jorderj
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Posts posted by jorderj
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Thanks all for your input.
DD is not diagnosed because she does not meet the criteria. The testing psychologist did tell me DD may meet the criteria in the future. LoL.
She is so different from other typical girls. I just feel she is an Asperger.
I am debating whether to send her to gifted school to be with peers or homeschool with supplement academically and socially.
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Thank you everyone for your valuable input! I have read every thread which gave me tremendous valuable information. Let me update some information:
1) We live in one of the biggest metropolitan area in the middle west. We have several top museums in the U.S. They do have some camps in winter and summer. We live in Suburbs. The commute for two way is 2-3 hours either by metra train or driving in the rush hours.
2) We live in the neighborhood where the housing price is cheaper than that of neighborhood with cut-throat public schools. But our neighborhood has none of excellent private EC programs. I have to drive one way 30-40 minutes for DD's drawing class and Robotics program.
3) There are a couple of Co-ops in my area. But I have not found any one to fit DD, especially one with a lot of gifted kids. I just feel homeschooling is not very popular in this metropolitan area. The people I know who value education either buy expensive house in cut-throat public schools or send kids to prestigious private schools.
4) DD had a shadow day at the gifted school. She told me she liked it. The best part is the science class. It is better than her public school's. ( She is homeschooled. But I send her back to public school for one semester). She felt the private school's ELS is not impressive and 3rd home room math is not challenging. ( The school differentiates the students. Some 3rd grader stay in the home room for 3rd math, some go to higher grades)
5) DD is not diagnosed with ASD. My DS has ASD. We took her to have a complete neuropsychological evaluation last year. She does have some traits shared with her brother. She does not have any friend except her brother. She is very engaged and enthusiastic sharing her ideas and interests in the EC classes. Her interests are so broad. But after class, she does not want to play or talk with any peers. She told me she is not interested in their topics. She is not good at small talk even though she could work with peers appropriately in a team project and talk about the project with them. The psychologist didn't give ASD diagnosis because she does not meet criterias. DD is a perfectionist and sometimes her emotions are intense.The psychologist suspected her having pragmatic language delay. So, I took her to evaluate by SLP specifically for her pragmatic language. But her score is 98 percentile. SLP told me it maybe her anxiety or personal preference not to have small talk with peers.
6) We talk with DD about the school choice. She told us she was not sure whether she wanted to go. She told me she saw Athena's online class. She wants to register for Anatomy, The Story of the Science and Biology 101 for middle school. If she goes to private school, she could not attend the class. But she likes the science class in the private school.
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My DD is eight years old. She is homeschooled since K. Recently she was admitted to a local prestigious gifted private school with scholarship which covers half of the tuition. The school is very strong in STEM. The school requires a minimum of certain IQ scores, tests, shadow day and interviews for admission. My DD met all of the admission requirements. We are debating whether to accept the offer.
Pros:
The school is very strong in STEM and offers a lot of STEM related clubs like math club and robotics club. Students from this school rank high in Science Olympiad. The school has four labs and provides a lot of hands on activities. For math and ELA, the students are placed in different grades based on their skills, not on their ages. The school claims they are very good at supporting gifted student academically and emotionally.
DD is likely to find likely mind peers at school. My DD does not have any friend except my DS. She does not share common interest with other peers in our neighborhood.
Cons:
1) We still have to pay $20,000 a year.
2) One way commute is 30 minutes. I have to drive four times to drop off and pick up her. My DS goes to another school which is in the opposite direction. I would not be able to spend more time to help my DS who has ASD and ADHD.
3) We are not very into the ELA and Social Science curriculum of the school. We use classical approach to educate my DD. The school does not offer any narration, copy, dictation, recitation etc. Classical literature is not included in the ELA. World history is also excluded from K-8. We are afraid if DD goes to this school, she will not learn as much as she learned from home.
4) If my DD goes to the school, She will have less time for her extra activities. I have to cut her sports and art time since her school is far away from home.
