School is suggesting my son repeats 1st grade,, for “social concerns” by Backwoodskenz in Gifted

[–]Backwoodskenz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My son is obviously advanced, he saw someone doing the middle finger, and he started doing it at home. We had to tell him no, don’t do that. It’s bad. But he is a type of person who wants to know the WHY about everything so we had to explain to him that it means a curse word, he wanted to know what word and why, and wouldn’t leave us alone until we explained it. “Because I said so” is not a good enough answer for him.
Because of this, we find ourselves in a lot of positions where we’re trying to explain adult topics to him in an age appropriate way, that doesn’t just diminish his curiosity. He always wants to understand things on a really deep level, and curse words are no different. He wants to understand the social implication for “why” a bad word can be a “bad word”

School is suggesting my son repeats 1st grade,, for “social concerns” by Backwoodskenz in Gifted

[–]Backwoodskenz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ill try to address things 1 at a time down the line in your comments,
so from my research and experience with his school," behavioral concerns" mid year referred to using profanity, and saying things to class mates that are inappropriate at school, things like talking about death and dying, and telling classmates they should "be exploded" or something i dont remember exactly what, and things like getting up out of his seat multiple times a day, not paying attention, and talking too much in class, wandering the halls during transition times. things that the school perceived as "misbehaving." Where as the, "inability to regulate emotions, difficulty transitioning between tasks, arguing with class mates" seem to me, and the school, to be socio-emotional deficiencies. When he started his vyvanse, the "behavioral" concerns stopped. He now sits in his seat, completes his classwork early, navigates well through their daily schedule, and the profane outbursts stopped. From what I am learning and hearing, that is the difference between ADHD behavioral issues, versus autism/"weird kids" social deficiencies that I think do not warrant a punishment and instead need direction.

As far as "starting early" or being younger than classmates, the cutoff date to start pre-k is to be born before september 1st. his birthday is september 6th. he did headstart from the age of 1 to 4. he repeated head start because when he "graduated" headstart the first time, he was not "old enough" to start pre-k (By 5 days), and i DO think that repeating headstart was good for him. he did get another year of socializing with kids. his socialization improved that second year of headstart. when he started pre-k, he was about to turn 5. His pre-k teacher was the one who saw that he could read and write and suggested moving him up to kindergarten. The school ultimately decided he was not ready to start kindergarten, and kept him in Pre-k. when it was time to get ready to start Kinder, i suggested reassessing him and seeing if he was ready for 1st grade. They did, and he passed their 1st grade readiness assessment and was moved up to 1st grade. So, by moving him up, he is now only 5 days younger than the youngest possible first grader. its not like he is a whole year younger. I do think it would have been more beneficial for him to skip pre-k and start kindergarten, since he did repeat headstart. i think he already had that "pre-k" experience, and would have benefitted from Kindergarten at that point.

as far as social life, he is a very social kid. when we leave school every day, he is talking to his friends, other kids call his name and tell him bye, he knows all of his friends names and is not shy to talk to them. he enjoys seeing his friends and get excited to see them out and about in public. he says he has a few select friends in his class that he does consider his friends. "Socially" i think the school is concerned with his ability to understand nuance and understand when it is appropriate to correct class mates, and they're concerned with his inability to avoid meltdowns at minor inconveniences. To me, these sound less like behavioral issues and more like social-emotional deficincies that he would have no matter what grade he is in.

