Advancing 6 year old

[Sorka]

My 6 year old son who is currently in Year 1 has just been assessed as having the reading ability of a 10.5 year old and the spelling and math ability of a 9 year old. I am not sure that this classes him as 'gifted' but obviously he has somewhat surpassed many of the areas that his current class is focusing on.

I m just wonderng what I should do with regard to the school. Do you think it is possible for them to meet his needs in his current class with added extension work? Should I see what they think about him moving over to the other class which is combined 1/2 so that he can focus on the Year 2 work?

He comes home saying that it is boring and I dont want him to loose interest as he has a long schooling career ahead of him!

Any advice is appreciated as I know I need to do something - just not sure what

Thanks,

[Miss H]

That's excellent! Well done to you. Have you discussed with the teachers what they think you should do? I would definately try move him to a next level but also make sure you are not taking him away from good friends. I don't know his personality but it seems he might be able to cope being separated from his usual class. I was always way ahead myself and was bored most of the time. I wish someone had done something for me to keep me interested.

[Trillian]

There is a distinct difference between gifted and bright - bright children answer the question and gifted children ASK the questions if that makes sense. They will rarely move a child up a grade as there are social implications etc and they may find that socially an accelerated child will struggle being with children who could be up to 2 years older than he is. They will more than likely keep him where he is and give him work that will challenge him in those areas only, because they may be the only areas where he is ahead and he may be average in other areas like science, HSIE etc and if he were to be moved up a class, he would be expected to do the workload of that class across all areas of the curriculum and not just the maths, reading and spelling. My eldest is ahead of his peers with literacy and spelling as well and the teachers are getting him to expand on his knowledge of words. So instead of just writing out spelling lists like the other kids, he has added exercises to do in relation to contextual use of words and basically enhancing his knowledge of language etc. he also has to write reports from news stories he has watched as well and he needs to reference them as well so they are just extending him without it being obvious. The other thing too is that he may be ahead now, but in a few years he may stagnate and stay at the same level for a while and the other kids in his class will catch up kwim? Like any developmental stage they go through, learning is no different.

If it were me, (and it was!) I would be asking them to give him extra work that will challenge him further. Buy him some small novels for home reading and indulge him at home with this and get him reading things that will interest him.

[Pandora]

Im not sure if River frequesnt the forums much, but she might have some insight in to the pros and cons of moving children to higher grades.

a composite 1/2 is different to moving up a complete grade level, but then you are likely to face the same thing each year - does teh school have a bottom level composite grade for each year - i.e. 1/2 and 2/3, 3/4 and 4/5 etc.

[Sorka]

Thanks for the input - such an important decdision to make so we don't want to go into anything without thoroughly exploring all options first. His teache rthis year does not seem keen on giving him extra work and that is part of the reason why the psychologist wanted to have him tested, so we can hand her the report that says what level work he could be doing. He suffers from a lot of anxiety and one of the best ways we have found for him to relax is to focus on a book or a sheet of maths questions. Once he has done about 10mintues of work he is a lot calmer and much more well behaved so we are hoping if he can do ore appropriate work at school during the day he will become a bit more relaxed and better behaved.

Trillian - He is definately a 'why?' child (eg. why does the swing go back down after you push it up? How did God get here? How did the dinosaurs become bones? Why do I say because and the other kids say cause?) and loves to argue about anything. He has had a number of sleep issues becuase he can't seem to 'switch off' to sleep.

Pandora - There is a 1/2 class and a 4/5 class this year - just depends on the ratio of kids i think. I thought perhaps he could join the 1/2 class and as the term progresses associate more with the year 2 students and the year 2 work and then at the end of the year see if how he has progressed and whether he should move along with the year 2 students or the year 1 students.

The school counselor has offered to do an IQ test but we're not sure what the value of it will be. I guess it may give us more information on his style of learning and what his true abilities may be...so many questions. Thanks for thinput girls - keep it coming as it all helps me look at differemnt thing I need to consider

[Trillian]

Even in a composite class they will still be given work according to their ability. my eldest two are in composite classes and for my DD, they are separated into groups for literacy and maths according to abilty so they get work aimed at that level, and then there are the bottom section of year 2 that are in with the year 1 children. For my DS, they tend not to split into groups like they do in the lower grades and they prefer instead to just extend the brighter ones with harder and more complex tasks. If he is into knowing how things work, maybe you could look at getting him a book on science experiments you can do around the home. It is also possible that you may need to have him formally assessed for giftedness as a simple IQ test wont be enough and in many cases aren't recognised.

ETA - here is a link to information I found for an assignment I have coming up, it might be of help to you.