She does multiplication and division, understands fractions and decimals, but counts on her fingers because she has never memorized addition and subtraction facts or multiplication tables. She collects stamps and plays chess. Although she can concentrate at her telescope for hours at a time, she cannot sit still when she's bored. She has a sophisticated sense of humor that disarms adults but is not understood by other children. Putting Rachel into a normal first grade without paying special attention to her differences is a recipe for social, emotional and educational disaster.
Parents have to resort to alterations or individual tailoring of whatever kind they can manage.
In dealing with school issues, it's important to remember that you know more about your child than anyone else. Your knowledge, information, and instincts are useful and important, and they should be recognized in designing a school program. Your child genuinely needs individual attention. Anything else may be directly and seriously harmful. There is no ideal school pattern for the highly gifted.