Anonymous
Post 09/29/2020 17:01     Subject: S/O: If your kid is truly gifted, what could they do at a young age that made you suspect it?
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.


Yes, curious for stories that aren't just "could read Harry Potter by Kindergarten." That doesn't seem necessary nor sufficient for giftedness.
Anonymous
Post 09/29/2020 16:57     Subject: S/O: If your kid is truly gifted, what could they do at a young age that made you suspect it?
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).


I'm glad you're happy! I'm still not happy in an academic or work (for other people) environment mostly, but I don't have hyperfocus for home and childcare. I am happiest doing intense creative work-- though I do like applying that to home/family duties-- elaborate Halloween costumes, heavily-themed birthdays, etc.
Anonymous
Post 09/29/2020 16:38     Subject: S/O: If your kid is truly gifted, what could they do at a young age that made you suspect it?
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
Post 09/29/2020 16:38     Subject: Re:S/O: If your kid is truly gifted, what could they do at a young age that made you suspect it?
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”.



+1. It’s the weird stuff! Very, very early problem solving and long attention span. When he was 20 months, he worked for twenty minutes stacking six cars he had and failing but kept rearranging them until he got them balanced one on top of the other. I couldn’t do it! It’s hard to explain but we knew after two older and bright kids, that this youngest one was gifted/very high IQ. And he is.
Anonymous
Post 09/29/2020 16:32     Subject: Re:S/O: If your kid is truly gifted, what could they do at a young age that made you suspect it?
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.



+2.
Anonymous
Post 09/29/2020 16:24     Subject: S/O: If your kid is truly gifted, what could they do at a young age that made you suspect it?
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.
Anonymous
Post 09/29/2020 16:20     Subject: S/O: If your kid is truly gifted, what could they do at a young age that made you suspect it?
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
Post 09/29/2020 16:19     Subject: S/O: If your kid is truly gifted, what could they do at a young age that made you suspect it?
My oldest is bright and I always thought he was gifted until I had my second.

I am not even sure I could explain it. It goes beyond knowing numbers, letters and or even an advanced vocabulary. She just understand everything. At age 4 we could have in-depth conversations in a way that I couldn’t even have with my at the time 7yr old. I have never had to sit down and teacher her anything. When she was 5 and we were playing UNO she had memorized how many of each kind of card were in the deck and when you played a card she had figured out the odds you would have certain colors/cards. You couldn’t beat her. She is still that way with almost any board game that isn’t 100% luck.
Anonymous
Post 09/29/2020 16:16     Subject: Re:S/O: If your kid is truly gifted, what could they do at a young age that made you suspect it?
I have three teens. Two tested into gifted programs; one did not.

The thing with the ones who made the program is that they are just very quick. You never had to explain a word to them; they just picked up on a lot of complex vocabulary very naturally and from an early age. They read without anyone really teaching them.

The one who didn't make the program didn't have things come naturally like this, but is a very good student nonetheless ... better in some ways.
Anonymous
Post 09/29/2020 16:16     Subject: S/O: If your kid is truly gifted, what could they do at a young age that made you suspect it?
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.


PP here. My oldest is still too young to tell whether she's above average or "coast through school" smart, but school is something I think about a lot. If she ends up gifted, I do not want her having the same academic experience I did even though I was on paper extremely successful. I don't think pull out G&T programs or select advanced classes are enough to teach those skills, I think gifted kids (or at least ones like me) need to be somewhere like a magnet or accelerated private school. In your experience, do you think you would have been better served in a more challenging environment as an elementary or middle school student, or was high school sufficient?
jsmith123
Post 09/29/2020 16:08     Subject: S/O: If your kid is truly gifted, what could they do at a young age that made you suspect it?
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.
Anonymous
Post 09/29/2020 16:05     Subject: S/O: If your kid is truly gifted, what could they do at a young age that made you suspect it?
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
Post 09/29/2020 16:03     Subject: Re:S/O: If your kid is truly gifted, what could they do at a young age that made you suspect it?
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.


I'm the PP who tested at a highly gifted level. I was not doing any of that at that age. I really don't think you can generalize about what gifted means.
Anonymous
Post 09/29/2020 16:03     Subject: S/O: If your kid is truly gifted, what could they do at a young age that made you suspect it?
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
Post 09/29/2020 16:01     Subject: Re:S/O: If your kid is truly gifted, what could they do at a young age that made you suspect it?
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.