When my son was two years old and could name every state flag for every state in the union just by looking at the flag, I knew he had above-average intelligence. What I didn't know was how many challenges having a very intelligent child would pose.

When I was pregnant with him, my first, I was terrified that I would have a child with a disability. I worked with disabled children and I was convinced that working with those kids was God's way of preparing me to have a special-needs child. When he was born and he was fine I breathed a heavy sigh of relief and thanked God.

I now realize that I DO have a special needs child. It's just a different set of special needs than what I anticipated. Along with being very gifted and having a genius level IQ, my son also has an Autism Spectrum disorder called Asperger's Syndrome. To put it quite simply, he's very, very smart, but he lacks common sense sometimes and he has trouble verbalizing his emotions.

Now my son is in fourth grade. He makes the A Honor Roll every grading period. He receives special pull-out services and stays in a regular education classroom. He receives a modified curriculum to encompass both his higher-level education needs and his slower-paced work needs.

As a parent, I feel both blessed and frightened by my son's special needs. He's extremely advanced in math. As smart as I believe I am and as well as I did in school, I am TERRIBLE with math. I fear the day he starts bringing home his trigonometry homework and gets stuck on a problem. I'll be useless to help him. It's intimidating to have a child who, in some ways, is smarter than yourself.

As for teaching my gifted child, I've learned the best thing for him is to let HIM guide me. I don't push him because he's smart. He is a slow-paced worker. He knows the stuff backward and forward, but he takes his sweet time getting everything done. When I start pushing him, he gets frustrated and the learning halts. When I back off and let him know it's okay to work at his own pace, he gets excellent grades.

In class - Very gifted children are often very imaginative and creative children and their minds can be functioning on several different planes at once. The teachers at my son's school have developed a picture schedule for him that is taped to the top of his desk. Since he has trouble staying focused on one task at a time, he has his schedule there to keep him on task. Also, much to my surprise, his teacher

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