chiming in re: neuropsych testing - my younger brother is something like 98th percentile for IQ, not great grades, had several educational evaluations that found nothing before a final one his freshman year diagnosed him with combined type ADHD. he is now on medication and it is night and day, leading to my own diagnosis as well. ADHD evaluations are not always accurate, especially for twice exceptional kids (gifted + LD). get a full neuropsych with someone who specializes in ADHD or 2e kids.
iād just like to add that my parentsā relationship with my brother has improved significantly since his diagnosis, as well as his mental health (i think it was difficult for his self-esteem to know he had āsuch great potentialā but was unable to achieve it in his schoolwork due to forces outside of his control). he is now doing well and will be applying to colleges next year
Iām no expert here, but Iām not so sure about starting down the psychiatric/clinical evaluations and diagnosis path. Your sonās SAT scores are off the charts high for someone who didnāt prepare, and as you say, his IQ is high. Might he be - simply put - bored and unchallenged? If he is not being challenged, he may simply not care enough to keep up his grades. As a parent myself, I can tell you that when my kids are engaged in their activities, time flies. When they are not, they can take two hours to complete a task that should literally take 15 minutes, simply because they donāt care enough to just do it and move on. Assuming you have already spoken to your son about this, perhaps talking to the school first may be a good option - to see if there is more they can do to challenge him and see how he responds. High IQ kids can sometimes be at odds with the way something is taught. Perhaps the reason he studies so long is due to the fact that the way a particular class is being taught simply doesnāt make any sense to him and he refuses to learn it āthat wayā. Gifted kids can sometimes struggle when they know there is a better or more logical way to learn something and it is being presented in a way that seems illogical to them.
If this were me, I would look for something more obvious and less clinical first, if that makes sense. I know itās tough, but donāt automatically look for the ādiagnosis and treatmentā.
Yes. Every kid who devotes his free time to doing homework with zero outside interests is clearly too intellectual to have to deal with the ordinary mortals who become HS teachers and principals.
Heās likely composing concerti and solving break-through issues in string theory while heās pretending to do his HS homeworkā¦
The kind of people who do revolutionary and original things are the kind of people can crank out a 1580 with minimal prep. Obviously, this is upsetting to you. I am sorry for that. I will do my best in the future to not shine light on the fact that there are extraordinary people in this world. The mere notion that someone is special likely goes against your worldview that every is always the same in every way.
Extraordinary people are capable of doing menial work if they choose to do it and are motivated in some way to do it. It may be boring to them, it may be intellectually beneath them, but they are capable of doing it. If we believe the OP, the student is making effort (and his grades did improve somewhat with tutoring) AND the student is unhappy about his grades. If he is a genius with no underlying issues, he would be able to perform much better than he is - even if indeed this work is far below the level of work he is capable of. Yes, many gifted students donāt perform well in regular classes - but that is because their boredom causes them to disengage and lose motivation. The OP claims that the student is in fact motivated to do better in school. So thereās more going on. Of course, again, this relies on the OP giving an accurate assessment of her son and his motivation and efforts and obviously we do not know this.
I can understand why people might be suspicious. But, earlier in the thread a moderator needed to step in to remind posters about being friendly and welcoming. The posts that inspired that interjection may have scared OP off. Alternatively, OP may be (hopefully) ruminating on all that has been said, but doesnāt necessarily know how to respond yet.
If, however, OP never returns, I still think this thread is helpful for others, whether they are facing similar issues in their own family, or itās a check on their own thinking, or reminders by many that a 1290 is a very good SAT score (and around this forum, it doesnāt always feel that way).
@anne_1973 might still be reading and thinking of next steps. It would be great if OP returned with an update as to what next steps are taken and what, if anything, is found out. Wishing the best to all.
I agree that 1m of read time does not make me optimistic. But depending on OPās settings, they may be receiving every post sent to their email, as the thread creator. Thus, itās still possible that OP is reading the messages, even if not reading them on the forum.
But, even if OP never reads a single message, I stand by my previous point:
Itās only been a day, folks. As a cc newbie, maybe the OP hasnāt developed the addiction yet!
As for the neuropsych eval, please remember that it can rule out as well as rule in. There may or may not be written expression issues (just picking one random possibility) or attention issues or organization/executive function issues, or OCD or depression or anxiety or what have you. And would also wonder about sleep issues. As an aside, some (like around 25%) of kids diagnosed with ADHD are actually found to have sleep apnea.
Maybe - or it could simply be a case of procrastination due to boredom. Iām not quite sold on this being a case of they have 8 hours to do homework so they will take the full 8 hours. Perhaps it is how this particular kid deals with their boredom. Procrastination can be due to boredom, anxiety, insecurity, etc. Some kids procrastinate because when they start their work and see how behind they are, they go into a panic, so they stopā¦and the work takes forever. Other kids are just bored and simply cannot stay motivated long enough to complete simple tasks.
The reason I think itās boredom is the SAT scores. The tests are difficult and time constrained - and yet, this kid has quite literally aced them both times with little to no prep.
I agree there is nothing wrong with Community College. In fact if he starts there it will help him get acclimated to the college lifestyle of classes and workload andthen can transfer to a University of his choice. Hope it all works out.
I have a student with an IQ in the 140ās, early and advanced decoding skills, strong in math, science, and SS. He is very weak in written expression to the point of procrastinating, hiding under the table, ripping the paper, running out of the room etc. Any HW that involves writing (other than a number or a few words) is a huge struggle, hours of time, and is not completed. This kid sits for hours, scribbles on the paper etc.
There are other issues as well: cries when he does not get what he wants, runs out of the room if the teacher does not call on him or choose his project as an example (4th grade). Social issues at recess, etc.
My point is that we do not have enough information about this studentā¦at all. Not Even Close. A comprehensive and appropriate evaluation will give these parents the information they seek, and will help rule things out. It is only after we rule out other things (including anxiety, OCD, etc) that we can begin to discuss āboredom.ā
As for my student, the parents refused to do a complete assessment. I feel (as do his teachers, our behaviorist, etc) that he is on the autism spectrum, but the student never received a comprehensive evaluation. My guess is he will struggle in middle school, despite his IQ in the mid 140s.
IQ does not tell us the whole story. The student I referenced also scores very high on standardized tests. I am not suggesting that the OPs child is like my student, but I am saying that we donāt have enough information. Why was he tested for ADHD as a child? There must have been a reason. What did his teachers say back then? Did his school have a G/T program, and was he in it? How did he do?
Actually executive function issues can present like that, they get an assignment, have plenty of time, then time passed and they donāt know where to start, how to break down the assignment into manageable steps. By the time the assignment is due, itās too late to get it done in time. These steps can be learned. My son had mostly Aās on quizzes and tests, but longer assignments showed up as MISS in his portal every week. He had one teacher write in his yearbook that my son was his only student who never, not once, handed in an assignment on time (and my sone loved that AP economics class).
Ridiculous. His stress is the least of my worries. He cannot afford to get poor grades in his second semester of Junior year. My daughter scored 1090 on her first SAT attempt. We had to push her extremely hard to raise her score to 1290, she was incredibly stressed and her social life suffered, but she would not have been able to get into the school she got into without that SAT score.
His teachers got him tested for ADHD as a child due to his lack of attention in school. The curriculum was too easy for him, so he intentionally disrupted the class to entertain himself. He was in his elementary and middle schoolās Gifted Program and he found it incredibly easy and got perfect scores.
