S/O: If your kid is truly gifted, what could they do at a young age that made you suspect it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought DS was gifted. He taught himself how to play chess at age 4. He could add and subtract double digits in his head at also at 4. He taught himself how to multiply and divide in kindergarten. He could easily find patterns in number sequences and sports plays. He’s now 10 and definitely not gifted. He is in a gifted magnet program but he doesn’t focus. He misses so much instruction because he seems zoned out. He makes careless mistakes in math, especially with word problems. He did really well on the CoGat but abysmal on the MAP tests. So kids may seem bright early but the rest of the kids catch up and suddenly they are no longer outliers.

I would have him evaluated for ADHD. Something isn’t right here.

+1. IQ tested via the WPPSI isn't all that reliably stable; doing the WISC or Binet between ages 7 and 9 has a better correlation with adult intelligence. But gifted children don't suddenly become "non-gifted".

Instead, you appear to be confusing being a high-achiever with being gifted. Many people unfortunately conflate the two, but many high achievers are not gifted, and many gifted children are not high achievers. I would suggest doing a full neuropsych evaluation, looking not just at ADHD but at possible other issues such as depression.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm going to be "that mom" about this. I had tested extremely high IQ when I was young, multiple Ivy, multiple grad degrees. My DS was so delayed he was evaluated for early intervention and qualified for EVERYTHING. At age 4 it was clear he would not do well on entrance interviews where I lived so I moved to a good public school district and had an IEP from the beginning. By third grade he scored 99.9 percentage -- off the curve completely on all subtests of the WISC V. I'm not even sure how that happened.

I had not expected this at all - I even probably posted on DCUM when he was younger about all of this. He did have smart sense of humor at a young age. But, yeah, no signs of being advanced otherwise. AT ALL. Some of his therapists said they thought he was a "little observer."

I have a child who appeared autistic and did not talk or interact much until age 3.

He's now 6 and loves doing multiplication in his head. Totally normal socially, very verbal.

[Anonymous]

DS has questioned everything from a very young age. He wants to have philosophical conversations about life and death. He seems to have a mature understanding and perspective. He told me heaven is not real and gets very annoyed when I talk about religion or heaven. He wants to know how the body functions and what happens when the body dies. He is seems to have figured out how babies are made and is fascinated with pregnancy and childbirth. He never really believed in Santa or the toothfairy or other mythological characters, even though I encouraged him to believe, and gets extremely annoyed if and when I talk about Santa/toothfairy. He has been like this since a very young chid, maybe about age 3, and is now 7.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS has questioned everything from a very young age. He wants to have philosophical conversations about life and death. He seems to have a mature understanding and perspective. He told me heaven is not real and gets very annoyed when I talk about religion or heaven. He wants to know how the body functions and what happens when the body dies. He is seems to have figured out how babies are made and is fascinated with pregnancy and childbirth. He never really believed in Santa or the toothfairy or other mythological characters, even though I encouraged him to believe, and gets extremely annoyed if and when I talk about Santa/toothfairy. He has been like this since a very young chid, maybe about age 3, and is now 7.

So your poor child is growing up with religious nuts? And he is normal? Sounds to me like he didn't get the smarts from you. None of what you posted is anything out of ordinary, you are just too dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS has questioned everything from a very young age. He wants to have philosophical conversations about life and death. He seems to have a mature understanding and perspective. He told me heaven is not real and gets very annoyed when I talk about religion or heaven. He wants to know how the body functions and what happens when the body dies. He is seems to have figured out how babies are made and is fascinated with pregnancy and childbirth. He never really believed in Santa or the toothfairy or other mythological characters, even though I encouraged him to believe, and gets extremely annoyed if and when I talk about Santa/toothfairy. He has been like this since a very young chid, maybe about age 3, and is now 7.

So your poor child is growing up with religious nuts? And he is normal? Sounds to me like he didn't get the smarts from you. None of what you posted is anything out of ordinary, you are just too dumb.

