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

[Anonymous]

As a newborn, his eyes focused immediately and he tracked, despite the experts saying this is not possible.

I don't know if my son is highly gifted. He's 17 now, just took the SAT for fun with no prep and scored 1520, plays 5 or 6 instruments, self taught. He always scores 99%-tile on any national standardized test but we've never done IQ testing.

He didn't read, speak or count early, or anything like that. Didn't teach himself anything that could be benchmarked (like letters). OTOH, he could create a functional electrical grid as a little kid that stumped middle age men. I guess it's all about what's important to _you_.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter learned to read at 3 years old, she could navigate anywhere any time we were in the car, knew all the roads and where they led, memorized all the presidents at age 3 years and their respective orders, had an advanced vocabulary and began speaking at around 9 months in full sentences, almost seemed to skip the baby phase, she never crawled, but walked at 8 months, she is extremely social and can get along with anyone easily, requires very little sleep, never really napped at all.

If you don't mind me asking, what is she like now?

She is 6 years old, in first grade, excels in school but states that she is bored, as she really isn’t being challenged at all. She is reading “The Martian” right now and can discuss it in extreme detail. She loves to write funny stories and has developed a keen interest in baking all of a sudden. She remains a backseat driver and can get us anywhere, we went to a distant state park and I used her as my GPS. She is funny, happy, exuberant and can converse about pretty much anything with anyone. She does show some signs of OCD and/or ADHD, as do both my husband and I, though untreated. She talks incessantly and has questions about everything. She is an exhausting kid, I won’t lie. She needs constant stimulation and wants to begin singing and dance lessons, so we’ll see.

[Anonymous]

PP, she also draws very detailed maps of both real and imaginary places just ad lib. She has memorized many songs and can sing them at a perfect amazing pitch, it actually sounds like the original song.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter learned to read at 3 years old, she could navigate anywhere any time we were in the car, knew all the roads and where they led, memorized all the presidents at age 3 years and their respective orders, had an advanced vocabulary and began speaking at around 9 months in full sentences, almost seemed to skip the baby phase, she never crawled, but walked at 8 months, she is extremely social and can get along with anyone easily, requires very little sleep, never really napped at all.

If you don't mind me asking, what is she like now?

She is 6 years old, in first grade, excels in school but states that she is bored, as she really isn’t being challenged at all. She is reading “The Martian” right now and can discuss it in extreme detail. She loves to write funny stories and has developed a keen interest in baking all of a sudden. She remains a backseat driver and can get us anywhere, we went to a distant state park and I used her as my GPS. She is funny, happy, exuberant and can converse about pretty much anything with anyone. She does show some signs of OCD and/or ADHD, as do both my husband and I, though untreated. She talks incessantly and has questions about everything. She is an exhausting kid, I won’t lie. She needs constant stimulation and wants to begin singing and dance lessons, so we’ll see.

She sounds highly intelligent. If you haven't, it may be a good idea to have her tested for giftedness, OCD, ADHD, etc as soon as possible. If she's bored, she may need to be in a gifted program to keep her interested in school.

[Anonymous]

What’s interesting is that my husband I both graduated phi beta kappa from Harvard and nobody we knew there had anything like these beautiful mind/ good will hunting-level gifts. I know a few were there — one guy wore a cape pre- Harry Potter and he was pretty gifted — but I wonder what happened to these other kids and their peers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter learned to read at 3 years old, she could navigate anywhere any time we were in the car, knew all the roads and where they led, memorized all the presidents at age 3 years and their respective orders, had an advanced vocabulary and began speaking at around 9 months in full sentences, almost seemed to skip the baby phase, she never crawled, but walked at 8 months, she is extremely social and can get along with anyone easily, requires very little sleep, never really napped at all.

If you don't mind me asking, what is she like now?

She is 6 years old, in first grade, excels in school but states that she is bored, as she really isn’t being challenged at all. She is reading “The Martian” right now and can discuss it in extreme detail. She loves to write funny stories and has developed a keen interest in baking all of a sudden. She remains a backseat driver and can get us anywhere, we went to a distant state park and I used her as my GPS. She is funny, happy, exuberant and can converse about pretty much anything with anyone. She does show some signs of OCD and/or ADHD, as do both my husband and I, though untreated. She talks incessantly and has questions about everything. She is an exhausting kid, I won’t lie. She needs constant stimulation and wants to begin singing and dance lessons, so we’ll see.

She sounds highly intelligent. If you haven't, it may be a good idea to have her tested for giftedness, OCD, ADHD, etc as soon as possible. If she's bored, she may need to be in a gifted program to keep her interested in school.

Her teacher recommended the gifted program but she was denied, I have no idea why. I may mention to her ped and see what they think. She has full conversations with them every time she has an appointment. Last time she asked the doc why she became a doctor and where she went to school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was gifted, genius iq etc. I read through the world book encyclopedia in first grade, was a very poorly adjusted child, got average grades because I'd walk out of class and have no idea what was taught, standardized testing saved me because it played to my strengths. I literally had no idea what was taught in school until they'd hand me the test to take. There was standardized testing at one point in school and i tested higher than anyone else in the grade of 250 students.