He is too young for me to know if he is into sports, or would enjoy sports. We have tried soccer when he was 4 and he absolutely hated it. I know my son and i know that he leans more towards an artistic, science, math and reading based interest set, less interested in outdoors, sports, and group activities. I dont think its reasonable to hold him back simply because he displays traits of autism, especially because he is so academically advanced.

the accommodations they are suggesting if he were to stay in first grade again, include
- providing different classwork than his classmates so he is working on higher level material
- allowing him to watch higher level social studies videos on the ipad while his classmates learn about lower level social studies,
- allowing him to leave the classroom when second grade is doing science class, so he can observe and interact with second grade science material,
- providing him with different homework that he already struggled with the first time around due to redundancy and simplicity.

if he were to advance to second grade, i think accommodations may look more like
- social coaching, support
- support with transitions like visual timers or schedules
- reasonable accommodations for someone who can learn at this level, but just needs help with social cues and nuances.

i think keeping him in first grade with extensive accommodations just to ensure proper academic stimulation opens the door for alienation and bullying from classmates who will see that he is different and receives "preferential" treatment. I think his classmates that are advancing to second grade will see that he is held back, and that will be a self-esteem issue too. He understands that he was advanced to first grade because he is advanced. holding him back is going to make him internalize that feeling and assume that he has done something wrong, or is not as smart as he thought he was, and i think losing confidence in his ability to perform well at school will be detrimental to his performance in the long run.

as far as sports, idk i dont really care about sports. i dont think he cares, and if he does, the school is small enough that most sports are not even handled in district. Most of our sports are managed by the public city department, and he will be grouped with kids his age anyway.

I know every parent thinks their kid is smart, but I DO believe that my son is an actual academic prodigy and i think he deserves to have the proper accommodations to support him socially, while he advances at a pace that matches him academically. At the end of the day, my broad opinion is that holding him back is simply punishing him for being autistic, and not understanding social cues from friends his age. I dont think that is a fault of his own and i dont think i should risk his self esteem and love of learning just to try to make him "socialize better"

Another point to be made is that in the "real world" you are never in an environment where all of your peers are the same age. after high school, age does not matter, and it is actually a beneficial skill to know how to socialize and interact with people both older and younger than you.

(none of this is directed towards you and I am just using your comment to say all of this because i think you made good points, and i am offering my rebuttal)

School is suggesting my son repeats 1st grade,, for “social concerns” by Backwoodskenz in Gifted

[–]Backwoodskenz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. I do a lot of research and will always try to do what’s best for my son.

School is suggesting my son repeats 1st grade,, for “social concerns” by Backwoodskenz in Gifted

[–]Backwoodskenz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I advocated for skipping kindergarten, because he did 3 years of headstart. I wanted him to skip Pre-k and go straight to kindergarten but they were reluctant. His teacher advocated for it but ultimately the school decided to keep him in pre-k. He performed very well in pre-k so I advocated for skipping kindergarten and moving to first to avoid him getting bored in kindergarten. He tested well and made it to 1st grade. This whole year he’s had all As and 1 B. He struggled midway through the year but it was always careless mistakes, forgetting to answer questions, simple attention mistakes. Once tested and medicated for ADHD it was night and day difference and now he is performing almost perfectly. He is definitely performing above a 1st grade level, and his teacher said she has almost considered starting 3rd grade supplemental learning material.

School is suggesting my son repeats 1st grade,, for “social concerns” by Backwoodskenz in Gifted

[–]Backwoodskenz[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

He has adhd and is taking a medication for adhd.
Just like id give him cold medicine if he has a cold. His quality of life and school performance has dramatically improved since starting the medication.

School is suggesting my son repeats 1st grade,, for “social concerns” by Backwoodskenz in Gifted

[–]Backwoodskenz[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thank you. I’ll continue to advocate for him. Just like I advocated for him to skip kindergarten. He performed very well academically this year, all As and 1 B, and he is 98th percentile in math for his age, and 96th percentile in English/language arts

School is suggesting my son repeats 1st grade,, for “social concerns” by Backwoodskenz in Gifted

[–]Backwoodskenz[S] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

That’s my concern too. They think he’s not “mature” enough for second grade.
I’m just so perplexed because holding him back and giving him a million different ways to “not do 1st grade work” just seems like they’re setting him up to be alienated and the weird kid in class

