Addressing the Special Needs of Gifted Children #5 - Page 5

[Destinye]

Originally Posted by loraxc

We're also noticing the sense of direction thing, btw (and I also have NONE--to the point where I think there actually may be a spatial learning disability involved). DD gets excited en route to the park, and has taken to saying "Home, home!" when we make the turn onto our street. Right before we get to the house she says "We're home!" So cute.

DD does this too, and I really noticed she knows where we are at when one day a couple of months ago I went the other way past another way to our house (there are 3 ways basically) but did not make the turn as I had to drop my DSS off at the Y. She got really upset when we did not turn because she wanted to go home, (OME OME) and I felt really bad - she is a little temperamental though! I have a good sense of direction though and so does DH.

DD did not walk that early but now its like a zoo and impossible to baby-proof things she is so determined about it! The good thing is she too hands me things she finds on the floor and am glad she does this.

Its amazing to watch her develop though not having really many other toddlers to compare her too I don't know how different she is, just trying to nurture her on all levels and let her be who she wants to be. Her learning definitely seems to go in spurts and what interests her too.

[eilonwy]

BooBah has discovered the joy of the telephone. :LOL She will now take the phone and walk away to "talk a dada." :LOL What a love.

I'm feeling, once again, like I'm not doing enough for the kids. Bleh. I'm not sure what else I should be doing, though. They get plenty of sunshine and fresh air, they go swimming at least four times a week... I don't read to them as often as I should, but shouldn't all the swimming and park trips count for something?

I've also been a bit sneaky-- we haven't unpacked BeanBean's workbooks yet. Not that it's stopped him-- he'll just grab a sheet of paper from the printer and do his writing ("I need to write my name now," and then he starts spelling).

[mommaluvs4]

Does anyone here have "school aged" gifted children? Just curious.

[Charles Baudelaire]

Originally Posted by mommaluvs4

Does anyone here have "school aged" gifted children? Just curious.

Well, depends on what you mean. If you mean "six and up," then no. If you mean "a child who is doing school work," yes.

[teachma]

Originally Posted by eilonwy

*Average* kids roll over at three months; I remember, because that's when BeanBean did it-- right on time, 50th percentile.

Dd didn't roll over until she was close to 5 months old, and the dr. said THAT was average! I thought it was a little slow, and I was somewhat concerned. All of her physical milestones have lagged behind her brother's. My son unbelievably rolled over from his back to his tummy while taking a nap on his play mat at SIX DAYS OLD!!! If my mom wasn't there with me, I wouldn't have believed it happened. Of course, it took him some time to repeat that maneuver, but by the time he was 8 weeks old, he easily rolled back to tummy at will.

On the topic of sense of direction...yesterday, dd accompanied me to the bank. As we approached the ATM, she began to grunt and tug on the shoulder of my left sleeve. When I asked her what was wrong, she cried, "Peetsie, peetsie," and pointed to the left. "Peetsie" is her word for pizza, which she loves, but I was amazed that she knew the pizza place is in the same shopping area. We have never gone from the bank to the pizza place, and when we go to the pizza place, we use the rear parking lot on the other end of the strip. Dd has also started to say "Beach" when we are driving on the road that leads to the beach, and she always points to ds's school, from where he graduated Pre-K a month ago, and says his name as we pass by. Ds is the king of directions, however. At 18 months old, he pointed me in the direction of my car, which I couldn't find, in a huge mall parking lot! Now, regularly navigates for me, helps me around if I make a wrong turn (which I do easily!) and always remembers when we last drove on a particular street in town ("Hey, this is the road we took when we came home from the party store for my balloons on my birthday." LAST AUGUST!) Most of the time, I am left to say, "Yeah...I guess you're right" because I never would've remembered.

[A&A]

Question for anyone/everyone:
Have you ever gotten your child's IQ tested? If not, would you? I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I don't really NEED to know, but on the other hand, I would like to know exactly what I am dealing with.



mommaluvs4, yes, my dd is in elementary school.