Had like one friend my entire childhood, read 10 books a day, posted on internet forums in my teens.

Got my BA and then my Mrs degree and now a much better adjusted stay at home mother of many.

I hope my kids are above average. But not geniuses. It's not helpful in life. I have many unsuccessful brilliant relatives and being emotionally healthy is way more important.

Have you ever been evaluated for ADHD?

Yes, I responded earlier. I definitely would qualify. Back then adhd barely existed, and certainly not for girls. I was never wild and rebellious, I spent the day reading books and ignoring the school environment around me, and eventually the teachers just left me alone.
I did well in college - got put in honors thanks to my SAT scores and had some great professors. But could never pull things together enough and didn't have family support that could guide me adequately. And now I'm a happy stay at home mother and probably the most content I have been my entire life.

Oh my god, are you me? I'm not a SAHM, but this describes my childhood and trajectory to a T. We just got my daughter evaluated and she has ADHD. She and I are very similar-- it's a healing experience to be able to give her the tools I wish I had been given as a child.

[Anonymous]

Many of these examples sound like people on the high end of normal, as opposed to the extremely rare, off the charts gifted status. If you do some research you’ll find that it’s not easy and seems to me like it would be exceptionally isolating. I get annoyed with how stupid people are. I can’t imagine what it’s like if the really smart people seemed dumb! So I don’t think I’d hope my kids are “gifted.” Very smart but still on the charts would be nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter learned to read at 3 years old, she could navigate anywhere any time we were in the car, knew all the roads and where they led, memorized all the presidents at age 3 years and their respective orders, had an advanced vocabulary and began speaking at around 9 months in full sentences, almost seemed to skip the baby phase, she never crawled, but walked at 8 months, she is extremely social and can get along with anyone easily, requires very little sleep, never really napped at all.

If you don't mind me asking, what is she like now?

She is 6 years old, in first grade, excels in school but states that she is bored, as she really isn’t being challenged at all. She is reading “The Martian” right now and can discuss it in extreme detail. She loves to write funny stories and has developed a keen interest in baking all of a sudden. She remains a backseat driver and can get us anywhere, we went to a distant state park and I used her as my GPS. She is funny, happy, exuberant and can converse about pretty much anything with anyone. She does show some signs of OCD and/or ADHD, as do both my husband and I, though untreated. She talks incessantly and has questions about everything. She is an exhausting kid, I won’t lie. She needs constant stimulation and wants to begin singing and dance lessons, so we’ll see.

She sounds highly intelligent. If you haven't, it may be a good idea to have her tested for giftedness, OCD, ADHD, etc as soon as possible. If she's bored, she may need to be in a gifted program to keep her interested in school.

Her teacher recommended the gifted program but she was denied, I have no idea why. I may mention to her ped and see what they think. She has full conversations with them every time she has an appointment. Last time she asked the doc why she became a doctor and where she went to school!

Maybe you could ask the school why she was denied?

[Anonymous]

He could write a little and spell his name at barely 3 years old and was doing basic math, including division and multiplication, around 4 years old. He learned the music notes around 5 years old in maybe 2 months. He just gets concepts very easily without having to study and understands patterns, so tests are a breeze for him. Everything is easy for him to understand, even physics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He could write a little and spell his name at barely 3 years old and was doing basic math, including division and multiplication, around 4 years old. He learned the music notes around 5 years old in maybe 2 months. He just gets concepts very easily without having to study and understands patterns, so tests are a breeze for him. Everything is easy for him to understand, even physics.

Adding that he's gifted, not a genius. He never complained about being bored, he just reads his books in class. I went to school (ivy) with a country boy from my foreign country, and the school moved him to the grad school level physics classes as a freshman, but he was in the international physics Olympics. He is off the charts smart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsmith123 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is very difficult to suss out without a professional evaluating your specific kid.

I'll just give you my own experience:

Unlike PP's children, I was not reading Harry Potter-type books at 5/6 years old. I starting read by about 4.5, but it was simple books. That said, my parents got me tested for admission to a magnet kindergarten program; my IQ came out at 147.

I never had trouble in school, graduated from a top prep school with honors and from a top research university magna cum laude. Am I gifted? I suppose my IQ would suggest so, but I was certainly not the smartest kid in my high school (though it's an extremely selective high school). If my IQ is 147, I would suspect I went to school with kids who have IQs in the 160s at least.

My 3 year old seems bright and inquisitive, but I'm really more concerned about her becoming a well-adjusted, compassionate and kind adult, than whether she is gifted or not. DH and I do not plan on getting her evaluated, unless it's mandated for a program we think she'd thrive in.

That's really unlikely. Either you are underselling yourself (particularly common with women), or your IQ is very unbalanced, e.g. only moderately gifted in most areas but highly gifted in one area that does not come up often in daily life, like spacial cognition, for example.

PP's description sounds very similar to me, and in fact there were multiple people at my high school with IQs in the 160 range. I went to a public high school near a university and most of the professors' kids were pretty bright.