We are debating whether to take the offer. Right now she is very strong in Math, ELA and History. She is taking math class from AOPS. For ELA and History, I use the curriculum recommended by WTM. What we are lacking is peer interaction, science labs, science hands on activities and opportunities to compete in Science Olympiad.
Any suggestions are welcomed.
Thanks.
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My DD is eight years old. She was homeschooled since K. Recently she was admitted to a local prestigious gifted private school with scholarship which covers half of the tuition. The school is very strong in STEM. The school requires a minimum of certain IQ scores, tests, shadow day and interviews for admission. My DD met all of the admission requirements. We are debating whether to accept the offer.
Pros:
The school is very strong in STEM and offers a lot of STEM related clubs like math club and robotics club. Students from this school rank high in Science Olympiad. The school has four labs and provides a lot of hands on activities. For math and ELA, the students are placed in different grades based on their skills, not on their ages. The school claims they are very good at supporting gifted student academically and emotionally.
DD is likely to find likely mind peers at school. My DD does not have any friend except my DS. She does not share common interest with other peers in our neighborhood.
Cons:
1) We still have to pay $20,000 a year.
2) One way commute is 30 minutes. I have to drive four times to drop off and pick up her. My DS goes to another school which is in the opposite direction. I would not be able to spend more time to help my DS who has ASD and ADHD.
3) We are not very into the ELA and Social Science curriculum of the school. We use classical approach to educate my DD. The school does not offer any narration, copy, dictation, recitation etc. Classical literature is not included in the ELA. World history is also excluded from K-8. We are afraid if DD goes to this school, she will not learn as much as she learned from home.
4) If my DD goes to the school, She will have less time for her extra activities. I have to cut her sports and art time since her school is far away from home.
We are debating whether to take the offer. Right now she is very strong in Math, ELA and History. She is taking math class from AOPS. For ELA and History, I use the curriculum recommended by WTM. What we are lacking is peer interaction, science labs, science hands on activities and opportunities to compete in Science Olympiad.
Any suggestions are welcomed.
Thanks.
Thank you everyone for your valuable input! I have read every thread which gave me tremendous valuable information. Let me update some information:
1) We live in one of the biggest metropolitan area in the middle west. We have several top museums in the U.S. They do have some camps in winter and summer. We live in Suburbs. The commute for two way is 2-3 hours either by metra train or driving in the rush hours.
2) We live in the neighborhood where the housing price is cheaper than that of neighborhood with cut-throat public schools. But our neighborhood has none of excellent private EC programs. I have to drive one way 30-40 minutes for DD's drawing class and Robotics program.
3) There are a couple of Co-ops in my area. But I have not found any one to fit DD, especially one with a lot of gifted kids. I just feel homeschooling is not very popular in this metropolitan area. The people I know who value education either buy expensive house in cut-throat public schools or send kids to prestigious private schools.
4) DD had a shadow day at the gifted school. She told me she liked it. The best part is the science class. It is better than her public school's. ( She is homeschooled. But I send her back to public school for one semester). She felt the private school's ELS is not impressive and 3rd home room math is not challenging. ( The school differentiates the students. Some 3rd grader stay in the home room for 3rd math, some go to higher grades)
5) DD is not diagnosed with ASD. My DS has ASD. We took her to have a complete neuropsychological evaluation last year. She does have some traits shared with her brother. She does not have any friend except her brother. She is very engaged and enthusiastic sharing her ideas and interests in the EC classes. Her interests are so broad. But after class, she does not want to play or talk with any peers. She told me she is not interested in their topics. She is not good at small talk even though she could work with peers appropriately in a team project and talk about the project with them. The psychologist didn't give ASD diagnosis because she does not meet criterias. DD is a perfectionist and sometimes her emotions are intense.The psychologist suspected her having pragmatic language delay. So, I took her to evaluate by SLP specifically for her pragmatic language. But her score is 98 percentile. SLP told me it maybe her anxiety or personal preference not to have small talk with peers.
