how do you know if your child is "gifted"?

carang

carang

Registered User
first off, i HATE the term "gifted", but as a teacher i see MANY, MANY children. i realise that all kids develop at a different pace.

i have wondered about my daughter though.

she's 2yrs4m. i've done some reading regarding developmental milestones. i have realised that by 2 years she had mastered 95% of the milestones set out for 3 year olds. the exception being toilet training.

she's spoken full sentences since she was 20 months. has a vocabulary of mimum 300-400 words in english, it could even be more... i haven't bothered counting. she understands cantonese, but prefers to speak english. she even makes up her own jokes sometimes. when i give her a book of "first words" she can name about 95% of them. the ones she can't name are usually ones we don't use very often.

physically, she's ahead as well. she was climbing steps on her own at 13 months. she's been climbing steps, alternating feet, since about 20 months. she walks on tip toes, can kick a ball in the correct direction, can throw in the right direction and can sometimes even catch. she's been eating with a fork since 22 months (or so) and can drink from a bottle or a cup fairly well.

she's been able to share toys and treats with friends since she was about 20 months and can take turns if told to. (she counts to ten, then asks for her turn... on her own!)


i guess what i'm asking is... is there anything i can to to help her even more? i do NOT want to push her, i just want to make sure she is stimulated enough. she already comes to my playgroup with me once or twice per week and she can hold her own in a class of 3-4 year olds (and has done since she was 2).

i don't think i'm just being a "proud mama", as i said, i see a lot of kids every week and my daughter really seems to have more in common with the 3-5 year olds than with the other 2 year olds....i've never been a fan of "testing" for "gifts" but i'm wondering if i do nothing, should i be doing something?

does that make ANY sense at all?
 
It makes a lot of sense. You can see that your daughter has reached the milestones of those in her age group and beyond. I use to teach summer classes for 'gifted' children when I was studying. I too am not a fan for testing for gifts. I do however, believe in keeping them cognitively stimulated and challenged.... quite often you can see that they are craving 'something more'. Yet, at the same time, keep them familiar with friends of a similar age.
 
after watching the video, i realised that my daughter, born one month early was walking by 1.5 months... which is like 9.25 months old... she also crawled by 5 months, which is like 3.75 months old....
 
Don't forget she might be stimulated by her older brother, and he is the example to follow... It's very common to see the second child developping abilities much quicker. One of my friend has the same situation with her second child, who is already speaking much more than mine (who is the first one) at the same age, was walking sooner, is very independant and mature.
That could explain why she is feeling confortable with older ones.
Not saying it's the only explanation for sure ! it will be interesting to see how she reacts when she starts kindergarden.
 
that's what i always thought, that it's just because she has an older brother to "show her the ropes".... but i contstantly find myslef amazed by her vocabulary and ability to express herself....like i said, i am able to compare her to about 40 other children that i see weekly in my playgroup classes.

for example...

today, i asked my daughter, "did you go to play on the trampoline today?"

"no, yaya said it was too hot. we went to feed the fish instead."

ver batim...
 
I think every parent thinks their child is special in some way. In my opinion it is more important, as Bumps said, to continually offer them ways to stimulate their brains than to compare them to others their own age. At the end of the day 40 kids is not a big number and there is a whole world out there full of children doing things at different paces. I always want to raise my children so that they don't care what others are doing but rather care about being the best they can be.

There's also a lot of interesting reading to be had around intelligence with the bottom line being that you only need to have a certain level of intelligence to become successful in life. So in other words, Bill Gates is of above average intelligence and mega successful yet many people who have tested off the charts in terms of intelligence have led less than stellar lives career wise and often have not developed other even more important (social) skills. I think we can all see examples of this around us.

I think it's great that your daughter has fantastic communication skills and think you should keep encouraging her but beyond that what did you actually want to do except what you have always done?
 
i'm not sure what i want to do... although i only mentioned the 40 that i see currently, i have seen a lot more than that in my 14 years of teaching.

we live out in the boonies and there isn't a lot of stimulation at home. my son is at school (or at least was) and he will be going full day next year, so she will be at home by herself... i'm a little concerned that she won't be stimulated enough.

just wondering if anyone had any suggestions?
 
Giftedness IMO is not to do with learning skills. Everyone learns skills. Smart people learn them faster and earlier, but almost everyone learns them.

Giftedness is about creativity and a willingness to experiment, take risks and create.

