Fearless - a jaylor story (peace book 3)

the results

-taylors pov- 

The weekend went by in a blur as I've been nervous about the results we are getting today. Ellie had her birthday party with friends and family on Saturday, her actual birthday, and that was a lot of fun. She played with the kids and seemed like she had a nice time. There wasn't anyone but Lauren there from her class, it was friends and family's kids, but it was really nice. The weather was good, so we were outside in the garden, played games and ate cake. 

Now however joe and I are sitting outside the office for the coordinator that interviewed and tested Ellie on Thursday and called on Friday asking if we would come by after dropping Ellie off at her classroom. 

The door to her office opens "hello Mr. and Mrs. Alwyn. Come in" she says with a smile, and we go in and sit down where I sat with Ellie the other day. The nerves are real because this could possibly change everything. 

"so I tested Elliana on Thursday as you know, and we have the results. She is borderline between mildly gifted and moderately gifted. At an IQ at 130. We always have to assume a mild variation as it's not a straightforward science so that's why we are saying she is borderline" she tells us, and I want to throw up from the anxiety. "so what does this mean?" I say and take a deep breath. The only reason I'm not running out of the room is that joe is holding my hand tightly.  

"well, she has things she is stronger and weaker in like every child. And sometimes the heightened IQ even evens out with the rest of the class at one point or another as she is still so young. But we want to focus on what can help Elliana at this moment in time" she tells us, and we wait for her to continue when she pulls out a sheet of paper. 

"The things we noticed other than her academic knowledge and that is above something one would expect a 6-year-old to understand are these things. She asks a lot of questions, is unusually sensitive to injustice and unkindness, is a perfectionist, has an unusual level of interest in classifying and organizing objects, prefer to work independently and has an unusually high vocabulary. Those are all signs of giftedness. And she also has signs for being a bright child which one must not confuse with a gifted child. That's probably why she is borderline because she has traits from both giftedness and brightness" 

The information is really overwhelming and hard to grasp. Is she really saying that our child is that smart? I know that an average person is around 100 in IQ but she is aperently 129, that's a big difference considering she is 6 years old. 

"i hear what you are saying, but where do we go from here now. How to we give her challenges but not push her to be an adult now. She needs to be among children her age and not grow up just because she is smart." joe says, and I agree. 

"We agree with that. Mostly because when we tested her EQ she is on her grade level absolutely, so she belongs among children her age. We have no intention of preventing her from that, but we do recommend enrichment, so she is stimulated enough." 

She suggests that they give her harder work in class and see how this evolves over time. Aperently there is no blueprint to figure out what's the right path for every child that shows signs of giftedness. It's about what works for the individual child and that might even change over time. For all we know it will even itself out eventually and it may not. We also don't know how she is going to do in every academic subject. For all we know she could be on grade level in some of them, only time will tell. They will watch her and test her, so they figure out where to give her extra things and where to keep it the same as the rest of the group. And apparently giftedness doesn't necessarily equal good in school, it's a broader concept about how the brain works. You can be gifted in different areas that school too so we don't know what the future will hold for Ellie.