6) We talk with DD about the school choice. She told us she was not sure whether she wanted to go. She told me she saw Athena's online class. She wants to register for Anatomy, The Story of the Science and Biology 101 for middle school. If she goes to private school, she could not attend the class. But she likes the science class in the private school.
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Hi Storygirl,
Thank you so much for sharing your journeys. I feel the same pain. And your input gives me a lot of information and helps me rethink the whole situation. I totally agree my DS planted himself into trouble. He wants friends badly that he puts up with it.
He did have IEP at school. He receives 30 minutes speech therapy and 20 minutes counseling per week at school. In addition, he has 45 minutes private SP, 60 minutes social skill group and 50 minutes counseling per week outside. He used to have ABA 10 hours a week. But I discontinued it. So we spend years of years working hard on his skills. He knows about many of the skills. But GENERALIZE and SELF REGULATE at the moment are so hard for him. It seems he is never able to utilize what he had learned.
Right now I thought he was drawn to those kids because of he knew them in fourth grade. But I am now sure. I wanted to ask his teachers and other peers to find out. This group of kids are regarded as bad kids at school. So maybe he is drawn to this particular type of kids.
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13 hours ago, wendyroo said:
Do you absolutely have to move to change him to a different school?
Where I live, if I wanted to move my DS out of his current middle school, my first option would be transferring him to a different middle school in the district. And if I didn't like those options, there is a School of Choice option that would allow me to enroll him in many surrounding school districts. In all those cases I would have to provide transportation, but if homeschooling is a viable option, then maybe transporting to a neighboring district would be as well.
Thanks.
Our school district is tiny. There is only one elementary school and one middle school. So there is no way to transfer him to another school in the district. And there is no school of choice option in my area.
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14 hours ago, EKS said:
This doesn't answer your question, but...
I have worked quite a bit with kids on the spectrum and one thing I've learned is that you need to be absolutely direct with them. No beating around the bush, no assuming they know anything when it comes to social situations.
Did anyone, you or his teachers, tell him in no uncertain terms that those boys do not like him and that he is absolutely not to interact with them anymore?
If not, that's something I'd do ASAP if he continues going to school with them.
Yes. His special education teacher told him that his friends are not true friends. And some of the thing his friends ask him to do is to set him up. He was told not to interact with them. And the group of kids were told not to interact with him. It is my DS who planted himself into trouble and was after those boys.
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On 12/7/2022 at 5:00 PM, PeterPan said:
I can tell you for certain an autism school would EXPEL him for that, without warning, gone. Unfortunately, he's about to learn some real world natural consequences.
Of course we homeschool, but not everyone is well served by it. There are quite a few good therapies and interventions available through the school system. You need to see what placement best serves him, and you're going to have to wait to see what the school decides to do. Autism is NOT an excuse and this will be an unpleasant but necessary lesson. Pulling him tells him that Mama will rescue him from his mistakes, which is NOT the lesson you want him to learn.
I tell my ds frequently and warn him frequently that he is now at an age where his diagnosis and IEP will NOT protect him. If he does certain things, he will end up in the justice system and have consequences just like anyone. So you need to be frank with him and go through the consequences of what he did. I'm not sure why you think they're even excusable. It is NOT acceptable for a person with social thinking and perspective taking disabilities to make light of threats. They reflect the thought that it could, on some level, be acceptable, and we must PROTECT our kids by being very firm that these things are NOT acceptable, not as jokes, not at all, not ever.
Thank for your suggestion. I totally agree Autism is NOT an excuse. I took this incident as a teachable moment for him to learn the serious consequence of this situation. No matter we move him to another school or take him back, he has to take the consequence of the threatening first.
I am just debating whether I should move him out of this kind of environment or homeschool him after he resolved the issue.
