what test?

Hi Molly.

If you haven’t already done so, I strongly suggest you post this in the parenting and teaching forums as well as here. This forum seems to get the least amount of traffic.

Good luck to you.

Thanks, Barb. I had put in teaching, also. But not in parenting. I’ll go there now.

Molly

kj

Molly,
You may wich to pursue specific modifications to allow your child to really demonstrate his true potential in the classroom. Most states mandate a prerefferal process before a child is referred for a psych-educational evaluation that specific modification could be attempted through. I would contact his teacher and request a student support team meeting in which they may be able to provide such accomodations such as allowing him to express his ideas into a tape recorder and then transcribing them. IF modifications fail to assist his progress, an evaluation by his school (at his school’s expense) would be warranted, by the district, co-op, or county psychologist.

The snafoo you may have is that your child is not failing. States are currently set up under the learning disability discrepancy model in which a child may have a LD if there is a sigificant discerpancy between IQ and academic performance (which soundsl ikely in you case if your child has a 140+.)

You are correct inpursuing that OT evaluation as well; however, this may also be pursued through the LEA (local school.)

Best of luck!

He’s 8 years old with an IQ of 146. I think you need to stress how unimportant grade school is.

His IQ puts him light years ahead of any of his teachers so don’t be surprised if they are not up to the task of educating this little boy.

I would strongly reccomend private school like Sylvan or at least a good tutor. Trying to make him “get with the program” is a bad idea and it will fail.

Many children at age 8 have writer’s block. Given time this boy will amaze you. Because he is special don’t rely or even expect the school to get it right. You will need to educate him. Hopefully he will learn inspite of the school.

I agree the grades are unimportant. The work ethic and study skills are not. I was a gifted underachiever myself. I never learned how to work, how to study, etc. Everything just came easily and I skated through to junior college. But when I went to University, I hit the wall. Suddenly I needed to study and work for my classes. It was a total shock. In the end I didn’t finish my degree.

I don’t want my son to have the same experience.

Molly

Have him learn from your mistakes. Let him know that you understand his difficulties. Also let him know that he can overcome those difficulties.

I disagree with the Guest. I think grades are important; I also think it’d be good for him to learn the importance of education at a young age. Social skills are also important for his age and I’d recommend you’d not put him in home schooling—if anything a school for kids who are gifted as well. Helping him learn to utilize his potential now I think is crucial.

[quote=”Misanthropist”]I disagree with the Guest. I think grades are important; I also think it’d be good for him to learn the importance of education at a young age. Social skills are also important for his age and I’d recommend you’d not put him in home schooling—if anything a school for kids who are gifted as well. Helping him learn to utilize his potential now I think is crucial.[/quote]

School and education are not mutually exclusive. Education will happen independently of schools.

If social skills are in question put him in the cub scouts. In a toxic school all a kid will really learn is how to play the game. A child will learn unfairness and ridicule. He will learn that competition replaces cooperation. He will learn aboiut double standards. He will learn all about injustice. He will learn the worst kind of politics. He will learn that honor doesn’t count for much but As and Bs do. He will learn how to be bullied or how to bully. We will see that rules are enforced selectively and he will learn to strive for mediocrity.

He might also make a friend. Besides, he’s going to have to learn to tolerate normal folk. Trust me, if he does learn to utilize his potential when he’s older I’d suspect he’d have a hard time interacting with other people, considering he’s better than 98% of the population..

Misanthropist

I’m not sure I understand your point. It sounds like you are saying I should try and contain his intelligence in order for him to be able to have friends. He is very social and has friends from the magnet class and friends from the playground.

I certainly don’t think <he is “better” than 98% of the population> as you stated, and neither does he. He does learn things differently and faster than most 8 year olds, but one the best things about his class is there are kids even smarter than he is. And they all have strengths and weaknesses, just like everyone else.

He does know of course that he is in a program, there was no way to avoid that, but he doesn’t know his IQ score and the numbers wouldn’t mean anything to him if he did. In truth right now, due to the writing difficulties he is having he doesn’t feel very smart at all. That is why I came here asking questions.

His older brother’s IQ is in the same range, but without the ADHD and writing complications, so is a little more like the stereotype “gifted” kid. He definitely doesn’t have an ego about his intelligence. I don’t know if you have spent time in a gifted classroom, but these kids are like any other kids when they are with their peers. They act like the 10 year olds they are. I doubt that if you walked into three classrooms, 2 general ed and 1 “gifted” you could tell which was the gifted room. Or even better observe them all on the playground.

