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Gifted and talented

Talk to other parents about parenting a gifted child on this forum.

Original poster

Anyone's dc seen peter congdon or joan freeman?

123 replies

mrsshears · 27/09/2011 06:32

My dd will be having an assessment and we are looking at it being either of these two.
Does anyone have any experiences with either?and if so what can we expect on the day.
TIA

*I do not wish this to be turned into a debate about assessments,this is what we have decided to do and have thought long and hard about what is right for our dd.

OP posts:
iggly2 · 27/09/2011 10:10

Joan Freeman was on the program "child genius". I did not like how she came across.

Lulworthblue · 27/09/2011 16:08

I emailed her to ask about a consultation and never had a reply fwiw.

iggly2 · 27/09/2011 17:52

I found it odd how one minute she did not want to test siblings...... the next she was! I am not criticising her assesments just her morals and ethics.

belledechocchipcookie · 27/09/2011 17:54

Nope, you don't really need to pay for someone to tell you that your child's bright. I don't think it really serves any purpose.

Original poster
mrsshears · 27/09/2011 18:01

belle with respect i have stated in my op that i'm not up for a debate regarding testing,and there are alot of reasons why we have decided to go for it and it certainly is not just "for someone to tell us our child is bright"

OP posts:
belledechocchipcookie · 27/09/2011 18:16

Hmm I'm not debating.

Original poster
mrsshears · 27/09/2011 20:09

my op says "anyone's dc seen peter congdon or joan freeman" and i have also posted that we have made the desicion to go for assesment.
There is no point in posting when you can't help with my question and also to say that what we have decided serves no purpose,when i have clearly stated that is what we have decided to do.
I didnt ask for your opinion on having my daughter assessed,why bother posting!

OP posts:
belledechocchipcookie · 27/09/2011 20:24

You're incredibly rude.

Original poster
mrsshears · 27/09/2011 20:34

I found your post rude actually.
It was unnecassary,yes fine if i had asked for views on the appropriateness of assessments but i did'nt.

OP posts:
belledechocchipcookie · 27/09/2011 20:37

Goodness, you're also very argumentative!

Original poster
mrsshears · 27/09/2011 21:10

belle if you cant help me then why bother wasting your time postingConfused

OP posts:
Original poster
mrsshears · 28/09/2011 13:03

We have decided to go for joan freeman.
I think she will probably be the right one for dd,ufortunatley she doesnt have any avalibility for about 5 months,so we have to wait until then unless a cancellation comes up.

OP posts:
Colleger · 28/09/2011 22:30

Having experience of Joan twice you should stay away. Her views are antiquated and she does not understand the modern day education system. The reports we received were also vague.

Original poster
mrsshears · 28/09/2011 22:41

Thats interesting colleger thank you.
You say you experienced her twice? was this with 2 different DC?

OP posts:
Evilclown · 29/09/2011 14:16

I used Peter Congdon and he was superb.

Ds is not easy at the best of times and he was able to see past the bullshit and work through the resistance that ds put up without ds being aware of it. A huge feat in itself.

Joan freeman is very anti acceleration which is why I stayed away. She has a long waiting list and costs a fortune.

Peter Congdon also has extensive experience with left handedness which ds is.

It is necessary to test sometimes, especially with a child who has a multitude of issues, which ds has.

We all do things differently, lets not disagree.

latesummer · 29/09/2011 14:55

I am sure no one will be testing just because their child is bright. It will be becasuse there are issues and it can be really helpful in addressing those. Unfortunately i have never used either of these professionals though so cant help other than to say go ahead if there are issues as your childs happiness is paramount. It was incredibly helpful for us.

blackeyedsusan · 02/10/2011 18:01

curious to know why people decided to test and what were the outcomes with regards to school. (not debating rights or wrongs, just curious)

Evilclown · 03/10/2011 10:16

I tested because something was clearly very wrong in ds's life.

It is a very long story, but he was very unhappy and disturbed and his behaviour became unmanageable.
We went through various systems and ended up at CAMHS. Initially he was diagnosed with ADHD,ASD and they were looking at Tourettes. We struggled on and I took him back because I felt that something was still lurking below the surface.

