alh

The way I dealt with very young high academic ability children, with just about all the quirky tendencies described in this thread, was to tell them how fortunate they were to have unlimited potential to excel in almost any area of interest, but that they would have to work to realize that potential, and then created an environment where they could learn at their own pace while making them responsible for their own educational progress at as early an age as possible. There is no way I could have worked with my local public elementary school to create this environment before it was too late for my children. We were able to change acceleration rules at the high school because that is a bit more straightforward and there was already a program in place to allow high achievers to take classes at an excellent local university. There was some debate in our household about the value of showing one's work but we came to the conclusion that since mathematicians and scientists must give enough information for others to duplicate their findings, for it to have universal value, it is a good idea to get into the habit of showing all the steps to the answer. Also, we talked a lot about how even adult writers asked others for editorial help and they saw that happen often in real life. It worked for our family

tokenadult

Hear. Hear. My son learned the rule of "show your work" in his math class, and that has helped him produce writings for his history and English classes. I think a lot of people whose ideas race ahead of their fingers enjoy having secretaries but in youth one may as well learn how to communicate directly and clearly in writing.

cptofthehouse

As you get into advanced math, the work is more essential than the answer. Proofs are composed entirely of the work. My son who is very quick computationally had a tough time with that one.

marite

Tokenadult:

I entirely agree with you! What S needed help with while studying BC-Calc was how to show his work. It was so helpful to point to the Free Response Questions section.
"Suport your argument with evidence;" "structure your essay logically and coherentely" are recurring instructions for essay writers.

mathmom

Heh, my son likes to wear his shirt that says, "Document my code? Why do you think they call it code?"

It's a lot easier to show your work when the equation is x^2 + y = 7 than when it's something you can see the answer to without thinking like __+ 3 = 7. Once the math got hard enough, my son had considerably less trouble showing his work.

3xcharmed

wis75, "the enormous expense ratio on the other side of the curve" is not devoted just to the mentally challenged (which is the correct diagnostic term to use, just as the use of "giftedness" is correct), it also includes services for LD, ADD, OCD and other disorders that many gifted children also suffer with. In fact learning disabilities are often detected when children are not functioning at their IQ level.

katliamom

OK -- I have no problem with THIS boy being described gifted, brilliant etc.


AMES, Iowa -- Mattias Gassman, 18, will graduate summa cum laude with two bachelors' degrees from Iowa State University on Saturday. He majored in biophysics, German and classical studies.... .Gassman started taking college courses when he was in fifth grade and enrolled full-time at age 14. ISU officials said he completed more than 232.5 credits, which is twice the number needed to graduate.

Gassman's parents home-schooled him and by age 11 he scored high enough on the SAT to enroll in Latin 101 at ISU. School officials said he earned an "A" in the course.

"He was very self-directed. He might spend several weeks studying geography, then a period of time immersed in another subject," said Brigitte. "We only made him do math and piano for the discipline of doing something regularly."

Teen Graduates High School, College In Same Week - Education News Story - KCCI Des Moines

Mr Payne

Is there any cerebral problem which correlates positively with IQ? Autism (I thought it was uncorrelated, honestly). I tend to think that most cerebral issues are positively correlated with low IQ.

scansmom

I think that depends on how you define "cerebral problem." And how you measure IQ.

mercymom

"Is there any cerebral problem which correlates positively with IQ? Autism (I thought it was uncorrelated, honestly). I tend to think that most cerebral issues are positively correlated with low IQ."


I'm not sure what you're asking here exactly, but I do have a little bit of knowledge of this w/re dyslexia as I worked for 3 years at my kids' school tutoring dyslexia kids and interfacing with the classroom teachers and parents.

First off, there is no diagnostic "test" that can tell you if someone is "dyslexic". Usually one of the first things done will be to give the child an IQ test to see if they have the mental ability to learn to read well and easily. If the IQ comes in at a normal to high range (esplly if it is high range), then other factors will be screened for, but the initial assumption is maybe this is a case of dyslexia, as it is viewed as an inability to learn to read in spite of enough intelligence to learn to read. Factors to be screened will include, among other things, family history, as dyslexia tends to run in families, as does ADD.

Autism is another disability that sometimes coexists with high IQ. One of the science teachers at our hs, her son was high functioning autistic, but he was also in a self-contained gifted program. His academic abilities were off the chart, but he had little to no social skills and a complete inability to read social/emotional cues. I think now they call this Asperger's syndrome.

So, no, most cerebral issues do not correlate with low IQ. There is real danger in believing this to be the case. My good friend who is dyslexic and could not read when she was 8 years old, her 3d grade teacher told her mother she was retarded and needed to be in a "special school". Fortunately, her mother didn't listen to teacher and got outside help from a professor at Cornell who was studying what has come to be called dyslexia. Her mother taught her to read with phonics, and, contrary to the teacher's opinion, my friend has a very high IQ indeed.

Mr Payne

It was a genuine question. You have not put up information confirming or denying this. If anything, you'd have to assume it's uncorrelated.

mercymom

Well, it seems there is a bit of argument about this professionally since I last looked at it closely. Here's an article about regs being proposed by IDEA (2004) and the back and forth between the "IQ achievement discrepancy model" and the RTI "Response to Intervention" model. Looks like a push to get away from using IQ tests, in part due to the expense of both the testing and providing services:

Who is learning disabled?


Interestingly, I found another article from a foreign university that called learning disability anything directly related to low IQ and stuff like dyslexia a learning "problem".

emeraldkity4

Sounds like they have no idea what a learning disability is.
It isn't related to intelligence.
You can be of low, average or high intelligence with a learning disabilty.
wasnt Einstein dyslexic?

mercymom

Here's the UK discussion, Newcastle University. They define learning disability as the inability to learn due to a low IQ. If you are dyslexic, they call that a learning problem.

Learning disability - School of Neurology, Neurobiology and Psychiatry - Newcastle University

3xcharmed

mercymom, are you a certified resource teacher, or ed psyc professional, or a parent volunteering in a class? I'm not asking to be rude, but a substancial amount of testing is involved before a child is mandated with a learning disablity (which is a general term used to cover a variety of specific disorders that impede a childs ability to learn in the classroom, and I'm talking about children who should be able to learn). In fact, it would be highly inappropriate, perhaps illegal, for a parental volunteer to have priviy to a childs testing, information about their IQ, or any other medical diagnosis. When a child is mandated to receive services, what the classroom teacher receives is a individual education plan which detail accommodations that child might need (Often the accommodations a child receives are transparent to the general class). And, in my state, once mandated, children are re-tested every three years. These professionals are college graduates, many with masters and doctorate degress.