Same. Even so, I wouldn't say any of those kids I went to school with wre "truly gifted." Just very, very smart (and some with very pushy parents, but not all.) The only child I've ever met who I immediately said was "truly gifted" is actually the child of two of those HS classmates whose respective brains combined in an amazing way. This kid was drawing amazingly realistic and creative pictures when he was 5 years old - as in so good I actually wanted to ask for one to just keep for myself as art. Art-art, not like "what a cute drawing." It was truly astonishing.

I’m the PP who went to a very selective prep school. It was one of Andover/Exeter/Deerfield/Hotchkiss. Extremely difficult to get into.

I had a kid in my math class who contributed to the field of geometry with a meaningful original insight when he was in 10th grade. One of my other classmates curated her own anthropological exhibition when she was 16. She went on to earn a Rhodes Scholarship. Several got PhDs in fields like Physics and Biochemistry from Ivy League schools. The school had to offer open-ended seminars in math and all the sciences because there were routinely kids who would exhaust the entire curriculum (well past AP) before they graduated.

I’m a smart person who did well there and have succeeded in achieving my goals, but some of these kids were/are true geniuses.

very smart very privileged kids. maybe one actually “profoundly gifted.” it’s very rare.

I made the comment about it being unlikely to find so many 160+. I assumed PP went to the kind of highly selective school you would find across many of the major cities in the US. And, I assumed for the same reason that you did, based on statistics. While IQ isn't going to be evenly distributed around regions (there will certainly more in areas that draw in parents who are themselves very gifted), having multiple within the same school just sounds unlikely.

But after reading the responses, I think it's possible that the PP who went to one of those prep schools actually did find his or herself in a different kind of student body---they may be drawing from such a unique and possibly wide base of students that having multiple 160+ kids was possible. Getting a PhD from an Ivy League doesn't mean profoundly gifted or even necessarily highly gifted, but the geometry kid and the girl who curated her own exhibit sound like they definitely could be profoundly gifted. Most profoundly gifted kids don't have such accomplishments, so if there were at least two like that, there very well may have been some more "normal" profoundly gifted kids there too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter learned to read at 3 years old, she could navigate anywhere any time we were in the car, knew all the roads and where they led, memorized all the presidents at age 3 years and their respective orders, had an advanced vocabulary and began speaking at around 9 months in full sentences, almost seemed to skip the baby phase, she never crawled, but walked at 8 months, she is extremely social and can get along with anyone easily, requires very little sleep, never really napped at all.

If you don't mind me asking, what is she like now?

She is 6 years old, in first grade, excels in school but states that she is bored, as she really isn’t being challenged at all. She is reading “The Martian” right now and can discuss it in extreme detail. She loves to write funny stories and has developed a keen interest in baking all of a sudden. She remains a backseat driver and can get us anywhere, we went to a distant state park and I used her as my GPS. She is funny, happy, exuberant and can converse about pretty much anything with anyone. She does show some signs of OCD and/or ADHD, as do both my husband and I, though untreated. She talks incessantly and has questions about everything. She is an exhausting kid, I won’t lie. She needs constant stimulation and wants to begin singing and dance lessons, so we’ll see.

She sounds highly intelligent. If you haven't, it may be a good idea to have her tested for giftedness, OCD, ADHD, etc as soon as possible. If she's bored, she may need to be in a gifted program to keep her interested in school.

Her teacher recommended the gifted program but she was denied, I have no idea why. I may mention to her ped and see what they think. She has full conversations with them every time she has an appointment. Last time she asked the doc why she became a doctor and where she went to school!

Maybe you could ask the school why she was denied?

We are doing DL right now, so I am not too concerned. Also the actual gifted program doesn’t begin until 3rd grade, it’s unclear what the program provides 1st and 2nd graders really. I know in 3rd grade acceptance will be based on teacher recs and standardized test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, she also draws very detailed maps of both real and imaginary places just ad lib. She has memorized many songs and can sing them at a perfect amazing pitch, it actually sounds like the original song.

OP again. DS is 2.75 yrs old and he can identify basically the entire discography of a particular band I listen to within the first 10 seconds, sometimes within just a couple of notes, in addition to the songs on heavy rotation on my favorite radio stations. He once got one song wrong (it was very similar to what was playing) and I doo-doo-doo'd the opening notes and he said, "how did the other one go again?" and wanted to compare to see where he went wrong. It's moments like that where I'm like, am I supposed to be doing something more with you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a newborn, his eyes focused immediately and he tracked, despite the experts saying this is not possible.

I don't know if my son is highly gifted. He's 17 now, just took the SAT for fun with no prep and scored 1520, plays 5 or 6 instruments, self taught. He always scores 99%-tile on any national standardized test but we've never done IQ testing.

He didn't read, speak or count early, or anything like that. Didn't teach himself anything that could be benchmarked (like letters). OTOH, he could create a functional electrical grid as a little kid that stumped middle age men. I guess it's all about what's important to _you_.

My first was tracking within days of birth. We were still at the hospital when he would watch and follow my husband walk into and around the room. I think he was possibly following the sound of DH's footsteps, a form of tracking. So yes, even though the experts say it's not possible, I'm with you---it's definitely possible.