I went to school yesterday to talk to the Principle. I told her I totally support her if the school suspend or expel him because I want my DS to learn the consequence of threatening. But too bad, she does not want to do either. She told me she thought the boy was not a threat and made the comment from his disability. She offered to made some slides about the threatening and go over with my DS. That's it. I personally do not think my DS will realize how serious his gestures are.
I am thinking of some consequences from our family. Do you have any suggestion?
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On 12/7/2022 at 3:05 PM, Rosie_0801 said:
Yes, there are all kinds of people in the world. Yes, your ds has to get used to it.
But evidently he's not capable of it right now!
Your son needs to be out of that situation. If you want to homeschool, you can put him into extra curricular activities for contact with other people. Martial arts would be a good choice. It's physical, which is good for body and brain, it's supervised and formulaic, and there will be lots of talk about appropriate use. When he's grown up a bit and could benefit from and be trusted in something less structured, maybe scouts. You might need to shop around for a troop that suits.
The other part of socialisation is the meta-skills. He needs to learn boundaries, to put his in the right places, as well as respecting others' and what to do when others don't. You can get books on that. He needs to learn other models of human behaviour, like love languages and apology languages (look up the 5 love languages website for quizzes.) Treat it like sociology class. He needs to learn how his brain works and how other people's brain works. There are non-fiction ways to tackle that, but don't discount fiction either. Fiction shows people's motivations.
Thanks for your suggestion. We have been working on his social skills for years. He has a social skill group once in a week, speech therapist once in a week and also meet with a psychologist once a week. He seems to know many of those skills. But he just is not able to use or generalize any of them at the MOMENT.
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Hi everyone,
I previously posted how my Autistic son struggled in Seventh grade.
My DS is in seventh grade. He was homeschooled from his fifth grade to sixth grade because of pandemic. He went back to public school in August and quickly found his fourth-grade acquaintances. He thought those boys were still his friends and so he sits and plays with them during the lunch break and recess. Then he tried really hard to fit in but failed. Those boys made tricks for him to getting him in trouble or having a complete melting down at school. They continually tell him in public that his lunch stinks no matter whether it is homemade or store bought. They told him to having a trick or treat together without showing up. But my DS is still after those boys asking for justice and apology. He wanted to force them to be his friends.I reported to the school a couple of times. The special education teacher and I are working with his to tell a true friendship. The special education teacher even took him to have quiet lunch with her or have him sit on the other table with nicer kids. But once he is by himself, he keeps on going after those boys. So, three weeks ago, after lunch he confronted the three boys. They had an oral fight and ended up with punching each other.Last Friday, after lunch he was again after the three boys. The three boys laughed and mimicked his awkwardness in the chorus. He was very upset and had a quarrel with them again. One boy hit him and He hit back. Then He made a gesture of gun shot to one of the kids. He later confessed to me he learned from the book The Outsiders. The school taught The outsiders in the ELA class. I was told he is very into the book and the character.The school emailed me about his gun gesture and have not tell me what they are going to do with my DS since they are still doing some investigation.I am struggling now. It is a good opportunity for my DS to learn the lesson and take the consequence of conducting the threatening gestures and words. I know some autistic kids were misunderstood and shot by them from Internet. But on the other hand, I do not know whether I need to move him to a new school or have him homeschooled. Our current community is not friendly to the immigrant. There are only 3 to 4 Asian kids in the school. The academics are regarded as useless. Kids talk about sports, computer games, social medias all of the time. The school does not have any academic related clubs which my DS is stronger in. Is moving to a nice neighborhood and school an escape? Some people told me there are all kinds of people in the world. DS has to get used to it.I am also debating about homeschool. DS does great when homeschooled. I used the curriculum adapted from well trained mind. He made tremendously improvement. I dislike the curriculum in his current middle school. The public school cuts grammar, vocabulary and some other basics which are so important. The writing curriculum is terrible. They pay so much attention on critical thinking without training the kids the basic of writing. So DS ends up chunking out garbage and garbage of so called creative writing. The math program is more terrible. They teach middle school math using stories like scenario. The books are terrible and misleading than AOPS or even Holts. I just felt my DS did not learn anything academically at school. But surely he learned his lessons from his gun gesture.Do you guys homeschool? How do you support kids with social part?Any suggestion is welcomed. -
52 minutes ago, kbutton said:
Please don't underestimate what you might be able to do for your son. I honestly can't do all the things that a good therapy person can do, but I can do better than some therapists--they aren't all talented in the same ways or have the same skill sets. It's also true that sometimes a therapy is not effective because a different therapy or different skill needs to come first, but the therapist doesn't have the experience to see that. Sometimes a person is just not the right fit--we went through a lot of therapists before we found people that were effective.
