Well, we have our meeting with the teachers today to go over our plan for Brett. Through our research we have decided to ask for a few things:
1. A Mentor - because he doesn't seem to relate to the other kids in his class (though he will play with them, he often comes home saying "None of the kids in my class like the things I like") and because he does seem to relate well to older kids we are going to ask for a period of time a couple times a week where a child from an older grade can spend time reading with him or working on math, etc.
2. Horizons (gifted class) - we are going to request he get placed in Horizons. This one shouldn't be an issue because his teachers have already indicated that he probably shoud go there. The only problem is the Teacher is going to have to be aware of the ADHD issue and be willing to show patience in keeping him on task (though I will admit - it isn't as hard if he's interested in the subject matter).
3. Allow him to sit in with an older class for a period of time each day and work on what they are working on.
4. Make sure he still attends PE and recess with the other 5 year olds. As much as he relates on a mental level with older kids, he obviously isn't physically ready to play sports with them and we don't want him to lose self esteem because he's never able to play when he goes to the play ground.
5. A suggestion from another Gifted teacher that my mom works with (my mom is also a gifted teacher) was to have him sit in with a 3rd grade gifted class. That her 3rd graders would take Brett under there wing, have a blast teaching him things and almost treat him like a mascot. This will subject Brett to more difficult subject matter, while also giving him a lot of attention, which is good for the self esteem. I don't hold out much hope for this one though.
I'll let you know what comes out of this.
One other good note. The psycholgist sent some forms home and to school for us and his teachers to fill out. When these forms were filled out last year (by the counties request - no psycologist involved) there was a strong indication from his teachers that he might be an Asperger's child. Her testing didn't show those tendancies, but she wasn't going to rule it out with out taking additional steps. The first of the steps were these forms. The results of which strongly indicate he isn't suffering from Asperger's - so she's now going to remove any references to the disorder in the formal document.
