Anonymous wrote:My nephew is a math genius. When he was two he called numbers either “fair” or “unfair” based on if the number could be divided equally between he and his sister. He was talking about percentages before kindergarten. Also before kindergarten he would add three digit numbers in his head but did it backwards (adding the hundreds first).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My nephew is a math genius. When he was two he called numbers either “fair” or “unfair” based on if the number could be divided equally between he and his sister. He was talking about percentages before kindergarten. Also before kindergarten he would add three digit numbers in his head but did it backwards (adding the hundreds first).

This. This is what gifted looks like- not just advanced.

Anonymous wrote:Another formerly gifted kid (plus ADHD) here. As a child I learned things quickly and easily. You rarely had to tell me anything a second time, I taught myself to read at 3 or 4, and I never scored below the 98-99th percentile on standardized tests.

I agree that I would prefer my kids to be above average, but not gifted. I coasted through school and never learned how to work hard or overcome a challenge. Fine as a student, but detrimental in real life and in the working world. An above average kid that learns to work hard and be kind is going to be able to do anything they want. It doesn't take a 140+ IQ to be successful, it takes learned skills and enough intelligence not to struggle through the basics.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another formerly gifted kid (plus ADHD) here. As a child I learned things quickly and easily. You rarely had to tell me anything a second time, I taught myself to read at 3 or 4, and I never scored below the 98-99th percentile on standardized tests.

I agree that I would prefer my kids to be above average, but not gifted. I coasted through school and never learned how to work hard or overcome a challenge. Fine as a student, but detrimental in real life and in the working world. An above average kid that learns to work hard and be kind is going to be able to do anything they want. It doesn't take a 140+ IQ to be successful, it takes learned skills and enough intelligence not to struggle through the basics.

I'm the PP who went to a prep school for high school. I agree with you. I had zero challenge in elementary or middle school, and am very glad I went to a high school where I learned how to work hard. College was easy after that, but at least I had the experience of having to overcome an academic challenge.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My nephew is a math genius. When he was two he called numbers either “fair” or “unfair” based on if the number could be divided equally between he and his sister. He was talking about percentages before kindergarten. Also before kindergarten he would add three digit numbers in his head but did it backwards (adding the hundreds first).

This. This is what gifted looks like- not just advanced.

Anonymous wrote:DS knew all letters, phonic sounds, numbers, shapes by two.

At 22 months he saw a map of Wisconsin with the city “Appleton” printed, pointed to it and said “Apple”. Another time when he was about 18 months I asked him how many cars were on his car carrier (there were three) and he looked and took one off and said “two!”.

Weird stuff like that and pretty constantly. He also had amazing concentration as a toddler to the point that my just saying anything would startle him.

We had him tested for a private school and he tested “very gifted”.

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.

You sound like a genius with ADHD (like me).

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.

You sound like a genius with ADHD (like me).

Yes, I do have ADHD. Oddly I'm pretty functional now in real life, but I've shut down my academic side and nearly all my mental energy goes to home and kids. Dropped out of grad school with first pregnancy.

I have a weird number of md/PhD/ professor friends but I also have normal sahm friends. I met some really great people as a teen on message boards and we're still in touch.

I would say I'm a lot happier now than I was as a child. My husband is proud of my intelligence but it just doesn't matter as much in our marriage as what I made for dinner. He does like introducing me to his colleagues (he's very successful at what he does).

Anonymous wrote:I'm a NP and request more stories like the UNO child, please! I know not all folks with genius-level IQs are early readers.