Not religious nuts at all, however what should I tell him, yes, death is final, sweetheart, so make the best of the situation while you’re here, buddy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, I am curious to know if there are any patterns with temperament, sleep, and how parents balanced this constant need for stimulation.

My very high IQ child never needed outside stimulation. He will find something interesting or to explore anywhere. He’s never been bored. He has a very loving temperament but has never needed a lot of sleep.

+1. Very gifted people are never bored. My genius friend said she doesn’t even understand what “feeling bored” means because, as she says, she can always think.

I tested as gifted as a kid and I agree with this. From an early age I just went and entertained myself- i was reading my parents old college textbooks before I was old enough to start school and would get very "into" something elaborate and this continued as I got older. For example, in early elementary school I was fascinated by the stars so I would memorize constellations, spend lots of time with a telescope I begged for for christmas, then learned all the Greek mythology behind the constellations, then made up my own constellations and wrote new myths, then acted out the myths in a musical theater performance including original songs (i have perfect pitch and my memory works really well with music- i can remember most things if they are set to music)... then decided to research how the space shuttle worked, calculate how long it would get to different stars, pretend that I was on a solo mission to mars and make my packing list, imagined how life forms on each of Juptier's moons would look like based on the different gravity, athmosphere and temperature...

Honestly I didn't learn much in school until maybe 8th grade when I started taking Spanish. I would finish up whatever I had to do and would read, or draw mazes/create number puzzles, etc. No ADHD though- I have almost too much of an attention span and get lost in my head easily, and could be happy on my own for days. I learned how to be more social as I got older and have wonderful lifelong friendships. I went to a magnet science high school in NOVA (lol) and didn't prep for the test- was exposed to some kids who were probably more "genius" level there, and ran across a few "genius" colleagues later in medicine.

Things come relatively easily in that new concepts are easy for me but I still have to work hard for mastery. I was able to go from an IT career to being a medical subspecialist and have enjoyed the process. I like to research and keep taking classes and reading- basically I never feel "done" and love learning new things.

[Anonymous]

Curious if any PPs noticed musical inclinations early on that continued as the kids grew?

DD turned 2 in August and can play ascending and descending scales on her xylophone without missing a note, striking the key in the center so it rings, and if I ask her to play each note twice she will play the scale that way hitting each key two times with steady rhythm. I’d say she is of average intelligence or slightly above average in general. But not a genius or prodigy.

DH and I both played instruments from childhood through college but we aren’t a “musical” family. She hears classical sometimes and we sing together. She is also not THAT interested in the xylophone. She plays with it maybe once a week? I’ll tap out songs for her on it what she likes, but we don’t do any drills or practicing or anything.

[Anonymous]

If you had really smart kids, when did they know colors/shapes/numbers? My 20 month old has known colors and shapes for a few months and numbers for about a month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you had really smart kids, when did they know colors/shapes/numbers? My 20 month old has known colors and shapes for a few months and numbers for about a month.

Same with my 23 month old along with letters and their phonetic sounds. My son does have a true teacher-nanny which explains a lot but I also wonder if he’s bright. DH and I are both smart enough but no where close to being geniuses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you had really smart kids, when did they know colors/shapes/numbers? My 20 month old has known colors and shapes for a few months and numbers for about a month.

Knew colors before turning 12 months old.

At 14-16 months could point to anything in a book. Square? Number 5? Letter B? Emu? Mars? We had these big books with like toddler’s first 1000 words or something like that. Then around 18 months we got speech in complete sentences.

[Anonymous]

When DS was three he said something to the effect of "if 46 +46 is 92, then 48 + 48 is 96." He was doing other things at that time, but that made me think it was more than just "he's very bright." He seemed to understand how numbers worked and was building on that knowledge rapidly.

