Reply to What advice do you have for raising a child who is gifted?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Wow, I figured I would get flamed for this but wasn’t expecting it to happen so fast. I’m less concerned about education or testing at this point, and more about the specific social emotional issues that gifted kids have. DC has super advanced language so peer relationships are challenging because other kids can’t communicate or participate well in the type of complex play DC prefers. DC is super sensitive, prefers interacting with adults or doing solo play, struggles to connect with other kids on the playground who don’t take turns or share or follow rules, push, are aggressive, etc.

I want to figure out how to help DC navigate these social issues so she doesn’t feel isolated from peers. I am seeing it already and despite doinf activities, play dates, etc. and coaching her on how to initiate and make friends with other kids and play together she still seems to generally prefer adult interaction.

When DH and I were being raised there was no attention on these types of downsides to giftedness, or the unique social/emotional challenges that can crop up, it was just a sole focus on making sure we were educationally challenged.

And yes thank you for the point about effort and not praising for being “smart” I have heard that before and think it is great advice.   [/quote]

Hey OP. I posted soemthing a few weeks ago about needing help figuring out how to raise a gifted kid too, and all these people came out of the woodwork telling me that my kid really wasn't gifted and I was just being arrogant. It was nuts. My kid is 6.5 and we just got the testing back, and he scored incredibly high on the tests, for whatever that is worth. As a result of those tests,  this is the first time I've thought about raising a gifted kid versus a not gifted kid because now he's in school, and differences like this start to matter because there are opportunities and choices associated with them. Like you, I was (am?) also gifted and was also in the public school system. My kid, too, has a big vocab and relates to older kids/adults more easily. I've just done what some mentioned above - never mentioned the testing results and I don't make a point to tell him how smart he is. He has ended up having some self confidence issues bc some academic things come slower to him than they do to his brother (who hasn't yet been tested but who I believe will also score highly). So, we just talk about normal stuff - working hard, dedication, commitment, trying again, not having to be perfect - and then we find the avenues that he excels at and try to give him outlets for those skills and interests - for him these are the arts and math.  So, I'd just recommend learning as you go about your kids' interests/strengths/weaknesses and supporting those - just like you would any other kid. :)
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