My boy James redently had to see the school psycologist as he keeps losing attention in class and seems to get distracted easily. She did a test call K abc 2 don’t know if anyone has ever heard of it? Basically they thought he could be surdoué (gifted) and basically losing interest because he finds the work too easy, in fact he is intelligent and can do work hard enough for a 12 year old at only 7 yrs old but they think they shouldn’t move him up any classes as he has friends and feels he would be better off where he is. They will review this desicion if he starts to wane!
I watched a documentary last night on this subject and it seems that this happens alot in the public schools whereas the private schools will do what is best for the child in either moving them up or keeping them where they are but giving more challenging work when they have finished what has been set, to keep their attention focused.
Has anyone else had a similar problem or do you think I am being pushy wanting them to move him and help him be challenged and stay focused?
This one looks pretty good and although not free appears to have good quality content.
have a look on http://www.teachingideas.co.uk there are loads of subject based ideas on there that other teachers have shared.
Quick thought - there are loads of free downloadable work sheets and the like online - enough to keep him busy till he leaves home…There are also tons of really excellent interactive educational sites so with a bit of research, these could easily be your free extra curricular activities… Cx
I typed in K abc 2 and this came up, so it’s obviously an internationally recognised test.
http://psychcorp.pearsonassessments.com/HAIWEB/Cultures/en-us/Produ…
Or in French!
http://psycho.univ-lyon2.fr/163-K-ABC.html
I have also been into see the teacher for my 6 year old as she is also disruptive in class, I was concerned but the teacher was very helpful. She explained that Chiara can not physically sit still and is naughty to get attention from the teacher. She went on to explain that there was not an issue with school work as she was well ahead of her peers and very clever indeed, probably to the point of being bored.
Her solution was not to go the school psychologist but we have come up with our own programme which we are trying informally
My mum has sent me some Omega 3 tablets from the UK
I am going to enrol Chiara in music lessons, apparently this should give her more of a focus for her intelligence
We’ve started swimming lessons - the water should help her restlessness
We are to have an appointment with a sacro cranial osteopath, which interestingly she had several sessions as a baby which worked quite well.
Chiara has also been nominated to take charge of their ‘cahier d’anglais’ and the teacher is sending home extra reading books now and again.
I don’t think my daughter is particularly gifted (although she is cleverer than average) but thought you may be interested to hear how our (private) school deals with things. Unusually, her class is all made up of CP this year although normally the class is mixed CP/CE1 but they have separated the class as there are 18 CP pupils which is considered too many. It would have been interesting to see if they would have dealt with her if it had been the usual mixed class.
Hope that gives you a thoughts.