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Highly Able Children

308 replies

saisanne1 · 12/03/2017 07:40

Would like to hear from parents of highly children

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littleoldladywho · 12/03/2017 23:01

Yes, but what were the assessment scores from the EP? We're there any contextual weaknesses between the categories? Which tests did they do to rule out ADD?

saisanne1 · 12/03/2017 23:02

They don't do scores here, they do a different kind of test

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MSLehrerin · 12/03/2017 23:03

Littleoldladytoo I'm interested to hear this information too. Wonder if the wee one has had a referral to SALT re ASD as well?

saisanne1 · 12/03/2017 23:03

I think they do if it's private assessment, but this was done through the education system

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MSLehrerin · 12/03/2017 23:03

What tests did they do then saisanne1?

saisanne1 · 12/03/2017 23:04

Nope no referral, not enough traits of ASD

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littleoldladywho · 12/03/2017 23:06

what sort of emotional issues?
Are we talking bog standard over-excitabilities?
Or something else?
No one can really help unless you actually give some specifics instead of generalities. All of our kids are individuals. All gifted kids are individuals. Posting generic shite isn't helpful.
What are your child's assessment results, and what is he struggling with? Can you give some specific examples? Otherwise it just reads like 'my child is highly able and it has been very hard.' Why has it been very hard? At 4?

littleoldladywho · 12/03/2017 23:07

No WISC?
What testing battery did the EP use? We were in Scotland for three years and I don't recall anything else...

MSLehrerin · 12/03/2017 23:08

He will be starting school a year early? That's one form of additional support for gifted pupils in Edinburgh, if you're still there.

saisanne1 · 12/03/2017 23:09

They don't do IQ tests here, you have a meeting and give your kids strengths and weaknesses, the psychologist then goes into the nursery setting and assesses him there, how he reacts, reads with him, ask questions etc

Highly Able Children
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saisanne1 · 12/03/2017 23:10

That's how assessment are done here, unless you want a private IQ test

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Kleinzeit · 12/03/2017 23:10

It's a known fact that gifted children challange authority and generally do find nursery difficult.

Um no, they generally don't, so that's not a "fact" though it is a widely held belief. Sometimes the problem is that because they seem advanced adults expect them to be more mature in every way when mostly they are simply four years old. Sometimes they are advanced in some ways but actually behind in others. It can be hard to see that the child who is already speaking in whole complex sentences on abstract topics actually has very limited ability to interpret non-verbal communication and can't tell the difference between a firm voice and an angry voice; or that a child prefers adult company to other children because the adult will allow him to control the conversation and keep it within his own comfort zone whereas other children wont; or that a child insists on everyone following the rules not because he is so aware of the adult world but because he sees the world in black and white and can't cope with the shades of grey that other kids manage naturally.

The behaviour is good if you use a different stategy i.e. It took you 5 seconds to put than in the bin last time, let's see if you can do it in less.

That reminds me a bit of Charlotte Moore's "but he can do it, he just doesn't want to" and the psyschologist's response "that's the point - at his age he should want to". Like you I had to think of different communication strategies to get my DS to do what I wanted - but my DS has Asperger's. My friends whose children are simply gifted didn't have to find special ways to get their kids to do what they were told.

the educational psychologist said although some traits, he isnt autistic

They really can't "rule out" an ASC at four years old, certainly not the higher-functioning versions. The most they can say is that he is not showing enough signs to indicate an ASC right now but that can change as his development progresses and especially if he already shows traits. Your own criterion "Desire to organize people/things through games or complex schemas" sounds a lot more like high-functioning autism than giftedness. It's the application of what he's good at - complex abstract schemas - to what he may be bad at - social communcations.

The emotional needs of any child at any intellectual level can be different from the norm. That has nothing to do with being gifted or not. But I agree it is useful to have schools that will support both the advanced intellect and the weak social/emotional/communication skills. The difficulty we had with DS was that local special schools could support his disabilities but not his intellect.

Kids of young ages don't change that much that dates affect studies so much.

But the interpretation and classification of children's behaviour has changed a lot. No-one in the UK had even heard of Asperger's Syndrome until Lorna Wing started her work on it in the late 1970s / early 1980s.

A lot of his conversations are one sided about a topic of his interest,

That is common in with Asperger's. So if things don't improve I really would get him re-assessed when he's a bit older, possibly by a SALT.

saisanne1 · 12/03/2017 23:11

No he's starting when he's 5, when gifted kids show there emotions haven't caught up, they want to try and help that before school

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FunnysInLaJardin · 12/03/2017 23:11

DS2 is very bright, almost scarily so. He is also extremely compliant and generally very charming. He knows that is the best way to get along in the world. He is 7 and intellectually the equivalent of his 11 yo brother. Who incidentally is also very bright. Neither have any ASD traits, so its not a pre requisite.

MSLehrerin · 12/03/2017 23:12

I beg to differ on that. I know EPs in Scotland who routinely use WISC testing.

saisanne1 · 12/03/2017 23:14

Yes me too, but not I might be proved wrong but the educational one through the schooling system didn't say anything to me about doing it that way

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zzzzz · 12/03/2017 23:21

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zzzzz · 12/03/2017 23:24

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saisanne1 · 12/03/2017 23:27

Really is it, do you know first hand. The constant questions, easily bored, always on the go. I at 17yo brought up my 2 brothers and my sister 6,4 and a week old as my mum had a brain anurism and my son is completely different to bringing up all them. He's intense, constant and I wouldn't change him for the world. I know what I'm taking about and I'm sure alot of others who have gifted children do too, it's been taught, harder than looking after 3 kids, but I love my child more than anything in the world and I'll fight for him to get everything he deserves and needs in life!

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saisanne1 · 12/03/2017 23:29

Honestly tired of the comments that people know it all, every child is different but I know my son is special to me and that's all that matters

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saisanne1 · 12/03/2017 23:29

No more comment now, ive seriously had enough

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MSLehrerin · 12/03/2017 23:33

I think the phrase "my son is special to me and that's all that matters" sums this thread up perfectly. Concentrate on helping your little boy be four and enjoy his life. There's so much more to our time on earth.

zzzzz · 12/03/2017 23:33

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Sunshineandlaughter · 12/03/2017 23:34

No one said you didn't love him or that he wasn't special.

You just need to listen to people when they say to you it's not his intelligence that is causing him to misbehave. Ask his teachers what they would suggest. Of course celebrate his plus points but don't be blinkered - he may well be autistic

zzzzz · 12/03/2017 23:37

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