It is rare for me to get feed-back on the outcome of recommendations I have made as a psychologist as a result of assessing children for giftedness. But the other day when I was invited to my twin-grandchildren’s ‘Grandparents Day’ I had a really sweet experience, and it had nothing to do with being a grandparent.
About six weeks ago, after the start of the school year, I was asked to assess a preschooler for giftedness. The little person turned out to be gifted, and I recommended early entry to school straight away. The parents had in the meantime visited some local schools, and during the last appointment we discussed the schools. The parents preferred a small and intimate local school, but the principal had never had an early entry enrolment and was not keen to start now, regardless of the outcome of the child’s IQ. Then there was another bigger school, where the principal had conveyed a willingness to enroll the child, pending the outcome of the IQ assessment. As it turned out, it was the very school where my grandchildren attended, and where I had been invited for Grandparents Day. While my grand twins were busy running around in the playground, I watched a line of children follow a teacher back to their classroom, and noticed that one little face had turned to look at me. The child frowned, trying to work out why I looked so familiar. I smiled and waved, and then the child was gone, small legs trying to keep up with the other children, but obviously quite comfortably settled in at big school.