I think that you could potentially do a lot of good for him! One of my son's best therapists was a very intuitive and talented person who is not an interventionist, special ed teacher, SLP, or OT--she just has a knack for understanding what is needed, locating appropriate materials, regrouping when things aren't working, and moving forward. I could not do all that she does, but I had things I was good at that my son needed too.
A lot of kids with ASD do better with 1:1 learning, regardless of IQ. That doesn't mean that you should homeschool him if you've moved on, but it is not unusual for kids with ASD to need a lot more intense presentation. For my son, a lot of it is that someone needs to see where he's thinking or doing things wrong--his errors are often unusual, and he benefits from immediate correction.
Does he have really solid language testing that covers a variety of language issues, and not just pragmatics? The schools often run testing that uses multiple choice answers. A lot of kids on the spectrum can choose the right answer from a set of answers, but if you asked the question without multiple choices, they could not generate an appropriate response. If the tester doesn't use open-ended questions, then other kinds of language issues can be missed. ASD kids often have multiple kinds of language issues in addition to problems with pragmatics.
Another great set of therapy materials is from https://mindwingconcepts.com/collections/story-grammar-marker. They are language intervention materials that integrate with Social Thinking and probably with Zones. For a student his age, you would likely start with Thememaker and add products as needed. You can find free (and paid) webinars on their site to see how the curriculum works, and if you call them, they will talk you through what you are likely to need to work with your son. This resource covers a lot more areas of language than pragmatics, but pragmatics are compatible to work on with these tools. My son was 13 when he started using them, and it made a really big difference. He really didn't seem like he would need the autism materials (https://mindwingconcepts.com/pages/autism-spectrum-disorder), but he absolutely ended up needing the Making Connections book. The three autism books are a more explicit, step-by-step handbook for teaching the concepts in the Thememaker book.
Thank you so much for the detailed information.
I did some research about Interoception. It makes sense to start interoception before Zone. I did not find any therapist practicing interoception in my area. Is it possible for a parent to self study and implement the curriculum with kid? Is The Interoception Curriculum: A Step-by-Step Guide to Developing Mindful Self-Regulation the starting point for parent?
As for PT or OT, do I call them and ask whether they work on retained primitive reflexes? Right now, whenever I call OT offices, they never tell me what their expertise is. On their website, they advertised they treat and know almost everything.
My son had a neuropsychological evaluation three years ago. On the report, there are some comments about language. He had a couple of other language testing by school and by outside SLPs. But I do not think they are solid language testing. If I want him to have solid language test, what should I ask SLP? Because most of the time I asked for language evaluation, they only did some simple ones. What kind of tests and areas should be covered in a complete and solid language test?
Thanks!
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2 hours ago, Rosie_0801 said:
It would be a good idea to talk to him about boundaries and respect. Respect is not just about doing what the adults tell you. It's also about treating yourself and everyone else properly. Friends worth having are the people who treat you well and support you in being the decent person you ought to be. People who are mean to you and get you into trouble don't have any respect for you. (I know you know this, but he's a kid and needs it spelled out.)
A person I care about behaves like this, chasing people who treat him badly and rejecting those who treat him well, because he has self-hate issues. (And worse, *likes* having self hate issues.)
