The low self-esteem will really be boosted once she's in a mainstream classroom, I bet. So this is another reason mainstreaming should be a good thing for her! I agree with Frances, that does seem like a lot of work and...you've chosen solid programs, but looking at them, with the exception of Beast they're really not that much fun, you know? The last thing you want is to turn her off from learning by pushing rote work. The other commenters have had great ideas on fun ways to fit in the skills you're looking to cement, without her realizing she's learning. You mentioned unschooling, so why not unschool her over the summer? Surround her with activities and games that will draw her in, she's gifted so her nature will be to explore and deepen her own understanding, and the learning will happen naturally and more enjoyably for all of you.

I guess I'm a little confused? She's bright in the areas COGAT tests, but behind in the academic areas, so do you know what she was bored with? Could it just be that she wasn't enjoying them, rather than that she was actually too far ahead to enjoy them? I mean, spelling and math facts are boring for any child, especially a highly creative child, but it's still necessary to learn them. (Reading is already differentiated in any classroom.)

Thanks so much for your help...a lot to think about. (My understanding was that depression is low dopamine, so wouldn't the fact she's probably high dopamine due to her COMT counteract that?) Moro integration is supposed to help address anxiety, so we'll keep working on that. I'm starting with a low-ish dose D, and in July we'll test her D, her Bs, and I read something on Yasko that said lithium should be checked before adding B, so I'll try to have that tested too...although I'm not sure how much her ped will be willing to prescribe. I think I might need to find a good naturopath (hard because resources in our area are so limited.) Everything I'm reading about heterozygous compound MTHFR and her COMT issues suggests it will all be really, really hard to balance. ?

So I'm doing a lot of reading, and trying to put this all together...It looks like with her COMT SNPs, she probably has high dopamine (which explains many of her symptoms.) So why do stimulants affect her in such a powerful way? She probably also has high norepinephrine, which may be why Vyvanse made her more irritable (although it was mainly an issue when it wore off.) I'm also trying to understand how this all plays into epigenetics...Just because she has these SNPs doesn't necessarily mean she's doomed to express them, right? So if we can turn them off through diet, exercise and sleep (and addressing inflammation in the gut?) then they shouldn't be as much of an issue? Also trying to understand whether her birth-mother's drug/alcohol/nicotine use may have played in, and will make things harder. I guess prenatal exposure affects epigenetics? Does that make it harder to switch these genes off? This is all pretty overwhelming, the more I read the more I realize what a tough hand she's been dealt...

I agree with the others that being in a gifted program at this age just isn't important. My daughter was accepted based on COGAT scores both last year (1st going into 2nd) and this year (2nd going into 3rd), but in the end I decided to have her in mainstream classes because I wanted to improve her self esteem (she's a perfectionist), and I didn't want to increase stress in any way. She's self-driven to learn at home to meet her own needs, especially in the areas that interest her, and I doubt she'd do that if she had more homework, or felt stressed or over-worked at school. So in the long run it really helps her! If your daughter's not doing that now, you might be surprised next year when she's mainstreamed, or over the summer if you just let her focus on the areas that interest her most. Since your daughter is a good reader, she'll naturally pick up spelling (although that obviously might be impaired with dyslexia.) My daughter does Spelling City at school, and enjoys it (actually asks for it when she has free time after finishing work early.) Writing is my daughter's main weakness...Although she's great at conjuring up stories in her head, she has a harder time organizing them when trying to write. We won't be schooling over the summer, but she reads everything she can get her hands on, and for a long time on her own has been writing sequels to books she loves, as well as plays based on the stories. She makes construction paper costumes, and the whole family acts them out with her. ? So maybe you can try using your daughter's love of reading to encourage her to write her own related stories. You can do the same if she has other passions...My daughter is really into both bugs and space, and she'll do her own research and often incorporates that research into stories she's writing for fun...(She's actually writing about stag beetles now, complete with a diagram, because she wants to read it to the beetle she's keeping in a cage. ? )

How much D would you give? I take 1000mg myself, does that seem like too much for a younger kid? (She's 8.)

So I'm trying to interpret everything you've written...She has a med check with her ped in July, so I'll ask for a script for blood work then...You're saying to test for D and Bs. (Just B12?) If D is low then supplement, it'll decrease her methyl levels. If behavior is still an issue, she probably needs methyl levels decreased further, so supplement with methyl Bs? This is fascinating, but also a little scary...I'm worried about overreacting and making things worse.

