My six year old son, G, is twice exceptional or 2E, and anyone that's met him can tell the second he opens his mouth. He's gifted and can tell you about every single Minecraft update that's ever been uploaded along with more than you'd care to know about Archimedes' screws. He doesn't like to play with toys, which has been hard.
At 3 years old he was reading, but couldn't sit still. He was nearly kicked out of two different preschools even without being violent. Just busy, unable to sit down or listen, breaking down anytime someone asked him to use fine motor skills or the room was too noisy. Now, after occupational therapy you wouldn't know about his sensitivities as much, but the ADHD is still very much there.
I've had to grow and learn everything I could about childhood ADHD and giftedness just to fight for my son's education. His knowledge is at a fourth grade level, his executive functions are at a 4 year old level, and his body is 6.
We started the year as a kindergarten boundary exception at the best public school in our area, the school they send the rest of the gifted children to, but he wasn't thriving. In fact, he was becoming depressed, and I watched everyday as the light dimmed from his eyes. His teacher tried so hard to work with him, the school psychologist loved him to death, but didn't know enough about being twice-exceptional and I had to send him my own research when I used psychological jargon above his understanding. Their solution was to send him to Special Ed with 3rd graders. He couldn't stay there.
We found a new school where the lady at the front desk knew what twice-exceptional was and actually used the term herself. They've given him REAL services and have an aide in his regular classroom to help him as needed rather than removing him. He's finally being challenged and helped equally so he can rise to his full potential.
No comments:
Post a Comment