear family, extended family, church community, neighborhood, school, summer swimming pool, and sport's teams to draw on for companionship. And they've happily ignored network television --- they do, however, love this show on cable called "Cake Boss." [/quote] The author, Pearl Buck has stated perfectly what you've described in your daughter with this quote: [i]The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: a human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him, a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create - so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating. [/i] |
|
I have never heard of the Feynman school. We have a super sensitive girl who is going into 7th grade so it's not an option but I am going to look into it if for no other reason than to let her teachers know that we are not crazy.
She is much more able to deal with the world's lights, sounds and smells now but it is still a challenge --- light bulbs humming and water pipes tapping in the classroom were a real distraction last year. She also hears just about everyone' s conversations so I warn teachers to be careful talking with her in the vicinity. At our house we hear "I heard that" when we aren't careful. And I love it when she HAS to read something that she thinks is beautifully written aloud to us. It's a challenge but once we figured it out we started to enjoy it. |
| Sometimes processing speed is lower in actual "gifted" children. |
---- Similar to my son in scores a curiois how your kid has been!!! We recently had my child tested and they were diagnosed with mild-mod ADD and dysgraphia. These were the scores from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale, IV. Verbal Comprehension 130 96% Visual spatial 109 70% Fluid reasoning. 104 58% Working Memory 115 84% Processing Speed 89 23% Full scale. 111. 77% His other tests all showed very high verbal, average math and problem areas stemming from anxiety/speed. they think his anxiety is part of the reason for the discrepancy between the high and low sub-scores. The neuropsychologists who tested him think he should avoid pressure cooker schools for middle school and I tend to agree but I also worry about focusing too much on these tests when choosing a school - he does very well in humanities and struggles a bit in math but I have. I way of knowing how he will cope with homework load etc given his slow processing speed. But here is no way of really knowing how a kid will do until you try.... not sure if we should consider schools like Maret, which is since an amazing place. Would be applying for 6th but not until 2018. It is hard to know what to do when a kid'a testing is so affected by test anxiety and how it will translate into school performance. We are assuming math tutors will be part of our routine no matter what... |
|
Sorry, pp here.
My son was NOT diagnosed with add and dysphasia. That as he prior poster. |
My kid's scores were similar too -- I'm not sure whether they are high enough for him to be considered 2E, but he certainly has scattered strengths and weaknesses. In addition to his WISC scores (below) he was also diagnosed with ASD: Verbal comprehension: 114 (82%) Perceptual reasoning: 131 (98%) Working memory: 116 (86%) Processing speed: 97 (42%) FSIQ: 121 (92%) GAI: 127 (96%) Is this considered 2E or not (since his verbal comprehension scores were just average)? |
No, this would not be considered 2E. He may or may not be considered gifted, but there is no learning disability indicated since both major areas of intelligence (verbal and perceptual) are within the average range. That being said, some argue that the processing speed of 97, though average, is about 1.5 standard deviations above the GIA, and would be considered a 'frustrational profile' for a learning and is highly associated with anxiety and depression. |
I'm the PP you were responding too. Like I said before, he is on the autism spectrum, which affects his reading comprehension and writing ability. But maybe autism isn't a learning disability? |