He learned to read and write, single even before kindergarten

Photo Benoît Philie
During the passage of the Newspaper, Manolo Poirier-Nantel has spent more than twenty minutes to play with his Rubik’s cube.

Benoît Philie

Saturday, 20 January, 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Saturday, 20 January, 2018 01:00

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Manolo Poirier-Nantel has learned to read, write and multiply it by itself before even entering kindergarten, to the great surprise of his parents, who did not see it coming. The 10-year old boy may be gifted, he is unhappy at school and her mother no longer knows what to do with him.

“He is a hypersensitive, super accurate, the avenger, and very rigid,” says his mother Marie-Claude Nantel. It is intense and not relaxing, on a daily basis. “

Manolo is a small boy with bright eyes and a very sharp mind. “I learn a lot of things, but I do not even know how I’m learning,” he says while tapping the head with his index finger.

What he loves most in the world, this is math. Manolo said that he had 100 % on the math test in grade 6 while he was in the third year.

He also likes gym class, the geo and the music. At one time, he dreamed of becoming a farmer, says his mother. But his interest in science is now taking over.

Boredom and anxiety

According to his mother, his school results have always been above and beyond the requirements.

But there is the other side of the coin. Manolo analysis. To the point of becoming terribly anxious. Of all things simple, like doing a diy, can become tasks that are insurmountable for him. It does not change and anger for nothing.

In its course, the little bored and has no motivation. “It is boring and long and too easy. I would like to make things more difficult, ” he laments.

He speaks of his most recent math homework, which he didn’t even have to do the calculations. “He had to draw and write… “, he complained.

The school has always been a major source of anxiety for him.

“In the 1st year, at the international school, I started to have problems to send it to the school at the back of the Feasts, and in the 2nd year, in the month of November,” she continues. He was increasingly anxious “, she says.

The following year, Ms. Nantel has spent 1500 $ to have a neuropsychological evaluation of the complete boy. The diagnosis came. Manolo is part of the 2 % of the population that is considered gifted.

Few resources

Manolo frequent this year a private college, in the fourth year, which his mother prefers to hide the name.

A last hope “expensive” for Ms. Nantel, who is desperately trying to find an educational program that may be suitable for her boy. “This year it seems better, at least for the moment,” she says. But I think it would take something tailor-made for him. “

Parents reported a lack of resources to blatant for the young Manolo in Quebec. “There are a lot of classes for young people in difficulty, but there are few enriched classes. It levels by the bottom and the most talented écopent, ” says Marie-Hélène Lepage, the mother-in-law Manolo, who is a teacher of the 6th grade.

Adapt to the child

However, last year, at the international school Wilfred-Pelletier, the teacher of the 3rd grade Carmel Bergeron was attentive to the needs of Manolo.

It is interested in giftedness, in an effort of self-taught, and has sought to adapt its courses to the young

Each year, Bergeron has one or two advanced students in his class. “But Manolo is the most gifted that I’ve met in 10 years of career “, said the teacher.

“You have to adapt fast and be flexible enough to not ask repetitive exercises. But there are limits to what I can do alone. I have a full class to manage. “

According to Ms. Nantel, Manolo has been lucky to have Bergeron as a teacher. “The teachers are familiar with the disorders of attention deficit and autism spectrum, but few are those who know what is giftedness. “