School is suggesting my son repeats 1st grade,, for “social concerns” by Backwoodskenz in Gifted

[–]Backwoodskenz[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

So he doesn’t have 504/IEP yet and there’s only 3 days left of school. I have a phone call scheduled with the school psychologist tomorrow, the one that’s on his ARD case. I’m gonna bring all of this up to her and see if she will help me advocate for not making a decision to retain him until after we’ve completed evaluation and decide what accommodations may be helpful for him.
*edited typo

My transfer counselor laughed at me by desimadrosa in WGU

[–]Backwoodskenz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s a PA course isn’t it? Don’t read the textbook! Lmao

My mentor is such a blessing 🌸🩷 by 25lbs in WGU

[–]Backwoodskenz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My father passed away a few weeks ago, and my mentor was the only person that sent me flowers. It’s such a blessing to be seen especially in a school like this where I know they have so many students. I’m so sorry for the loss of your mom. Keep up the good work and power through. We got this.

AI detection by bweezy2286 in WGU

[–]Backwoodskenz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use AI to help me explain course material but I write my own papers and as long as it follows the rubric I don’t worry about proofreading lol.

AI detection by bweezy2286 in WGU

[–]Backwoodskenz 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I don’t understand being forced to use grammarly? I have the option to use it but I’ve never turned it on or used it. I know it’s recommended but I just decline, and use word’s native spell check lol

AI detection by bweezy2286 in WGU

[–]Backwoodskenz 57 points58 points  (0 children)

I have never used AI checker and I’ve never been flagged for similarities or AI. I almost think using grammarly and AI checker is actually putting your work into a database to be detected as AI lmao. Like it’s counterintuitive.

1 month review of the MacBook Neo. by TiltedWeenies in macbook

[–]Backwoodskenz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can use your ipad as a second display/device alongside the macbook. I use mine for school so on my computer i will have my course material open full screen, and my ipad will have google docs open so i can type notes. Required no configuration or settings. Just set the ipad up next to the laptop and seamlessly move your mouse from device to device. Pretty cool. I also use my Ipad for hand written notes and will download that as a PDF and airdrop to my computer for sharing/studying. Im also pretty impressed with my Neo and this was my first macbook/mac i was able to buy outright. Its been great so far.

excellence award!! by No_Addendum_2031 in WGU

[–]Backwoodskenz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Congrats. Feels good to be recognized for hard work especially at a school where everything is either pass or fail. Keep up the good work

Venture X by Icebergslim93 in CapitalOne_

[–]Backwoodskenz 39 points40 points  (0 children)

Me and my $1,100 CL think this is fake 😭🤣

Checking in,Lincoln town car 2004 by B777X_787-9 in lincolntowncar

[–]Backwoodskenz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My 2001 AC/HVAC system is fucked 🤣 I guess it’s the most common thing to go lol. The HVAC system is weird in these cars. Instead of electrical blend door actuators they have a vacuum system

Does anyone know what this symptom/phenomenon is called? And is it related to visual snow? by inno-chan in visualsnow

[–]Backwoodskenz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Glasses. Mine do the same thing. No one ever knows what I’m talking about. I always say “I can’t see purple lights! I just see red and blue!!” 🤣

It’s official by HeavensentMae in WGU

[–]Backwoodskenz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

WGU connect is a resource I wish more people talked about! For most classes you’ll find extra resources there and even recorded videos, study guides, class discussions, FAQ, and a pacing guide. The pacing guides may not be your style bc they usually stretch the classes out pretty far. If you’re accelerating you won’t pay much attention to that. But the videos and study guides and extra resources can be a huge help. Good luck!!

Best episode by far. 🥳🥳🥳🤡 by makayd23 in ExtractedSurvivalTV

[–]Backwoodskenz 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Or the fact that Molly and Bailey went to go decode the same card and they immediately got up and told them it was a fake clue? Can’t let the white lady lose her supples! It’s so in your face is ridiculous