How to improve the social skills of a G&T child

[treetop1234]

DS is in nursery. She has been identified as very gifted(99% of non verbal reasoning) by an education psychologist. She is a little chatter box at home, but talks very little at school. She also appears not to listen well in class, and not to follow the instructions in the PE class like the other children do.

Would appreciate some advice as how we may improve the situation.

Why has she been assessed by an Education Psycologist?

Thanks for all the response. I'm so glad that I've found all of you. I hope you don't mind that I'll respond all the messages here.

--play date suggestion----
Thank you for the suggestions of doing play dates, I have done a few, not sure if they were too successful, but I shall organise a few more.

--why was she assessed by an education psychologist so early-
DD started her first nursery at 2.5. She is now 3.5 and is in a nursery class of a pre-prep school.

We taken her to see the education psychologist a couple months after she started her current school, because the school reported her doing below average, and she was so unhappy that it became unmanagable at home. Things has improved a lot since then(they have a special development program for her), and she now enjoys her time at the school.

-selective mutism?/a phase----
But she still talks very little, and I have been wondering if she has a selective mutism. If she does, how do we get her out of it. The school thinks it's her expressive language, which we disagree as she is talking for England (if I may borrow the phrase) at home or anywhere else as long as her parants are around.

If this is just a phase, could I ask how long it may last?

---have we put too much pressure on her-
I discovered that DD was gifted by accident when she was 17 month. While searching some activities for her to do, I stumbled across a research site in the US which has a list of characteristic of gifted children in the early years, and it described DD. I then went on to NAGC website, where I discovered that one big issue for the gifted is socialisition. Since then we have been very careful not to give her too much academic things to do, but things that would help develop her creativity and imigination, and let her to be herself, doing the things she likes to do.

thank you again for all your reponse,

WRT not following whole class instructions- just check she understands 'Everybody'.

Some children struggle with instructions if they are not given to them directly, so maybe some practice at home will help you to ascertain her understanding of complex instructions and rule this out.

squidgy,

Thank you for sharing your experience with your DS and that quite a few children have similar traits. It helpes a lot to know other gifted children went through similar phase, and it is likely to be a phase that would pass with time.

I hope she will in time find herself and her place in the world.

As for your question, she never really settled into any nursery until now. She was home with me until she was 2.5. It had been very difficult to find a suitable nursery to send her in. She is on the go all the time, and needs constant stimulation.

tethers,

Thanks for suggesting working through the instructions. I'll make up a few games of instructions to see how we getting on.

I think her understanding of things is alright, but get her to pay attention is difficult. She likes to be engaged in one activity or another, if it's circle time/discussion/teacher talking time, she finds it boring.

I'm trying some verbal games with her to try to get her to get used to just talking.

Have you had her hearing checked I was the gifted child (unfortunately IQ of over 140) who was struggling it was because I had glue ear and struggled to hear in the group situation.