Friday, March 4, 2011
From Struggler to Gifted?
Ronan's teachers yesterday told me that we should have him tested for giftedness as his vocabulary is outstanding and he has a heightened sense of sensitivity and empathy. I could barely keep it together hearing this, considering the struggles we have endured in getting him to the point of comfortable learning. Now that he is not struggling, they can more easily see where he does excel. Joy!
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Absolutely aweseome!!
ReplyDeleteWOW....... go Ronan. Bless you Tracy for being an unwavering stand for your son. Believing in him and loving him through it.
ReplyDeleteDo you believe LearningRx made the difference for Ronan? We have an 8 year old son who is struggling at the end of 2nd grade. He did well at the beginning of the year, but now is falling behind. We also had some learning difficulties in 1st grade as well. Attention is a BIG problem, yet pediatrician says he does not fit profile for ADD/ADHD. School testing shows he's capable, but not performing to the level of his ability. We did LearningRx assessment last year and he actually scored equal to peers of his age or even higher in most categories. However, memory and processing abilities were very low. LearningRx would be very expensive for us, but we're willing to try anything to help our bright, charming son.
ReplyDeleteHi Kristi,
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to say that Learning Rx was THE definitive reason that Ronan continues to have a great year. It could be just that he was a late bloomer and this year he finally got it. It also could be that he has a great pair of teachers this year (though last year's set was really good too). I am not sure, but I do know that we tried other things like tutors, different schools, and vision therapy and none of those had much of an impact.
We spent the summer doing Learning Rx and a couple of weeks into the start of school - 3rd Grade for him this year. He started that year 1.5 years behind his peers in reading (by the DRA score). By Winter Break he had completely closed that gap and was reading on the same level (and DRA score) as his peers.
Incidentally, when he was struggling the most, a teacher said that he might have ADD, but we have found that his attention was not an issue when he was able to keep up with his peers. Instead of hearing about attention issues, this year we are hearing comments about giftedness, maturity, etc. It's been the most pleasant year for him (and for his parents) since he started school.
Ronan's assessment was similar to your son's it sounds like, though maybe more uneven. He was very high in visual and about average in the rest. He was quite low in the same two categories - short term memory and processing. My other son's test results were quite different, which gave me confidence that the test is legitimate.
Around the time that I was deciding on whether to do this or not I was in the Science and Nature Museum and in their store they had some books and videos on the science of cognitive training. Maybe you can check these out at the library to learn more before you make the decision.
I wish you much luck in helping your son! I can certainly empathize!
Tracy