[NoHiddenFees]

Originally Posted by A&A

Question for anyone/everyone:
Have you ever gotten your child's IQ tested? If not, would you?

I would only have my DDs' tested if there would be some benefit to them. For example, if they were to be in public or private school, if I thought they were qualified for the Davidson Institute (or for something like EPGY admission) or if there was an underlying psychological issue for which it would be useful to know IQ (I can't think of one offhand).

I've got good enough idea where DD1 falls on the spectrum... somewhere between high HG or mid EG. Since we're homeschooling, that gives me sufficient information to work with and knowing a specific number wouldn't make any difference. I don't know about DD2 other than she appears to be bright and driven. Time will tell.

[A&A]

I'm curious about the IQ issue because I'm currently reading Exceptionally Gifted Children , which discusses IQ a lot. It points out that a child with an IQ of 160 is as different from a child with an IQ of 120 as that same child with an IQ of 120 is from the child with an IQ of 80. It also mentions that the needs of exceptionally gifted children are different from those of moderately gifted children.

[ChristaN]

Originally Posted by mommaluvs4

Does anyone here have "school aged" gifted children? Just curious.

I've been a bit busy, so I haven't been posting here much, but I do have school aged kiddos. My oldest will be 7 in August & going into second grade in the fall. My youngest will be 5 in Sept. and entering kindergarten.

[ChristaN]

Originally Posted by A&A

Question for anyone/everyone:
Have you ever gotten your child's IQ tested? If not, would you? I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I don't really NEED to know, but on the other hand, I would like to know exactly what I am dealing with.

I had mine tested when I was 16 only b/c I was in an inpatient program for an eating disorder. We joked that they were trying to determine if our brains were being atrophied by starvation.

As far as testing my girls, though, I, too have read about how highly gifted children can benefit from identification b/c their needs are so different from average kids in the school setting. I agree that, for homeschoolers, it probably is moot. I just don't see us spending the money on it to be honest. I am involved enough in what is going on with dds at school that I am going to make sure that their needs are met if the school isn't doing a good job. We did homeschool for a while last year as well.

I guess that, if I thought my girls would get some additional assistance or opportunities from the school if I had a piece of paper in hand stating their IQs, I might do it. However, all they have to offer is the TAG program & they can get into that without IQ tests, so I don't see that it would benefit them much at this point.

[isisjade]

[

[TiredX2]

Originally Posted by eilonwy

They were giving you crap because you were young. *Average* kids roll over at three months; I remember, because that's when BeanBean did it-- right on time, 50th percentile. Those cribs are kind of disturbing, but BeanBean found it very amusing when BooBah was in hers. :LOL He got a real kick out of it, and everyone laughed because it was his first time being in a crib, ever (he was about 24 months old). :LOL

As another poster mentioned, I think that rolling over is actually a 4-5 month skill. I only remember because at DD's 4 month appointment the doctor asked if she had ever rolled over and we said "No." But then we got home and it occured to me we had never actually put her down, we put her down and she almost immediately rolled over

These were just the first two links I found:

http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/infan...velopment.html
(rolling over at four months, before six months)

http://www.nncc.org/Child.Dev/infant.dev.html

- By 4 months, most babies have some control of their muscles and nervous system. They can sit with support, hold their head up for short periods of time, and can roll from their side to their stomach.

- By 5 months, most babies can roll over.

[TiredX2]

Originally Posted by mommaluvs4

Does anyone here have "school aged" gifted children? Just curious.

DD just turned 6.5 and will be in the 2nd grade this fall. We have homeschooled until now.