[Anonymous]

IDK if DD is gifted as she is only 3, but was reading at 2. We did not review phonetics and had only covered the alphabet. We did read to her a lot and the only reason we found out is because she would read street signs, marquees, and finally words on grocery bags. We shrugged it off but when she read “please recycle” we decided to test her ourselves. So we grabbed our laptop. Typed out words and asked her what they said.

She knew all her colors, shapes, and animal sounds by about 20 months. Whenever we’d play with her blocks, animals etc, I’d ask her to hand me each one and just stated what it was when putting it away. So when I asked for the parallelogram or octagon, she’d give it to me. IDK if that shows giftedness, I just assumed it was associative memorization.

I wrote unique lullabies for her, and if Dad sang the lyrics out of order, she’d correct him, lol.

She’s decent at addition and subtraction as long as the numbers are below 20. We don’t have any flash cards but ask her to practically “apply” her knowledge. For example, if she has 10 strawberries, and 5 is given to brother, how many strawberries does she have left in her bowl.

[Anonymous]

My kids are "gifted" but none read before age 7. Yes, 7. One is in a top grad program, the others are just excellent academically and in other ways (leadership, politics). I knew they were smart, but it was hard to pinpoint exactly when or why I knew. They didn't stand out when small. Not precocious. I noticed that they sped past some of the "early readers" so I'm not a believer in the value of pushing kids academically at an early age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IDK if DD is gifted as she is only 3, but was reading at 2. We did not review phonetics and had only covered the alphabet. We did read to her a lot and the only reason we found out is because she would read street signs, marquees, and finally words on grocery bags. We shrugged it off but when she read “please recycle” we decided to test her ourselves. So we grabbed our laptop. Typed out words and asked her what they said.

She knew all her colors, shapes, and animal sounds by about 20 months. Whenever we’d play with her blocks, animals etc, I’d ask her to hand me each one and just stated what it was when putting it away. So when I asked for the parallelogram or octagon, she’d give it to me. IDK if that shows giftedness, I just assumed it was associative memorization.

I wrote unique lullabies for her, and if Dad sang the lyrics out of order, she’d correct him, lol.

She’s decent at addition and subtraction as long as the numbers are below 20. We don’t have any flash cards but ask her to practically “apply” her knowledge. For example, if she has 10 strawberries, and 5 is given to brother, how many strawberries does she have left in her bowl.

My 2.5 and 4 year old do all of these things too. This sounds pretty normal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IDK if DD is gifted as she is only 3, but was reading at 2. We did not review phonetics and had only covered the alphabet. We did read to her a lot and the only reason we found out is because she would read street signs, marquees, and finally words on grocery bags. We shrugged it off but when she read “please recycle” we decided to test her ourselves. So we grabbed our laptop. Typed out words and asked her what they said.

She knew all her colors, shapes, and animal sounds by about 20 months. Whenever we’d play with her blocks, animals etc, I’d ask her to hand me each one and just stated what it was when putting it away. So when I asked for the parallelogram or octagon, she’d give it to me. IDK if that shows giftedness, I just assumed it was associative memorization.

I wrote unique lullabies for her, and if Dad sang the lyrics out of order, she’d correct him, lol.

She’s decent at addition and subtraction as long as the numbers are below 20. We don’t have any flash cards but ask her to practically “apply” her knowledge. For example, if she has 10 strawberries, and 5 is given to brother, how many strawberries does she have left in her bowl.

My 2.5 and 4 year old do all of these things too. This sounds pretty normal.

Right? People kept telling us we should get her IQ tested, including her pediatrician. I didn’t feel like she was doing anything extraordinary (other than the reading) and we weren’t braggodocious parents. But when the waitstaff (pre pandemic) watched her read the menu, they would comment. She would correct grandparents if they identified a dinosaur incorrectly etc. When we toured schools (pre-pandemic) she read those bulletin boards on display and the teacher made a comment as well.

From what I understand, early reading isn’t a strong indicator of “giftedness”. So we’ll take our blessings as what they are and not try to pigeonhole her.