Schooling Central

Hello my name is Mercyll and I have a 6 yr old girl who may be gifted. This is really the first time I've tried to reach out for some help and guidance as I am feeling very overwhelmed and confused as to what I should do with the great responsibility of having an exceptionally bright child.
I was hoping maybe to get her tested, I would really like for anyone to make any suggestions as to where in Perth WA I could go.
I'm really needing to reach out because I am feeling so alone in what I need to do, but most of all I do not want to fail her

Hi Mercyll,
I wondered if you wanted to share a bit more about your daughter and why you feel she is gifted? Is she having problems at school?
Cheers

Hi happymum

Here’s a little background on us…All thru her life people have said how bright and confident she is, from our GP to complete strangers. As she was our first child, I never really thought much of it, other than what a fantastic kid she was! She has always had a thirst for learning and seem to pick up reading out of nowhere. I also have a 20 month old boy and a 5 month old baby girl.

My 6yr old has a wonderful teacher who tries to give her work that challenges her, he has mentioned that in literacy, she is in a league of her own. Just recently she mentioned that she was bored with the maths but she is keen to learn because she always wants to do Rainforest maths on the net. She absolutely loves reading and she especially loves doing all sorts of word puzzles. I try to do some work with her at home but as you can imagine, I have my hands full as it is! I am worried as she does not seem interested in playing with kids her age, she has always been a confident child, tho she does find great joy in spending time with the older kids.

She attends a small Catholic school but they do not have a program that can cater to her. I am unsure about how to approach this…Do I put in her in an after school program? Do I look into accelerating?…I am so overwhelmed with this responsibility because I do want her to meet her full potential. I do not want her to feel lost and insecure about herself. She is a wonderful kid and I want to do what is really best for her.

Hi Mercyll,
Just a quick reply,

I think you have hit the nail on the head in thinking the first step is to have her assessed. The ed psych will be able to guide you in terms of how gifted she is, and any interventions that might be needed.

You might like to have a look at an american site, Hoagies, all about gifted stuff. The article gifted 101 was where i first started a long time ago! www.hoagiesgifted.org

There does seem to be a WA gifted association though i have not heard of them before not being from WA http://www.gatcawa.org/
They may well have a list of approved ed psychs. It is better to have one with an interest in gifted ed if you can.

Good luck, let us know how you go!

Hi Mercyll,

Happymum has already given you some great advice. There is a lot to learn about gifted education and it is a steep learning curve, but thankfully with the internet there is a lot of information available at sites such as Hoagies. The WA Gifted Association also sounds like a good place to look for information more specific to your location.

Happymum mentioned briefly that if you do pursue testing most people suggest you find a psych who has a special interest in gifted education, and this often means finding and paying for your own psychologist, rather than using one from the education department. The advantage in having your daughter tested by a psychologist experienced in gifted education is not only is that the result is likely to be more accurate, but you will receive an in depth report outlining your daughters strengths and weaknesses and her learning styles which can be very helpful when you are trying to make decision about which path to take with her education.

Good luck with everything.

Annabel.

Hello Mercyll,

I'm glad you posted on this forum. It's hard going it alone, especially when you're first facing a new concern about your child! I know it's a massive responsibility and you want to shoulder it well, but remember in yourself you'll always do your best for your daughter and you don't have to do everything immediately. Give yourself time to research and talk to people. Getting your daughter assessed is probably a good start.

It also sounds as though your daughter's teacher is interested and taking some action to help her. You could probably talk further to her or ask her if there's someone specific in the school who you could talk to for contacts or ideas.

I believe the WA Gifted & Talented Association is good and it would be a good place to go for links, contacts and possibly even parent seminars. A couple of the committee members do specific work with parents and may be helpful:
http://www.gatcawa.org/

Another good 'local' site is the WA Government Department of Education website on gifted education. Lots of good bits on there:
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/Gifttal/policy.htm

If you have other specific questions, I'd be happy to help if I can. I am in gifted education and often get enquiries from parents in similar situations to yourself. I know I probably can't help much more than that, given I'm in Victoria! But happy to talk if it's helpful. To contact me send a PM or go to my website:
http://www.thinkingoutsidethebox.com.au/

Take care!

Penny.

