Instead of starting threads taking the piss out of G&T children why don't you all just...

[PhantomOfTheChocolateCakeAvena]

stop it. It's pathetic.

Thanks.

The risk of being bullied for being very highly intelligent is, as far as I can see, significantly and probably dramatically less than for having learning difficulties and other disabilities. I bet kids who are super clever, good at sport, confident and goodlooking are the least likely to be bullied out of anyone.

I really don't think that being weirdly clever is some automatic passport to a different planet. I know stupidly clever people who are socially at ease. It's not the cleverness that makes someone like that. It's something else. Easier to help if you separate them out I think.

I used odd in the odd not common place sense not as a synonym.

But thinking about it your son is odd because he has autisim some children are odd because they are clever I don't see your distinction really.

How old is your son BTW and is he genius/exceptional/Stephen Hawkings clever or just fairly bright clever?

I just watched Barack Obama on TV, being charming, goodlooking, witty and socially at ease.
I think Bill Gates lives a pretty fantastic life, pots of money, lovely wife, three kids, doing amazing amounts of good around the world.
They seem to be living very well on our planet.

Ahh where we differ then Jimjams because IME exceptionally clever people inhabit a different plane often because they are in fact exceptionally clever. Not for another distinct reasons which can be identified but because that is what/who they are.

but of course not all.

Anything that makes you stand out from the crowd is a risk for bullying. I was the brightest child in the class, had glasses, freckles and ginger hair; I was not the most bullied girl (that honour was divided between the poorest "smelly holes-in-the-knickers" girl and the fat one) but that might also have been cos I was bf with the popular sporty (yet academically dim) girls.

Our slower boys (yes, they were all boys) did not get bullied, they mostly did the bullying. None of them had serious SN afaik, just needed remedial help with reading etc. We didn't have any real SN children in our class (or school either)

ds is 9. They assessed him at his last school as exceptionally gifted, they had alof of very bright children there but he was so advanced he was not on the literacy chary. I thank god it's no more. I do read parents gloat and it does make he laugh. They don't know how hard it is, just getting him to attempt to fit in.

If you can't see a difference between being autistic and being clever then that tells me you don't have an autistic child.
Being clever doesn't make you unable to cope with small changes in rules, to flap your hands, to have emotional meltdowns, to be unable to have a normal conversation, being prone to crippling irrational fears and phobias... and I could go on and on and on.
THat's why Aspergers is a disability and being clever isn't.

Some of the cleverest people out there (such as Hamilton who was an extraordinarily clever Biologist) was not recognised as clever until well into adulthood.

And of course I am talking about adults, many of whom will as they got older learned how to live in the social norm or became confident enough or indeed successful enough to live their own way.

Children are still learning.

Even Stephen Hawking seems to have a pretty good life. His brain hasn't exactly held him back.

ds1 won't get bullied at school. Unfortunately if you read the papers you find that adults with LD's get thrown off bridges or abused so I tend not to read the papers anymore.

Exactly Jimjams. He seems to have somehow struggled through with a G&T label hanging over his head.

oh bloody hell I want to go to bed and ds1 is still running around.

I think we all have traits of some learning disability in us somewhere. Whether it's being socially inapt (sp?) or not wanting eye contact or to have a cuddle. There are more people diagnosed now than 10 years ago because of the increase in knowledge.

Yes, you too can share in the glory of being autistic

Oh don't agree with that at all.

Mabanana of course I see the difference and apologies if you think I am being rude. I was trying to say autistic children display or act in way which makes them odd. Exceptional children can too - they ignore, they are unable to make small talk, they don't want to play in the same way etc. this makes them odd. To the greater school playground both sets are odd - hence fair game.

And if they were bullied, then I would put good money on the fact that it was not their intelligence that made them so.

You are right cheesesarnie: it is bullying. I know several parents of Gifted children who could never discuss their problems with other parents because of the nastiness at the schoolgate. It's no better on here really and it's shameful. So much for the MN philosophy of "We believe that by pooling knowledge and experience, parents can make each other's lives easier ... if there's one thing all of us could do with, it's some moral support."

MAybe if parents concentrated on social skills and playing at preschool and primary, instead of pushing them to read and write, the really clever ones (NOT with any additional need like asd) would do better in the playgound and be much happier?

I have a very very clever kid, but I wouldn't say gifted. No trouble with bullying or sadness, no getting bored at school as she enjoyed doing whatever everyone else was doing, taught herself many parts of her education, found school very easy. happy was all I wanted and that is what I got. So what if she got 11 A*s and 4 A's at a level, she is now studying at uni to be what she whats to be (and it isn't majorly academic) She wants to be a conductive education teacher and work with kids with cerebral palsy

I have dyslexia and dyspraxia, I also have an IQ of 154...I got bullied for attracting the best looking boy at the neighbouring school! go figure

The differences even out for most once we reach adulthood, you rarely hear of a gifted adult

I do not agree at all that high intelligence means poor social skills. As I said, Barack Obama is clearly an exceptionally intelligent man, yet he is also sporty, goodlooking, incredibly socially adept and witty.
If a child is clever but has poor social skills why on earth focus on the cleverness when that's not what's causing the problem?

Just not if your child's G&T fembear.