We are expats and speak English at home and at work. Our son Tristan was born in The Netherlands and went to the Dutch Peuterspeelzaal. We then decided to have him schooled in the national/local language and he went to the Dutch Basisschool. The first two years were just wonderful. Tritsan went to school every day with joy, got good reports, and we could not have been happier. In group 3 this abruptly stopped. The school told us that his werkjes are not finished and that according to their observation he is very much behind.
We were told that he does not understand good enough Nederlands but he would anyways be so much behind that they believe he also does not understand English well. We were told that we just do not see this because the love of a parent makes blind. There were then many other very unpleasant things and artefacts/tests created by the school that all always confirmed that he was very much behind. We had almost already accepted this as a fact until one evening it came to my mind how skilled Tistan is in computer aided designs and how far the books that I read him every evening were actually ahead of his age. The questions he asked about DNA, the big bang, the nature of gases and light, this all did no really fit together with the observations made by the school I thought. – We then decided to have his IQ tested and he came out as hoogbegaafd with the recommendation to maybe look for a school that is specialized in these children. At first we were very sceptic, because we had lost all confidence in the skills and intelligence of our son. However, we decided that it cannot get worse and we would give hoogbegaafden onderwijs a try. Within six weeks, Tristan was a completely different person. He had won his happiness back and his interest in school and started a lot of new activities and hobbys. He is now every day again so happy and excited about school. Unbelievable.
We are very glad that Emke could objectively see / test through all this blur and potential obfuscation by language. This has turned out to be of outmost importance to Tristan’s life, maybe for many years to come.