How many of you have gifted children?

He is now in 9th grade and has had both identifications since kindergarten. We have struggled like everyone else, but I would say that we always kept the two directions going-remediate the LD, but educate the child. This involved as much mainstreaming as possible with accomodations. He watches lots of educational TV and loves audio books. We have just this year enrolled him in a private college prep high school for learning disabled students. Too much special ed is remedial information not just instruction. He participated in GATE programs and we have first and formost seen him as an intelligent person who learns differently. I have a cousin who is an attorney with his own successful firm. He is blind. He doesn’t read anything. He uses his wonderful intelligence and technology as available. He is our role model. Don’t let anything stand in your way!!

Not gifted, though I’m not sure what is
required in our district, but my 12-yr-old
dyslexic son, has always tested years ahead
of his grade in math.

Upon entering middle school this year he was
put in honors math and what a boost that was
for his self esteem!

I know many LD kids have real strengths and
it is so important that the schools find ways
to encourage their growth in their strong areas.

good luck!
Anne

Cathy,

Despite my son’s LD in retrieval fluency, he is gifted in music and math. It was hard for a lot of folks to understand how he could have such a high IQ, be working at (or above as in math) grade level and still have an LD. I think there are many children who “fall through the cracks” in this respect. Their “giftedness” can often “mask” an LD and allow them to compensate to the point that few teachers realize they’re having trouble. This child has to exert an enormous amount of enery to be an average performer and this can result in one stressed out kid! He initialy presented as a behavior problem. Now that everyone is aware of his LD and certain remediations and cams are in place (most of the time), behavior in the classroom in no longer a problem.

You are right, then we get to deal with them blowing steam at
home. While the schools act like you are nuts…….

My son is gifted but has a problem with written expression and spelling. The school wouldn’t do an IEP except for gifted not ADHD too. We are now homeschoooling so he can do what he wants whether it’s 4th grade or 6th grade.He is much happier but I don’t know how long I can continue teaching him at home. I don’t feel qualified in some subjects and want him to at least go to a few classes such as math and science. Jan

Jan, At what point did you realize he had a problem with
these areas?