She’s Just Fine

We had our last appointment with the Pediatric Psychologist today. We endured many screening questions in the time we began taking Selena to see him. He observed her in many different situations, at play, gathering information, as well as learning from her. He concluded that while Selena is a little more hyper then the average child, it is not too overly hyper that requires any type of treatment.

Short of giving her an IQ test, which he did offer to provide, but we didn’t feel that was necessary, he concluded that Selena is highly gifted with many quirks, sensitivities, and a way of looking at her world with much depth, and intelligence. We concluded that the classroom situation was number one two overly stimulating to Selena with 20 children, and it is no surprise that Selena is very sensitive to large group activities. Not only that Selena went into school expecting more, more then she got. She didn’t expect coloring and play, she expected learning, that just did not happen, well not on her level.

Socially he sees her as being very much a social butterfly, very confident in her social skills, and has a long desire to please those around her. Due to the fact that she is not reserved like many children her age, nor does she think on the same term as those her age, it becomes complicated and awkward. We have learned though that in certain situations, especially smaller group activities, children warm up to her very nicely and friendships begin to grow.

I can’t express how thankful we are for very special people who have been brought into our lives, especially Pastor and his wife who run Team Kid. They allow Selena to be Selena, they except her where she and for who she is. Over the past couple of months she has grown to love Team Kid, and all the children there. It was a very pleasant tone in the room Sunday night when I arrived to pick her up and had the children telling me how sweet Selena is, how much they enjoy being her friend, and even fighting over who would sit with her to eat snack.

We have been following Raising Life Long Learners, as she has been writing from her experiences first being a teacher working with gifted children, but mostly a mother of a gifted child. She has shared so much fantastic material on the gifted child and we have learned a lot. She has opened a whole world up to us and has made us feel less lonely as we travel this path we are on.

For now we will be continuing with Team Kid as the outside activity, and not worry so much about the larger scale activities. We feel confident that as Selena grows and matures that her tolerance to larger groups will improve. We also know that like anything else with her, as she gains more self confidence in being a friend as well as making friends, her attitude towards the larger group will change as well.