Hello Everybody

I really want to Thank you for all your help and advice. It has given me the confidence to approach her teacher with my concerns, rather than feeling like I was pestering him! And he has been nothing short of wonderful about it all.

I am definately looking into getting her tested, but for now I'm going to have a meeting with the school psyc, as I am worried about her not socialising with her own peers. Over the weekend, she went to a birthday party and after an hour or so, she insisted on going home. I asked her if anything had happened and she said that she just had enough. I brought this up with her teacher and he said that she does seek out conversations with him rather than her classmates. I know she loves talking with the older kids and she also enjoys talking with other grown ups. However it worries me that she does not have her close circle of friends at school.

Is this something anybody else can relate to?

Once again Thank you so much for all your support

Hi Mercyll,

I think a lot of people will tell you that it is fairly typical for gifted children to seek out the company of adults and older children. To be honest though we've never really experienced that with our son, so I'm not sure of the best way of trying to help things along. Does your daughter do any extra curricular activities? Sometimes activities that involve a group of children across different age groups give children a chance to socialise with kids they may not get a chance to at school. I guess another thing you could do is try to seek out other 'like-minded' children at your daughter's year level and see if the school will place them together.

Annabel.

I find it quite strange that most posts I see on the Internet about gifted kids are sort of of being negative. People complain about schools not helping the kids to do well or to be normal and happy. Most bright kids I ever know are very happy and confident at schools and their parents are very proud of them. I guess parents who are happy with their smart kids just don't feel the need to join and post on any Internet forums. That's why we hardly hear about these exceptionally bright and happy kids at schools. I personally do not feel that IQ test really make sense especially for young kids. I think we need to observe kids between grade 4-5 to make judgement on wether they are gifted or not. There certain areas like visual arts, music and sports where we can identify giftedness fairly early, but when it comes to academic stuff, it's better to wait for a while until they get a bit older.

In the mean time parents can always buy books and give kids extra home work if they are fast and bored with work from school. As schools are so variable across the country, it's so hard to judge. Some public schools in large cities are very academically strong. Kids in these schools hardly get a chance to be considered as gifted as every one of them seem to be gifted to survive and make above average grade. At year 3, kids will have a chance to do the state-wide UNSW competitions. If they get average "distinction" grade across most of the 6 competitions, they could be gifted. Otherwise it's just a relative thing to the poor level of teaching at that school.

I think you should consult the curriculum documents from the department of education to see if the kids in the school are really working at appropriate levels. If the teacher is teaching at "too easy" level then teh child should get some enrichment at home or somewhere else.

Hi Mercyl,
I just wrote a really long reply and lost it when I went to get this link for your The link is a great number of pdf documents from a Government Professional Development package for teachers on Gifted Ed. it is FANTASTIC. Very lengthy but very well worth the read.
http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/school_education/publications_resources/profiles/Gifted_Education_Professional_Development_Package.htm

I think you are on the right track and speaking to your daughter's teacher is the best place to start. Testing is definitely going to be a benefit. We had our son tested and it has helped us beyond words. From understanding him better, how he learns, why he learns a certain way and to help the school understand his potential.

I don't have much time left now but as Annable suggested, I think it wise to choose a psychologist who is experienced with gifted children and who will provide a detailed report.

From the professional advice we have been given to date, one of the main areas to focus on for young gifted children is time on task + effort=achievement. Try not to worry too much about the work being 'too easy' just focus on making sure she completes that work and if she doesn't that there are consequences, this you will need to work on with the school.

It would be ideal if the school can provide work that is above her knowledge base (their duty I know but hard to deliver on it seems). Gifted children need to learn to put in effort on tasks they do not know the answers to (as many of these kids have only been presented with questions they do know the answer to), and to feel failure and then what it means to persist and gain a sense of achievement.

As far as the social side of things, we also had similar problems to you. The advice we were given was to teach very quickly that 'yes, that is the way it is, people are all different...get used to it". Blunt I know, but he/she needs to work through the social scene which is a mine field for any child really. Also model for your daughter lots of social gatherings yourself with a variety of people. Our son still complains about how kids behave but we tell him constantly that not everyone wants to do, be and have what he wants. Finding some like minded friends is crucial too though.

I hope I've helped with my now rushed version of this post. Anything else I can be of help with I'd be happy to respond to. Good luck.