Reshowing "growing pains of a teenage genius" 8pm tonight bbc3

[RodThompson]

Just in case you missed it!

If anyone has any questions from it feel free to ask.

Thanks for the reminder...watching now!

Very interesting. Hadn't seen it before.

I found it fascinating. The boy seemed lovely. I did well up a few times (my dd's are 2 and 3 months so haven't a clue to their intellectual ability).
I was v surprised at the lack of support the system gives. Does the family have to pay themselves for the ou degree? Would he be better off at private school? Would they snap him up and waver the fees? The school he was at was fantastic though.

We really enjoyed the programme. What a down to earth family who didn't seem pushy at all, everything was geared towards Cameron's well being. The motivation of Cameron was impressive, he has such drive.
I thought the Cambs Prof's advice was excellent and I loved his comments about math 'geeks' and how they are all ASD!

I think I know what you're going to say to the private school suggestion, Rod!

It is a lovely programme about a lovely family, I really enjoyed watching it.

Skinnygirlbethany......he gets a student grant which covers most of the fees. We pay a small contribution.

Have looked at private school but not a big fan. Could have got a scholarship to a private school but not interested.

I'm taking it your the dad, Rod. If so I would like to say it was great to see your attitude and how you guys put him first, over the academic things. You have 3 lovely children!

Thank you sknnygirlbethany!

What do your children think of the documentary? Is Cameron enjoying his fame? It must feel very flattering to have compliments on your parenting ablity from people who you have never met. Has Cameron seen the comments on the internet about him?

Does Cameron have a statement of special need? I think its unfair that the family have to pay any of the tutition fees for a degree done by a 14 year old. By law Cameron has to study maths until 16 years old and school maths teachers aren't able to teach him. I think you have a strong case for arguing that a statement of special need should cover the ALL the costs of a maths degree or a maths summer camp at the age of 14.

Finally seen the programme. What a lovely kid! Imre Leader taught me at Cambridge, and his courses were fab. Totally right about mathematicians being the weird ones. I'm sure Cameron would fit right in at Cambridge, when he's old enough. I hope he succeeds in keeping his interest in maths by enriching and broadening his knowledge rather than just getting through exams.

Hi reallytired,
Yes we do get compliments but we also get criticism. We have even had a few threats of people wanting to assault cameron! For forums such as this people here understand the challenges we face and can see what we are trying to do but as people on here know the public at large dont understand gifted children.
Cameron has seen most of the positive comments from people and a few of the negative ones.
He doesnt have a statement, in fact we were formally turned down for it on the basis he wasnt sruggling academically. I will continue to argue that sen needs to include gifted children but at the minute it doesnt.
Cameron hasnt been in a school maths class since the age of 12 and the local authority have had nothing to do with his maths education - their choice - since.

Cameron is on a maths break now until february and is looking at olympiad puzzles and encrichment material.

Started to watch - am finding it fascinating (but may have to finish tonight after doing a bit more work).

I have three kids as well. My eldest is severely autistic (non-verbal aged 12) but a complete genius on google maps (can go somewhere once, then find it on the map straight away even when it's in the middle of nowhere, can find 'a green bus' in seconds - all self taught of course, can find places on google maps that he last went to 10 years ago when he was 2 etc etc). His youngest brother is a bit of maths whizz (not like Cameron). Just wanted to say hi really and that I'm enjoying watching the programme. Lovely family. I'm also very impressed with how calm Emma is! DS1 would have been in the back of the lorry, in the cab of the lorry, under the lorry and shouting his head off. :)

Haven't watched it all yet, as I really do have to do half an hour of work before the bus arrives, and so apologies if this gets answered (either as a not possible or as something that you have considered) but would some sort of base for kids with AS in a mainstream school be suitable for Cameron? They could cater for all his education except maths which you could do outside school (either via the OU or OU plus some other sort of arrangement - postgrad students or something for fun maths problems?). I know that the set up varies from area to area but I do know some academically able children who have benefitted enormously socially and in terms of their AS and anxieties and just being generally happy from such an arrangement. Obviously that wouldn't work for the maths but might help him with friendships and being around staff who understand AS? As I said apologies if that has been rejected for some reason.

Will watch the rest later.

I watched it today. Cameron looked to be a lovely lad with a really fun sense of humour.

Enrichment versus acceleration is something that we have debated as parents often with our dd. It's so hard because it is much easier I think to go down the accelerated learning route. Its much harder to find people who are able to help them with real enrichment and perhaps also with Cameron because he loves numbers so much and he probably likes quantifiable results those exam results have been so satisfying to him (until they caused him distress on the OU)

I think you've taken a very wise decision to go down the route you are doing now, I think ultimately it will be far more rewarding to Cameron and really develop his deep maths skills. I wish him all the best and a lifetime of discovering how fun maths is :)

Aha- I should have watched the whole thing before commenting!

Watched it all - what great advice from Imre Leader.

And very lovely to see his friendships developing. I have to admit I very quickly had a soft spot for Tim who had me in stitches.

My evil genius kind of watched this program through the crack in the door....I suspect he may have trawled the web later but there is no way I am asking him at the moment.

He did not want to know the details about someone else it was enough to know there are a few out there like him but he went off smiling forming a new plan for Aspies to take over the known world. Until his Ed Psych managed to work out how to persuade him to stay in school he was as restful as the spanish inquistion and led rebellions so hurrah for main stream schools that do try and cater for twice exceptional kids.

[Mine is a perishing handful of ADHD, Aspergers and a brian that occasionally goes 'ping'. He is gifted in maths, IT, sciences esp physics, and extremely gifted in all aspects of engineering, walked out of the extra Uni stuff his school arranged as it was 'boring and he knew that'. He is not restful to live with and is at the mo aiming to study civil engineering and owning a large train set to play with - Virgin.........]