Finally after five years of fighting the school we’ve had some vindication!
When my son started kindergarten, I was told he couldn’t even read the numbers 1-10. He couldn’t focus, wrote all over his desk, was loud, disruptive and generally difficult to work with for the teacher. However, I knew he could read and add numbers to 10,000 (at least) and was very intelligent but he had also been diagnosed ADHD.
At the time, I said that I would not use ritalin until we really had to (when the grades mattered). So, we started on a regimine generally resembling the Feingold Diet and some other things. Each year, kindergarten, 1st, & 2nd, the teachers all pulled me aside and asked if I’d considered medication. Each time I told them that we needed to exhaust all other avenues before we’d do that. It was tough but we stuck to our decision.
Each year our son got better and better. By 3rd grade, when I went in to speak with the teacher after the first few weeks, she said he was great. She said her son was ADHD and she really knew what she needed to do to work with him effectively. He was doing so well. He still forgets his homework regularly if someone doesn’t remind him to grab his book and he still can easily seem tuned out but he has gone through such an amazing transformation.
All these years, I pushed and pushed for gifted testing but I kept getting the brush-off because his grades were mediocre and his classroom behavior was less than steallar (often daydreaming, unfocused, unable to finish things) but even when he didn’t seem to hear a thing, he could repeat everything that was said and remember it all.
Finally, this year (4th grade) I put my foot down and said they have to test him. When we went in for the meeting, the counselor pulled out the psychologist’s report on his IQ test… 151! The report stated that the school needed to get him some educational support that would match his intelligence ASAP (i.e. gifted class).
I’m still stunned and soooo happy! Don’t give up… Mom’s know best!
Congrats!
My little brother (who is now not so little, but never mind) is also ADHD and gifted. He couldn’t stand the boredom of doing more than one of the same type of problem.
I hope that they have a program in your school for your twice exceptional son :-)