You're an educator, right? Maybe you could take a certificate in gifted ed? It would help in your job (woohoo tax deduction!) and you can apply it in your everyday life too.
 
carang said:
i guess what i'm asking is... is there anything i can to to help her even more? i do NOT want to push her, i just want to make sure she is stimulated enough. she already comes to my playgroup with me once or twice per week and she can hold her own in a class of 3-4 year olds (and has done since she was 2).

i don't think i'm just being a "proud mama", as i said, i see a lot of kids every week and my daughter really seems to have more in common with the 3-5 year olds than with the other 2 year olds....i've never been a fan of "testing" for "gifts" but i'm wondering if i do nothing, should i be doing something?
Click to expand...

Please tell me too when you find out. I don't think it's a case of comparing kids as suggested by aussiegal. My 2nd (21 months) also appears to be much more advanced (I do not teach playgroup so have only seen the ones in her playgroups and friend's children) and the thing I worry about is whether I am giving/teaching her enough to fully develop the skills that she has. I know if I do not use what I learnt, I tend to lose it, so if she really is "gifted", then whether normal teaching/playing (same as her sis) would slowly dull that.

On top of that, she is born 29 Sep and I so wanted her to start pre-nursery this Oct at her sis's kindy since I thought she'd be very ready. But due to the enormous no. of babies born, they have decided to postpone all sep kids to starting pre-nursery next aug. This means I will have her at home with me for a whole year, I am wondering what I should be doing other than playgroups here and there for the coming year.
 
my daughter is a february baby, so she won't be going to school until she is almost 3.5yrs (which would be fine by me), but like i said, i'm worried that staying at home for a year without big brother around and only coming to my classes a couple of times per week will be ok for her.

as i said, we live in the boonies and there are not a lot of kids around for her to just play with, they all go to school.

ps> thanks, koan. i would love to do it, but honestly, with 2 kids and running a playgroup, plus helping hubby with his job, there's not a lot of extra time to do the courses that i'd like to do.

pps> i was a "gifted" child, too. my parents didn't do anything "special" but once at school, i was always in the "gifted" classes. it was enough to keep me stimulated...
 
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Carang, I was in a gifted class too yet I'm still here in HK not saving the world. Not sure what the benefit is of being classified in such a way. In fact my school wanted to put me up a grade because i was 'gifted' but i was completely out of my depth socially (a year is a long time when you are 5/6) so thankfully my parents didn't allow it. I think it's definitely a good idea to keep offering your daughter stimulation anyway you can get it but with a real focus on social interaction. IMHO it is the people with the best social skills that get ahead in life.
 
Good post, Carang. I learned a lot from the video posted and all I have to say is that my son blew all of those milestones out of the water. Which, is to say, his first year was absolutely exhausting for us (did your baby also not want to sleep much as a newborn? ours seemed to have continual energy but he wasn't a "collicky" baby--he would fall asleep and then wake up like "what?! did I miss something?!"). Our son was sitting up by 2.5 months by himself, rolling over at 3, crawling and saying first words (Cantonese & English) at 5, pulling up and cruising at 6, walking at 8, running at 9, climbing stairs at 10 and feeding himself with a spoon at 16 and now he is just in love with books and words and puzzles. I also worry that he's getting bored (actually, I know he is) so we're always trying to find new experiences for him to have and get him in touch with other babies. But, the thing is, he is more interested in older children playing. Is your baby like that too? My son doesn't care much for the play of the babies his own age--but if a group of older kids (5-7) are around him he's trying to join in the fun.

I think we just try to keep up with them, right? They're always ahead of the curve anyway so we have to be ahead too a bit.

Thanks again for the question and the post.
 
Hi Cara, I think my son should meet your daughter. He's born end feb 07, same age yes? He talks nonstop all day in full complex sentences, recognise all alphabets & can say ''a for apple, b for balloon.... upto z for zebra''. Counts upto 20, spells his own name (Calum), cat & dog. he's been in montessori & his teachers tell me he can concentrate on the pink tower for upto half an hour. everyone he's met thinks he's more like 3/4 yrs old. don't mean to be going on so much, i am just so thrilled to share. there doesn't seem anything special we need to do except for what we've been doing. IQ test, however reliable, don't work for such young age. i know you are in the boonies, we're in central, it would be very interesting to meet! :)
 
i've not concentrated so much on the alphabets/recognition or spelling or anything like that.
she can count to 20 in english and at least 10 in cantonese. many people have thought my daughter is older as well.

my teaching schedule during the summer is a little crazy with Tuesdays being my only day off... maybe we could all get together at playtown or something like that one day during the summer if you are all around?

PS> my daughter was supposed to be born in March 2007, but was born early February.
 
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