Serafin Elijah A.

Samaniego

5 yrs 9mos Kinder 2 (Incoming grade 1) Good Tree International School

Potentially gifted/twice exceptional (as per Dra. Leticia Ho)

x x x

x
x

x
 x
x
x
x
x

x
x

x
x
x

x
x

He has huge vocabulary even early on. He has been talking in sentences right after his first birthday. He has been using
huge words which he just picked from his surroundings. We were surprised when he showed to us at 8 months old that
he can identify letters albeit can’t speak yet. As soon as he talked he knew all his letters and letter sounds. That’s why it is
puzzling for us that now at almost 6 years old he still struggles with reading non-phonetic words/phonetic words longer
than four letters. At age 2 he has been obsessed with Thomas and Friends he can name all of the 100+ trains. At age 3 he
became obsessed with dinosaurs, he had ways to know more about his field of interest at a very young age. He knew most
of the dinosaurs and pronounces them very clearly, even the longest that we knew like pachycephalosaurus (I even just
learned that from him all I knew then about dinosaurs was Trex). He knew which dinosaurs are herbivore, carnivore,
omnivore etc., or which are bipedal, quadpedal etc., or which dinosaur lived in the cretaceous period, Jurassic period etc.
At age 5 he outgrew his dinosaur obsession. He has an exceptional memory for movie lines. After watching a movie 2-3
times he can recite a portion of the dialogues verbatim. He is mathematically inclined and is now working on Grade
1/Grade 2 materials and doing 2-3 digit addition/subtraction with/without regrouping. He also developed a love with
mental maths he is fond of asking for math questions for him to solve. He is a good problem solver. He is an assertive and
articulate child. He has existential thoughts which includes suicidal (can’t think of a better appropriate term) thoughts. He
likes to swim. Though he never had swimming lessons before he is a natural swimmer. He can flip under water with ease,
I am still wondering how come water never get inside his nose whenever he flips and rolls under water. One time he swam
with his Kinder classmates the parents keep on asking whether he has always been swimming or have attended swimming
lessons. He only get to swim during summer and on his medium size inflatable pool.
 x

x
x

He still has difficulty in writing. He still has issues with letter formation (sometimes he still forgets how to write a certain letter). He has huge
handwriting and has difficulty writing within the lines. He has developed an awkward pencil grip and developed non-traditional ways of writing
letters i.e. writing letter from bottom up. It took him time before he learned how to write his name, sometimes he still omits one letter i.e.
Serfin instead of Serafin. He rely on his phonetic skills whenever he writes although he was taught the proper spelling many times (i.e. wan
instead of one, mi instead of my). When he reads he often guess words or do context clues. He often skips words when reading. He has
difficulty with abstract problem solving/sequencing/ anything that involves visual tracking.

Arjane C. Aram-Samaniego
19 March 2019
Mother