The differences do become apparent when they aren’t being challenged in their classwork, just as any student’s behavior probably would deteriorate if they were forced to keep repeating work they learned years before.

Molly

Molly,

My points are pretty simple. I think that the social skills he’d learn from being at a school with other children opposed to home schooling is important and that it would help him later on in life. I also think there’s a lot of good that could come out of it, like, as I pointed out in my previous post, he could make a friend.

I think him learning how to utilize his potential and put it to use will be crucial to his happiness later on in life as well. Furthermore, I realize that children with high IQ’s generally act like the other kids while they’re still young, but once they’ve become adults this will change, that is if their IQ’s haven’t dropped; it’s inevitable. BTW, how do you know it wouldn’t matter to your son that he’s smarter than 98% of the children in his age group?

Seems like to me you shouldn’t be trying to shelter your son from the world and allow him to face reality.

Just a thought,
Misanthropist

Misanthrope,

You were the first one to mention homeschooling. My child is not homeschooled. I never said I intended to homeschool him. He is in a public school magnet gifted classroom. He will be staying at this school through 5th grade. Then going on to public middle school.

I do converse with some people who have had to homeschool gifted children. It is sometimes the only solution that will work. And they make sure their kids are in plenty of group activities to replace the social interaction they miss at school. (and before you say it, these are general population group activities, not solely groups of gifted kids, things like cub scouts, team sports etc).

Molly

Molly,

My apologies then. I must have somehow confused this thread with anyone somehow.

I still don’t think sending a child to cub-scouts is enough social interaction. If I had things my way I’d just have everyone with an IQ below 130 shot. Problem solved.

Misanthropist

[quote=”Misanthropist”]Molly,

My apologies then. I must have somehow confused this thread with anyone somehow.

I still don’t think sending a child to cub-scouts is enough social interaction. If I had things my way I’d just have everyone with an IQ below 130 shot. Problem solved.

Misanthropist[/quote]

I would prefer the company of a person with an IQ of 80 and morals to someone with an IQ of 130+ with the morals of an alley cat.

I think retarded people are delightful in their simplicity. Intelectuals however; tend to be pompous and boring. Give me a moral beta everytime.

Jeez, I can’t believe I got sucked into this one.

[quote=”Misanthropist”]Molly,

My apologies then. I must have somehow confused this thread with anyone somehow.

I still don’t think sending a child to cub-scouts is enough social interaction. If I had things my way I’d just have everyone with an IQ below 130 shot. Problem solved.

Misanthropist[/quote]

UGH. I should have paid more attention to his “name”

Surely anyone with a mental age passed age 15 knows what the word ‘misanthropist’ means without having to look it up..

I didn’t say I needed to look the word up, I said I should have paid more attention to the moniker you had given yourself when I wasted my time and mental energy responding to you.

[quote=”Misanthropist”]Surely anyone with a mental age passed age 15 knows what the word ‘misanthropist’ means without having to look it up..[/quote]

Now now now, If you are not careful Misanthropist, Ball will come here a chew you up and spit you out.

While I appreciate your above average intelect I think that your sarcastic attacks diminish your voice here.

If you wanna have fun attacking idiots check out www.naafa.org or www.phatsa.org These people deserve your wrath most people here do not.

If Ball comes back to this forum it will be a blood bath. I have heard from a reliable source that Ball is being kept in a back room and he is being fed raw meat.

Heed my warning Misanthropissed, you do not want to tangle with the likes of Ball. When you read at the bottom of my post that there is force mightier than Almighty God. I was refferring to BALL! :shock:

Molly,

Perhaps next time you should get the ADD under control and concentrate harder; in fact, how about you concede your passed statements and stop responding to me..

Guest,

I’m not too concerned with Ball. I’ve actually looked up the history of this discussion board and I suspect I’ve interacted with him recently on hereunder a different I.D.-If I’m correct in this assumption we appear to be getting along fine.

“To whom should propaganda be addressed? To the scientifically trained intelligentsia or the less educated masses? It must be addressed always and exclusively to the masses.” — Adolf Hitler

I guess it just goes to show that there are some sick puppies in this world.

John

Of course, we shoudl all pay more attention to the title of this forum… Misunderstood Minds. Hmmm… not sure it’s taken on the meaning LD OnLine intended, but it’s an interesting thought.