Maybe worth a try? But we're not seeing the issue anywhere near as much when meds are in her system, only after they've worn off and on weekends when we don't medicate. How often do you do the niacin? If the half-life is that short, I'm not sure how much good it will do us. With DD, it's so short-lived, she's doing really well, in a great mood, then suddenly BAM. And then, 5 minutes later, it's over and she's her happy little self, with almost no memory of what just happened.

She gets upset with me and my husband (mostly my husband) VERY easily, when things don't go her way. Recently there's been some aggression too...not major, but some hitting that seemed to come out of the blue as a result of frustration. The other day I asked her to explain a math problem and she got FURIOUS at me, yelling and then crying, and it was really hard to calm her. (She understood the problem completely, just didn't want to explain.) This was an issue with hs'ing too, if she couldn't find an answer. She just explodes really easily into frustration and anger.

Yup, emotional regulation is probably her biggest issue. I had her on a good B-complex a couple of years ago, but really didn't see any difference in behavior. Guess it's worth getting her tested, though.

You should become a MAPS doctor... ? Good info, but yeah, not sure whether it's worth making the modifications, at least not for anxiety, since that's such a minor issue for her. Like, she's a little scared of monsters, and the idea of tornadoes worries her, but she can easily be distracted from it. It's not debilitating in any way. I'd say it used to be a little more of an issue? Like as a little kid she'd seem stressed out if we didn't do her bedtime routine, or a toy fell out of sight under the couch. But there's nothing like that now... ETA: And insomnia isn't an issue at all.

She's G;G

I did download the data, but it came as a pdf, not a zip file like your link is showing... I guess I should get blood testing...She spends a ton of time outside, so I'm guessing her D is okay, but it's worth checking. It sounded like you were implying VDR is related to MTHFR?

I only could get one of the VDR SNPs...Also red.

How were you able to download directly? I saw a link for 23andMe, but when I downloaded the raw data it was in a pdf file, which the site didn't accept? She was Red for 2, and Green for 1...MTHFR was Yellow for both SNPs that 23andMe included. I haven't looked at anything else, but will do that. I was trying to figure out PureGenomics, but it looks like you need a Practitioner to sign up for you? She's had no aggression on the meds, she handles them wonderfully, it gets rid of almost all her impulsivity. Thanks so much for all your help!! This really is fascinating...

I entered all the COMT and MTHFR, just to see...She came up RED for COMT, yellow for MTHFR. Which...makes sense. So does this mean she's MTHFR homozygous? COMT is a dingdingdingding! But what to do about it? I mean, medicating, I guess. ? "COMT (catechol-O-methyltransferase): A primary function of this gene is to help to break down dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is recognized for its role in attention, language, as well as reward seeking behavior. Dopamine helps to cause pleasurable feelings that aid in reinforcing positive behaviors and motivating individuals to function in certain reward gaining activities. COMT is also involved in the breakdown of another neurotransmitter, norepinephrine. The balance between norepinephrine levels and dopamine levels has been implicated in ADD/ADHD; in addition, dopamine levels are important in conditions such as Parkinson’s disease. COMT is also involved in the proper processing of estrogen in the body. Sensitivity to pain has recently been found to be correlated with COMT activity, such that COMT + + individuals may be more sensitive to pain. Methyl B12 may be tolerated better by those with results of - - as compared to those who are ++ or +-."

KnowYourGenetics is from Yasko, right? I remember looking at that, trying to figure out if I should try it for DD, entering my own genetics to see and then being turned off because she was recommending I buy like 100 supplements (and I'm neurotypical!), and it all felt like a marketing scam. (Not that I distrust her interpretation of the SNP's, but there's no way I'd give these unknowns to an 8 year old...) I'll enter the SNPs to see what it gives me for DD, though. The free vid was just for Moro: https://www.youtube.com/c/starfish4anxiety If that works, she recommended this, which looks like it addresses all the reflexes: http://www.pyramidofpotential.com/maintaining-brains/

The results came in!! That was crazy-fast, much faster than when I did my own and my husband's. Can I ask which service you went through to interpret them? Promethease? Or did you pick out on your own which SNP's to study? I wrote to PoP, and the owner was really sweet...She gave me a link to an exercise to try, for integrating Moro, said to try it for 30 days, and if I see any improvement suggested a $20 download. Seemed very genuine, not out for money, really wanting to help, which made me feel good about the whole program. So we started the exercise yesterday...DD had somewhat of a hard time with it, but was able to do it. I'm guessing it's just because of her motor planning issues? Or maybe it shows she does have an issue with reflexes, I'm not sure. Anyway, it only takes 1 minute, and she was willing to do it, so we'll see! ?

