3 year old gifted or great memory?

[Anonymous]

My son was like that at 3. He taught himself to read with very little intervention at 2, and had a really deep curiosity to learn about things like your friend's child - dwarf planets, state capitals etc. By 4 he was tearing through chapter books. He is 9 now and still has an amazing memory and is very good with language acquisition. Other than that he's a normal kid who is super smart and often bored in school. "Profoundly gifted?" I don't know, we have never had him tested for anything, and Montgomery County Public Schools won't enrich an elementary school child if you put a gun to their head, so it is what it is currently. Mostly we don't make a big deal out of it and are glad he is happy and has friends.

[Anonymous]

I don't know, but last night we had Chinese tale out and my 5 yo started telling us whether our fortunes from our last takeout meals in July 2021 and Feb 2021 had come true. She remembered all of our fortunes word for word, despite us having not discussed them since the prior meals.

Little kid memories are amazing.

[Anonymous]

Mine knew the state capitals at 3 years old. We had a shower curtain map and talked about them at bath time. Remembers very few now at 9 years old.

[Anonymous]

Definitely bright. And a good memory is an asset to kids when they start school and begin formal learning. It's great that they're supporting their child's interests.

True giftedness is more about being able to make connections and think around corners. So the child knows all the major organs/systems of the body, but then says things like "Why do I have to wear clothes or a raincoat when I have my skin to cover and protect me?" Or "The water in our house runs through pipes just like blood travels through my veins and arteries. But where's our house's pump?" Giftedness is being good at the "What's next?" or "So what?" of the learning process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Definitely bright. And a good memory is an asset to kids when they start school and begin formal learning. It's great that they're supporting their child's interests.

True giftedness is more about being able to make connections and think around corners. So the child knows all the major organs/systems of the body, but then says things like "Why do I have to wear clothes or a raincoat when I have my skin to cover and protect me?" Or "The water in our house runs through pipes just like blood travels through my veins and arteries. But where's our house's pump?" Giftedness is being good at the "What's next?" or "So what?" of the learning process.

+1. So true. My niece and nephew are gifted (genius on the other side of the family, not mine). They both always went to the next step. My nephew would change words to fit parts of speech at 2 even if incorrectly (“I’m going to broom the floor”) and always make comparisons and find solutions. They knew my niece was gifted at 17 months when she saw a small tree, not more than four feet tall, that had lost a branch and then said she was scared to walk under any tree because the branch could fall and hit her.

[Anonymous]

You can have your child test for MENSA. Remember kids are scored on a percent scale of their peers. The percent of people increases over time thus the child’s scoring become deluded no longer obtaining the required IQ to hold the card. Children have different cognitive abilities at set ages. If you believe your child is “gifted” have a child physiologist conduct a placement test. The placement tests are used widely in NYC private school requirements, Aristotle Cognitive Training books will be a great resource.

-mother of a gifted child

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure. My kid is having issues remembering the letters and he is about to turn 4.

good memory is not necessarily a sign of giftedness. Does kid ask out of the box questions? Notice things others don’t see? Make uncanny deductions that are beyond his age?

[Anonymous]

At 3, my oldest memorized entire books and a bunch of other things. She's in college now, certainly bright and hard working, but not "gifted". She just had a great memory and a lot of motivation to use it!

[Anonymous]

I've recommended Leta Hollingworth's "Children Above 180 IQ Stanford-Binet: Origin and Development" before. While focussed on kids who are almost certainly much, much intelligent than your child, I think there's still a lot of value to it for the parent of someone more ordinarily gifted. Hollingworth was one of the primary developers of gifted education in New York City in the early nineteen hundreds. The book starts with a review of the profoundly gifted over time, and then moves into case studies of students with whom Mrs. Hollingworth had interacted directly, following most of them into adulthood. The book is out of copyright, and freely available off of Project Gutenberg's website as HTML or for the Kindle.

[Anonymous]

Most kids have a great memory at that age if you teach them. What matters is comprehension and critical thinking skills as they get older. Teach them how to learn not what to learn...that’s why homeschool is so important

[Anonymous]

My friends son is autistic. He has a great memory.

[Anonymous]

Memory

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely bright. And a good memory is an asset to kids when they start school and begin formal learning. It's great that they're supporting their child's interests.

True giftedness is more about being able to make connections and think around corners. So the child knows all the major organs/systems of the body, but then says things like "Why do I have to wear clothes or a raincoat when I have my skin to cover and protect me?" Or "The water in our house runs through pipes just like blood travels through my veins and arteries. But where's our house's pump?" Giftedness is being good at the "What's next?" or "So what?" of the learning process.

+1. So true. My niece and nephew are gifted (genius on the other side of the family, not mine). They both always went to the next step. My nephew would change words to fit parts of speech at 2 even if incorrectly (“I’m going to broom the floor”) and always make comparisons and find solutions. They knew my niece was gifted at 17 months when she saw a small tree, not more than four feet tall, that had lost a branch and then said she was scared to walk under any tree because the branch could fall and hit her.

NP, my 4 year old just told me that poop doesn't come from his butt, it comes from the food he eats doing down his throat and down to his tummy and then his body turns it into his poop and it only comes OUT of his butt. Gifted?

[Anonymous]

Having a great memory is truly a gift. Having a really high IQ involves more than that though. Approaching things from an unusual perspective, that most people wouldn't think of, is one. Understanding complex concepts is another.

Still, it's not "just" a good memory. A memory like that is very valuable in many fields.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely bright. And a good memory is an asset to kids when they start school and begin formal learning. It's great that they're supporting their child's interests.

True giftedness is more about being able to make connections and think around corners. So the child knows all the major organs/systems of the body, but then says things like "Why do I have to wear clothes or a raincoat when I have my skin to cover and protect me?" Or "The water in our house runs through pipes just like blood travels through my veins and arteries. But where's our house's pump?" Giftedness is being good at the "What's next?" or "So what?" of the learning process.

+1. So true. My niece and nephew are gifted (genius on the other side of the family, not mine). They both always went to the next step. My nephew would change words to fit parts of speech at 2 even if incorrectly (“I’m going to broom the floor”) and always make comparisons and find solutions. They knew my niece was gifted at 17 months when she saw a small tree, not more than four feet tall, that had lost a branch and then said she was scared to walk under any tree because the branch could fall and hit her.

NP, my 4 year old just told me that poop doesn't come from his butt, it comes from the food he eats doing down his throat and down to his tummy and then his body turns it into his poop and it only comes OUT of his butt. Gifted?

Probably not. All kids know that, don’t they? My preschool class talks about fiber and elimination a lot.