On this vist he saw that Consultant who ran a few tests and pronounced him profoundly gifted. He recommended full IQ testing.

I got him tested and he blew off the charts. I was aware he was bright, but I was terribly shocked at the results.

It is, in a lot of ways a huge curse and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

However it enabled me to advocate for him, with proof in my hands. He moved schools a few times because they were unable to accomadate him and now has a full bursary in the independent sector. He is subject accelerated in most areas and has other accomadations there.

HTH.

notjoan · 03/10/2011 10:26

I don't like Joan Freeman. For someone who is supposed to know about these things,she has a very simplistic attitude to giftedness.

She thinks that if you find out that a child has a high IQ and label it as gifted then that labelling will cause problems. Much better to ignore it all.Hmm

However, as evilclown as demonstrated, it is often totally the other way round. The child already has problems and it is only when the root cause (or one of the root causes) is found, i.e. giftedness, that a solution can be formulated.

And, yes, some of her TV is very dubious.

Evilclown · 03/10/2011 12:56

notjoan

Have you used joan freeman?

blackeyedsusan · 03/10/2011 13:11

that is helpful evilclown. dd is bright but it does not seem to be causing her problems. we are lucky.(someone did suggest she was asd in nursery though, and seeing her records I can see why. some of the traits have been put down to hypermobile joints though and I suspect a bit of immaturity being a young 3)

it is hard work dealing with a bright child, but to try and get school to put provision in place for profoundly gifted sounds near to impossible. how old was he when tested? it sounds like things are working out for him now though, school wise at least.

Evilclown · 03/10/2011 14:24

He was first seen by Camhs at 4 then again at 5 or so.

I waited to get him tested at 6 so that he could take the WISC rather than the WPPSI, the pre school version, because I was advised that he would encounter ceiling issues.

As it was he did and extended scoring was used. The research I have done, and believe I have done enough research to get a Phd in giftedness, suggests that ASD and giftedness present identically.

Lots of resources here.

www.sengifted.org/articles_index.shtml

And here

www.davidsongifted.org/db/browse_by_topic_articles.aspx

iggly2 · 04/10/2011 18:04

Evilclown what sort of school did you settle for (I know it is independent)? In what environment are the difficulties your child experienced most noted. I know I am lucky that Ds is happy and we have no problems . I just thought it would be useful for those that post asking what sort of school is best to opt for (I know it depends on the child).

Evilclown · 05/10/2011 12:26

It is an independent school with children aged 3-8. He goes to the senior part and is accelerated. He is also subject accelerated for most subjects, by various degrees.

He wanted to go to this school, so sat for a scholarship and a bursary tops it up to 100%. It is a very flexible school and that is what has made it work so well. Once he has finished the work of one year he is allowed to move up at a faster pace, which is what he needs. A school that listens to parents and is prepared to adjust the curriculum to fit is most important.

Ds had lots of problems at primary level. In reception he started school reading fluently and writing pages and pages, but was still made to sit and practice writing three sentences, which is all the top group were allowed to do. He is always at his worst when held back and not allowed to progress at his own pace.

He was restricted and unhappy as he was held back and started working independently at home.

A high achieving school is not necessarily the answer, in my experience they can be very inflexible and not willing to accommodate exceptional children.

HTH

iggly2 · 05/10/2011 12:56

Thanks evilclown. It is interesting what you have said about:

"A high achieving school is not necessarily the answer, in my experience they can be very inflexible and not willing to accommodate exceptional children."

This is a view that has crossed my mind (elder sister very bright full scholarship to one of the very top UK schools and hated it-it was very set in its ways, she left and thrived in another school).

Your school sounds very similar to DS's. His has small classes and is very flexible (he is one year class advanced -though would have been nearly the eldest in his year and he is tall for age). Certain subjects they let him work at own pace through syllabii and give extensive 1-2-1.

This has been really helpful as ocassionally I worry should I go for a "higher up the league table" school. Did this ever worry you? What I have noticed as well is those schools that start at 3 maybe less selective (you cannot are clever children at that age very well!) and they do not want to kick out children who have gone all through the primary part prior to starting the scondary part. Surely an element of the success of selective academic schools that start at 11 is that they only accept the brighter children!

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