There's a book called 'Masterminds and Wingmen' by Rosalind Wiseman that should help you teach him about social dynamics. I read the girl version to my dd when her father sent her to school around the same age as your kid. She found it appalling but accurate and useful. Your boy might find reading the whole thing a wee bit overwhelming, but there will be useful excerpts worth reading aloud and discussing with him.
Thank you for the book you recommend.
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It is so painful to watch my poor kid struggling so much in sensory processing, executive function and emotional control. I recently dig into the Zones of regulation curriculum Is there any parent who implemented this curriculum?
Does anyone use Occupational therapist to help? What kind of occupational therapist can help the regulation. We used to use a bunch of them. But they only did the gross motor and fine motor, I didn't feel they do a lot related with regulations.
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3 hours ago, Lawyer&Mom said:
He goes after the popular kids because he perceives their social status. They have what he desperately wants. The nice normal kids don’t. (Been there, done that, it didn’t work for me either.) Are there any nice kids who share some of his interests? He may need to be explicitly steered in their direction, he may not be aware of who would make a good potential friend.
Thank for explaining why he is after those mean and popular kids. We do not know how to find nice kids who share some of his interests at school. He is into history and geography. Our school is not a good school offering only sports related club. And I could not found any of the academic related clubs in my area. I am thinking of moving to nice school and neighborhood. But my budget is tight and I could not afford the housed in the better public school. And I noticed in the better public schools, they do have Geography bee or spelling bee clubs. I do not know whether better public schools will help him a lot.
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3 hours ago, Storygirl said:
I'm sorry. It is a struggle. My son (now 18) also has autism and ADHD, chooses inappropriate friends, has academic learning disabilities, and doesn't remember material from class unless reviewed over and over. And over and over. He is in public school now, though we homeschooled when he was younger.
My first question -- does your son have an IEP at school? If not, step one is to make a request for an evaluation for an IEP. We can offer tips and guidelines for how to do this, if you haven't been through the process before.
Thank you for sharing. He did have IEP starting from Kindergarten. I have outside psychologist to help me go over his goals. His IEP looks really nice and complete. But it is the people who execute the IEP matters. The school could not help a lot.
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Hi,
I have a twelve years old boy. He is a high function autistic kid with ADHD. He has received tons of speech, occupational and ABA therapy. I stopped his therapies two years ago because of pandemic and lacking of improvement. We have switched different SLPs working on his social pragmatic language for years. When he was young, occupational therapist mostly worked on his gross and fine motors. We discontinued OT when he was around 6 feeling he did not get a lot of help. So years has past, he is still struggling socially, emotionally and academically.
I homeschooled him for two years since pandemic. Academically he made a great progress. Recently, I sent him back to public school since he had a strong desire to go back to school. In three months time, he experienced tremendously difficulties at school.
He is an enthusiastic to make friends at school. But since his delayed social and pragmatic skills, he is not able to build a mutual good communication with peers. He is trying so hard to make friends with mean but popular kids who manipulate him and get him intro breaking schools' rules. There are so many nice and kind kids. I do not understand why he goes after those kids. He does not recognize who is nice and who is mean. Any kids who share the lunch table are his good or best friends. His mind is struggling with fears of losing his popularity and getting his friends back.
Academically, his score goes down from A to C or D. I have him tested for intelligence. His score is a little above average. He did well with one on one instruction. But when he goes back to public school, I felt he learns so little. If I do not go over with his lessons again, he ends up knowing nothing. The teacher reported that there are so many things going on in his mind.
I am exhausted and pessimistic. I just felt how poor my son is. He was born with a lot of disabilities experiencing so many hardships. I understand he really wants to do well socially and academically. But he is just incapable.
I really want to help this poor but nice kid. I am thinking of using social thinking curriculum to help him with social pragmatic language and Zones of regulations to help him with self-regulation, sensory processing and executive function.
Since we have using SLP and ABA for years with little improvement, I am not sure whether we, as a first generation immigrant family ,could really help.
I would appreciate any suggestion.
