Highly Able Children

[saisanne1]

Would like to hear from parents of highly children

[saisanne1]

My son is 4 and just been assessed as highly able by a educational psychologist. It's been a long hard struggle, would like to hear from people going through the same

[IrnBruTortie]

What is he struggling with?

[tessiebear4]

What do they define as highly able?

[saisanne1]

He was struggling with a lot of things, behaviour, emotions, traditional teaching methods. A child who is excelling in one and more areas. He has self taught himself to read since the age of 2, he is now reading

[saisanne1]

age 5-7 books easily

[claraschu]

Being highly able is not a cause for struggle when you are 4. There must be something else going on.

[highinthesky]

Reading at 4 is not unusual.

When you say self-taught....has he no access to any kind of instruction? The priority should be to get him into the right school. Get this wrong and he may struggle to fit in with others, which could start a pattern for life.

I say this as someone who from a young age found my peers ridiculously thick. As an adult I've chosen to work on my emotional intelligence and that has helped.

[saisanne1]

Yes it is, if you look it up online, most highly able kids struggle in nursery and they do not respond well to traditional teaching methods and the curriculum set for their age group, it is not advanced enough for them, as they need constantly challenged, hence why he will now receive additional support, to challenge him through nursery and school, now he has been assessed

[saisanne1]

Yes I agree it's not usual, but he fits all the traits of a gifted/ highly able child also. I have gave him all the reading resources I can and this is why he is now reading fluently

[clarkeologist]

My Ds was also reading fluently when he started school aged (just) 4. The school assessed his reading age as 12+ at end year 1. He's year 3 now though and many of his peers are getting close to that level by now too. His vocabulary is still very advanced and he also excels at Maths but - my point is - early excellence in reading is quite common and usually levels out.

Were there any other factors other than early reading that signified he was highly able OP?

[saisanne1]

Unusual alertness, even in infancy
Rapid learner; puts thoughts together quickly
Excellent memory
Unusually large vocabulary and complex sentence structure for age
Advanced comprehension of word nuances, metaphors and abstract ideas
Enjoys solving problems, especially with numbers and puzzles
Often self-taught reading and writing skills as preschooler
Deep, intense feelings and reactions
Highly sensitive
Thinking is abstract, complex, logical, and insightful
Idealism and sense of justice at early age
Concern with social and political issues and injustices
Longer attention span and intense concentration
Preoccupied with own thoughts—daydreamer
Learn basic skills quickly and with little practice
Asks probing questions
Wide range of interests (or extreme focus in one area)
Highly developed curiosity
Interest in experimenting and doing things differently
Puts idea or things together that are not typical
Keen and/or unusual sense of humor
Desire to organize people/things through games or complex schemas
Vivid imaginations (and imaginary playmates when in preschool)

[saisanne1]

He also has all these characteristics, his emotional side still hasn't caught up with his abilities

[saisanne1]

It isn't all based on what they can do, all these other factors count too

[highinthesky]

I can understand why you want to develop DS' academic skills OP, but would urge you to look at the social side too.

In your position I would probably expose him to general knowledge (e.g. discussing news stories daily) and develop his critical thinking skills.

[saisanne1]

Yeah now that's he's been assessed by a educational psychologist and they are now on the same page as me, he will now get challenged in nursery

[SuburbanRhonda]

OP, you might want to get your son's name removed from your third post.

[Sewingbeatshousework]

My son was never assessment by a physiologist but is 'highly abled' in several subjects, mainly maths, science & reading. He was constantly in trouble at nursery, had to use a behaviour book each day. When he started school his teacher noted his abilities & thankfully was able to push him forward in the relevant subjects. His behaviour drastically improved after this.

[saisanne1]

My sons behaviour has changed drastically last week, as I had his key worker changed, she seemed to be on his case constantly and thought he had ADHD, she always caught the tail end of things with other children, so he was always blamed, also caught her talking very ubruptly twice to him, which for gifted children causes major meltdowns, I suspected it was her as when she was off sick he was more settled. I'm hoping now that they know if needs are different, things will settle for good now

[saisanne1]

I was told by my doctor the school would pick up on things, but I couldn't leave it any longer, as he was starting to withdraw from nursery

[Elanetical]

He may be both highly able and have ADHD, mind you. That list of characteristics would have largely described me at pre-school and I have ADHD in addition to being intelligent. Just something for you to bear in mind.

[saisanne1]

Yeah he was assessed for ADHD, but was found not to have it, as he can concentrate for long periods of time, on things that interest him

[saisanne1]

Yeah I discussed all that with her, but she knew exactly what she was looking for and ruled it out

[SuburbanRhonda]

Just out of interest, who did the ADHD assessment?

The paediatric team at our hospital would consider age 4 way too young for an ADHD diagnosis so he could still be diagnosed further down the line. Might be a good idea to keep it in mind.

[SuburbanRhonda]

he can concentrate for long periods of time, on things that interest him

That can also be a characteristic of ASD.