how to get your child tested for gifted children

feesh

This website is really useful, by the way, in explaining some of the problems with being "gifted":
http://www.nagcbritain.org.uk/schools.php?id=33&anchor=31

LillyJ

Wow your experiences sound very similar to mine, except I really think the only thing that "saved" me from being completely different to my peers is the fact that I am extremely outgoing (which is not that common in gifted children). Also by participating heavily in sports it diverted people's attention from my academic side.

I used to get all the time "you don't look clever", because I take care of my appearance, and don't have the stereotypical geek look. People sometimes still say it now - I don't know what a person with a high IQ is supposed to look like! But that shows you how people stereotype and set expectations of you based on what they think you should be like.

People also expected me to be very well behaved, which in fact was the very opposite. The amount of times I was suspended or nearly got expelled are too many to count. I really was a bit of a tearaway and the school tried to have me diagnosed as having ADHD (not alot of it in the media at that time) but my mum was a special needs teacher and felt the last thing I needed was another label.

Just to add it all worked out in the end and I have a PhD, but I felt better about it by then as it was MY choice to carry on with education. I had got the degree that everyone expected, then I could decide what to do after that.

feesh

LillyJ I was outgoing at primary school - very much so, but gradually things started to erode my confidence. E.g in the final year of primary (year 6?) I was sent on this week long workshop for gifted children and it still makes me feel weird when I think about it. I had no idea what I was really doing there - I mean Mum and Dad did explain it to me, but they made out like it was something to be excited about, whereas in reality I had no idea why I wasn't back at school with my real friends.

Add to that all the comments you get and people asking what you want to be when you grow up - they're only tiny things, but they add up and you end up really not knowing the difference between who you really are and you think you *should* be. It's very confusing as a teenager.

I would encourage the OP not to get her daughter tested, and not to discuss her brightness with anyone else, even close family. That way I think she is more likely to reach her true potential, unlike me who did a "mickey mouse degree" and is now fed up with being a jack of all trades and a master of none!

LillyJ

And if her true potential is something that doesn't involve a degree then so be it. I still sometimes wish I had gone on that hair dressing course...

Igottawii!!

LillyJ wrote: »

And if her true potential is something that doesn't involve a degree then so be it. I still sometimes wish I had gone on that hair dressing course...

This rings a bell for me......