Thank you very much!
Suspected Asperger daughter school placement
in The Learning Challenges Board
Posted
My DD is eight years old. She was homeschooled since K. Recently she was admitted to a local prestigious gifted private school with scholarship which covers half of the tuition. The school is very strong in STEM. The school requires a minimum of certain IQ scores, tests, shadow day and interviews for admission. My DD met all of the admission requirements. We are debating whether to accept the offer.
Pros:
The school is very strong in STEM and offers a lot of STEM related clubs like math club and robotics club. Students from this school rank high in Science Olympiad. The school has four labs and provides a lot of hands on activities. For math and ELA, the students are placed in different grades based on their skills, not on their ages. The school claims they are very good at supporting gifted student academically and emotionally.
DD is likely to find likely mind peers at school. My DD does not have any friend except my DS. She does not share common interest with other peers in our neighborhood.
Cons:
1) We still have to pay $20,000 a year.
2) One way commute is 30 minutes. I have to drive four times to drop off and pick up her. My DS goes to another school which is in the opposite direction. I would not be able to spend more time to help my DS who has ASD and ADHD.
3) We are not very into the ELA and Social Science curriculum of the school. We use classical approach to educate my DD. The school does not offer any narration, copy, dictation, recitation etc. Classical literature is not included in the ELA. World history is also excluded from K-8. We are afraid if DD goes to this school, she will not learn as much as she learned from home.
4) If my DD goes to the school, She will have less time for her extra activities. I have to cut her sports and art time since her school is far away from home.
We are debating whether to take the offer. Right now she is very strong in Math, ELA and History. She is taking math class from AOPS. For ELA and History, I use the curriculum recommended by WTM. What we are lacking is peer interaction, science labs, science hands on activities and opportunities to compete in Science Olympiad.
Any suggestions are welcomed.
Thanks.
Let me update some information:
1) We live in one of the biggest metropolitan area in the middle west. We have several top museums in the U.S. They do have some camps in winter and summer. We live in Suburbs. The commute for two way is 2-3 hours either by metra train or driving in the rush hours.
2) We live in the neighborhood where the housing price is cheaper than that of neighborhood with cut-throat public schools. But our neighborhood has none of excellent private EC programs. I have to drive one way 30-40 minutes for DD's drawing class and Robotics program.
3) There are a couple of Co-ops in my area. But I have not found any one to fit DD, especially one with a lot of gifted kids. I just feel homeschooling is not very popular in this metropolitan area. The people I know who value education either buy expensive house in cut-throat public schools or send kids to prestigious private schools.
4) DD had a shadow day at the gifted school. She told me she liked it. The best part is the science class. It is better than her public school's. ( She is homeschooled. But I send her back to public school for one semester). She felt the private school's ELS is not impressive and 3rd home room math is not challenging. ( The school differentiates the students. Some 3rd grader stay in the home room for 3rd math, some go to higher grades)
5) DD is not diagnosed with ASD. My DS has ASD. We took her to have a complete neuropsychological evaluation last year. She does have some traits shared with her brother. She does not have any friend except her brother. She is very engaged and enthusiastic sharing her ideas and interests in the EC classes. Her interests are so broad. But after class, she does not want to play or talk with any peers. She told me she is not interested in their topics. She is not good at small talk even though she could work with peers appropriately in a team project and talk about the project with them. The psychologist didn't give ASD diagnosis because she does not meet criterias. DD is a perfectionist and sometimes her emotions are intense.The psychologist suspected her having pragmatic language delay. So, I took her to evaluate by SLP specifically for her pragmatic language. But her score is 98 percentile. SLP told me it maybe her anxiety or personal preference not to have small talk with peers.
6) We talk with DD about the school choice. She told us she was not sure whether she wanted to go. She told me she saw Athena's online class. She wants to register for Anatomy, The Story of the Science and Biology 101 for middle school. If she goes to private school, she could not attend the class. But she likes the science class in the private school.