Gifted and talented at school

[SallyBear]

I am going to sound very uninformed so hopefully one if you will be able to help me!

DS was on the Gifted and Talented Register for History in Primary School - I never thought anything more than "well he does love history".

Yesterday he came back from Secondary School and told me that he is now on the G&T register for Art! I know that he loves designing and drawing but I've always thought his work looked a bit overly detailed. I'm now thinking that being on the register is double speak for something else. DS is 13 has Aspergers, Dyspraxia and Dyslexia. Currently undergoing SA. Opinions please?!

I am v v happy for your son that he is doing so well

Good for your DS! :) The G+T register is separate, but still counts as a special educational need, usually monitored by the SENCo, as they need to be stretched a bit more or they can drop out.

Quite a few kids are on registers for both G+T and learning disorders - DS1 has ASD but is also top of his year for maths so they've put him on both, and this means all his needs are met and his behaviour is better because he's not bored. I know other posters on this board have similar children.

No, it is usually the top whatever percent of dc's in each subject in each yr group.

The G and T reg is to show that they are meeting the needs of pupils of all abilities.

Dd3 was on for PE and Geography and Dd2 for ICT.

It didnt really lead to much for my older dd's it was more to acknowledge that they were v.good at whatever it was.

Have a look at the "dual or multiple exceptionality" page on the Potential Plus website. It has some interesting info on it.

Good luck

Well after being a bit dumbfounded by it all, and reading all your kind comments I asked him what it would mean. Apparently there are a select few who have been singled out to work with an illustrator. He will teach them how to draw cartoons and they will then utilise these skills to make a cartoon! Dear God! I was a bit flabbergasted. His Primary never did anything with the History talent so I'm really happy

It's nice that your DS is being recognised for his abilities. As others have said, it's completely separate from the SEN register.

I have one of those twice exceptional kids, btw. He's extremely bright with exceptional mathematical and visuo-spatial skills, but needs full time 1:1 because of his ASD/ADHD. He might be able to work out how to use the power functions to add working lights to a Lego Technic vehicle, without instructions, but he can't safely cross a road.

We're very used to managing peaks and troughs of our dc's abilities, but (speaking personally anyway) tend to forget that once the troughs are supported, it's the peaks which matter.

Temple Grandin genuinely is super-talented in her technical field: the fact of her ASD is mostly irrelevant to those who rely on that work. If the Silicon Valley brainboxes had dropped out of advanced calculus to make space for extra social skills sessions, I wouldn't be typing this (on MNSN, using an iPhone, via broadband)

Fingers crossed, and carefully nurtured, ds1's abilities might avoid his right to shelter and subsistence being dependent on the whim of an ATOS examiner. A psychologist told DS recently that the creator of Pokemon also has an ASD... so clearly not a barrier to his career

This is really interesting, especially Warmandfuzzy's comment about them needing to be stretched or ending up dropping out.

That's pretty much what the head of ds's secondary said to us at his interview this week. Basically that he is gifted, but his current school have failed to recognise the fact and properly engage and stretch him. I was gobsmacked really, as I'd read stuff about 'twice exceptional' kids a couple of years back when he WISC results came back and felt it applied to him, but the school was pushing back the other way and telling me I was expecting too much of him and stupidly I believed them and felt I was being unfair to him.

The head said pretty much what Mareeya said able, that once pupils like ds are properly supported and engaged they can take off and soar in their achievement, but if you ignore the lower spikes on their profile then they can't be expected to demonstrate the higher ones to proper effect.

I strongly suspect ds was on the G&T reg at primary throughout his infant years, as he was top of the top set without even trying, but the school has a policy of not sharing that information with the pupils or their parents. When he hit year 3 and started to struggle with anxiety and social skills everything went to pieces and his progress pretty much stalled at that point.

All that's holding him back in maths is his adamant refusal to do jottings/note-taking and his teacher told me at parent's evening that she doesn't bother discussing how he might better understand character motivation and emotion etc in literacy,"because, well, we know he can't do that don't we". She actually said, "I would probably discuss it with another pupil, give some examples and expect them to go away and think about it, but with ds1 there's not much point". As a result, the rest of his literacy group are being coached for level 6 sats and he isn't even allowed to attend the sessions . Mind you, the fact that the sessions are with teachers from the Academy that refused to take him might also have more than a little to do with it.

Mareeya, Satoshi Tajiri does indeed have ASD. Ds1 is extremely proud of that fact and also that his idea for Pokemon came out of his love of identifying and collecting bugs - just like ds!

Ds did a fab biography of him for a homework project this year.

Link to an article about him here for anyone who feels their dcs might be interested.

The funny thing about DS is his imagination and use of vocabulary. Teachers love him even with Dyslexia, peers think that he is seriously odd. Poor love. I hope that the school really do push him with his art work. He is choosing it for GCSE.

DS1's a lover of interesting words for things. It's the whole spiky profile problem again, though, since he struggles with some quite basic phraseology.

And I just told him about Satoshi Tajiri and he said "brilliant, like me!" He's not modest :o

It's wonderful to hear about your fantastic gifted and talented DCs! It is also fab to know the Pokemon inventor has ASD, the sky is the limit!

How fantastic for your ds. I would love to see some of his drawings (family of artists and illustrators!!)

If the Silicon Valley brainboxes had dropped out of advanced calculus to make space for extra social skills sessions, I wouldn't be typing this (on MNSN, using an iPhone, via broadband)

That is a brilliant quote. Another one for my wall

Similar here with the spiky profile and strength in vocab. Ds1's vocab is definitely his biggest strength. He writes amazing poetry, but often phrases basic speech awkwardly and regularly mispronounces simple words eg, mild is always pronounced milled.

One of his classmates told him this week that he deliberately started an argument with him about a certain computer game to goad him into using some of his 'geeky speak'. He's currently really upset about being called a geek all the time at school, no matter how much we tell him all about geek chic and how cool the Big Bang Theory etc is, he sees it as an insult.

Sally, I would love to see some of your ds's artwork, I bet it's awesome. Ds1 hates drawing with a vengeance.

Get him this moosemama - haven't read it but it sounds excellent www.amazon.co.uk/The-Geeks-Shall-Inherit-Earth/dp/140131077X

Oo, I might read it myself WarmAndFuzzy, but not sure ds is ready for it yet. I thought about getting him Freaks, Geeks and Asperger's Syndrome but having read the reviews feel that's another one I need to read first.

I recently bought him Asperkids Secret Book of Social Rules but on reading it myself felt it was something that perhaps we need to read together. Unfortunately, he's currently working his way through Tolkien, so it could be some time before we get around to it.