You mentioned that it costs $100, and I see there's a program called Growing Minds Every Day for a little over that. Their description is below, but none of those bulleted items is really an issue for her (other than attention), so I don't know... Growing Brains Everyday is perfect for the homeschooler or a parent who wants to improve on the child's education. There is 150 day guide with new exercises throughout that, in 10 minutes a day will increase memory, processing speed, reading, writing and math! This is designed to specifically improve the following: Anxiety and nervousness Attention, ADD/ADHD Hypersensitivity Memory Processing Speed Logic Auditory skills development Visual skills development Reading skills - blending, segmenting, phoneme manipulation Handwriting Organization Time mangaement and ability to tell time

Thanks so much. So is Pyramid of Potential different from the videos you see on exercises to integrate reflexes, or different enough that it's worth the cost? Or is it mostly the same? And you did it 6 times a day for how long each session? (We MIGHT be able to do that on weekends, I don't see how we could do more than 2 on weekdays since she's already exhausted.) It's a great idea to try to distract her during the exercises...I was playing music to try to calm her, but I bet a video would work much better. She loves them and I mostly keep her off media. (Trying to figure out how we might make that work with some of the exercises that require a lot of movement.) It's amazing that it's worked so well for your DS, wow. I've always kind of dismissed reflexes, because her distraction/impulsivity seems so much more intense than just a result of sitting crooked or her body moving in the wrong way. But that you could see such a difference in aggression is amazing. I keep thinking reflexes might be part of the issue, because she was late in all gross motor, I had her in EI early and their exercises pushed her along probably faster than she should have gone to develop those skills naturally. ? Who knew...

We've been taking weekend breaks to reduce tolerance, which is when we see most of our issues. So it's not withdrawal (we actually see it more on the 2nd day off than the first.) Evenings have actually been pretty good recently, mornings as well, although we have had a couple of evenings with a 5 minute aggressive interlude which really scared me, and made me want to figure out better answers. Again it's mostly weekends, though. And because she's okay for most of the weekend (super hyper, no focus, but nothing severe), I'm not sure how we can modify full days in order to prevent the outbursts. (I should probably go back to doing heavy work, though, which I've slacked on.)

I'd looked into Pyramid of Potential awhile back...So do you think that's worthwhile to invest in? I tried doing some reflex integration using youtube vids awhile ago, and she was SO resistant. She'd just break down whenever things got remotely hard, even simple things like hand exercises for Moro, so I gave up after a few days. ? I'll definitely post when we get our results. They said 6 weeks? So we may have another month to go, but their progress bar says they've done the extraction and such already, so I'm not sure how much time it might take. (Did you go through Promethease after 23andMe? Or is there another analysis program that gives the info. you found? Looking at Promethease, I can't find much of the information it seems like you got for DS.)

We actually sent in a 23andMe sample for her a couple of weeks ago based on one of your posts. ? Thanks, OhE, this all makes a lot of sense. I did also ask the woman who'd recommended it whether her daughter has SPD as well as ADHD...We've got some mild SPD going on here, she's somewhat sensory seeking, but also over-sensitive to touch, there are some issues with clothing and having her hair brushed, but nothing severe. You're right that our main issue is dysregulation, and mostly while unmedicated...We've been working on that for years with Zones, We Thinkers and the use of tokens, and it hasn't gotten much better. Recently it's actually gotten somewhat worse, which is why I'm looking into other options. The woman who wrote to me said that her daughters moods and aggression decreased substantially after starting, but again I'm waiting for clarification on whether she had sensory issues. It makes sense that sensory integration would help in those areas when you're dealing with SPD, but probably not when it's as mild as we're seeing.

DD was in OT for many months, and I was really turned off by the therapist (and it was a long drive), so we gave up. It's the only option we have in the area. I'm asking the person who wrote to me for more specifics, because I want to see whether there's more to the program than there seems to be. But all you're saying makes sense, thank you...I may try some of the activities on my own (diffusing scents while having her feel different textures or listen to music, etc.) to see whether there are any improvements. But yeah, the price does seem unreasonable if that really is all there is. (I did just find one peer-reviewed study with 1,000 kids, and they had impressive results, but it was only ASD kids, and it's hard to tell what level of impairment they had before starting.)

Yes, I know it does seem too good to be true. But I started looking into it because someone told me they'd seen significant improvement after a few weeks using the program, so I wanted to see whether anyone here had any experience.