[eilonwy]

I could swear that I read that three months was average (50th percentile), and that 5 months was the 10th percentile (that 90% of babies can roll over by 5 months). BeanBean seemed to hit all of his physical milestones at or slightly before the 50th percentile age; he rolled over at three months, sat unassisted around five, crawled at six and walked a week before his first birthday. BooBah was definately early-- she rolled over from belly to back at four days, and then from back to belly the same day, and after that she rolled constantly; there was never a "practice period" with her, she just did it very slowly and deliberately. First her hips, then her legs, then her belly and her head. :LOL She's been exceptionally well-coordinated from the begining; she sat unassisted around 3.5 months iirc (I seem to remember that she and Killy did it the same week?), crawled at 4.5, took her first step at seven months and was walking just before nine. Definately early! :LOL

School age-- my children are not "school aged" by any means, and while BeanBean likes to "do school," we're not doing any formal homeschooling yet. Today it's raining and he pulled out his cousins history book and asked me to read some of it to him; if I was formally schooling him, I'd say we had done a lesson (reading and talking about what we read), but I'm not so it's just early morning amusement for a rainy day. :LOL Right now he's amusing himself by hiding in a closet with his sister.

I have an 8 year old niece who is being homeschooled. I did most of the work last year, but mom wants to put her in cyber school for next year (she [my mother] is very lazy and the cyber school will ensure that she has to do minimal work-- I made her do actual work ). My niece is definately a gifted child, really a textbook example of a moderately gifted child, though for years I thought that she was average or even a bit slow. : I had some very strange ideas about what was average.

IQ tests-- I had my IQ tested when I was 12 years old. I can't remember the name, but I took a test that caps at 160 (WISC IV, maybe?) and was given an estimated score. I had another test when I was older, and the score was consistant with the estimated score from when I was 12. It was fun, and somewhat depressing; I don't think I'd do it again. Right now, the only reason I can think of to have my kids tested would be to plan for my own untimely death. :LOL Even then, there's no reason to do it before my children are legally school-aged. I'm going to have to talk to our designated guardians about that-- if they think they'll be able to homeschool, I won't have them tested. If they're pretty sure that the kids will have to go to public or private schools, I will have them tested when they're 5-6 so that they've got ammunition when they ask for the children to have GIEPs.

I've never read Exceptionally Gifted Children; the Davidson Institute's website is full of stories about exceptionally and profoundly gifted kids, though. I love reading over it, because it totally validates my experiences. I get a real kick out of reading about profoundly gifted infants and toddlers. I'm not sure at this point where my children rank (I can guess, but that's sketchy at best); I hope that they're not profoundly gifted, but somewhere in the "optimum" range (135-155). It's not something I have any control over, though, so I just have to do the best that I can for them, regardless of how bright they are (or aren't).

Does anyone else have a child who doesn't seem to fit in well with those lists of milestones, even the gifted child ones? BooBah's physical skills have been unbelievable, even for a profoundly gifted child, but her verbal skills are closer to average. BeanBean's verbal skills were the same way-- I've never seen any lists or articles which mention a 4-week old child using meaningful speech, but he hit his physical milestones right on time. In some ways, they seem to fit in perfectly with the gifted child lists, and in others they seem quite average (well, BooBah not so much), but then they've got these freaky skills that are just way beyond anything I've read. They're just all over the place with their abilities. Do you think they'll even out as they get older, that their skills will become more consistant?

My eyes are sandy. :blink: I really need to get more sleep. :LOL

[teachma]

Originally Posted by eilonwy

Does anyone else have a child who doesn't seem to fit in well with those lists of milestones, even the gifted child ones? BooBah's physical skills have been unbelievable, even for a profoundly gifted child, but her verbal skills are closer to average. BeanBean's verbal skills were the same way-- I've never seen any lists or articles which mention a 4-week old child using meaningful speech, but he hit his physical milestones right on time. In some ways, they seem to fit in perfectly with the gifted child lists, and in others they seem quite average (well, BooBah not so much), but then they've got these freaky skills that are just way beyond anything I've read. They're just all over the place with their abilities. Do you think they'll even out as they get older, that their skills will become more consistant?

My dd was also using her "voice" to communicate at around a month old. It was the cutest thing, not at all "amazing" to me until others pointed it out as unsual. She would be in her car seat with a toy of some kind, and each time the toy fell beyond her reach, she would cough. It sounded like a coughing fit if I failed to respond quickly enough! She couldn't make any other sounds at that point, and she actually did not speak her first words until close to eight months, but she has, almost since birth, been so intentional and communicative in lots of ways. Ds was waaay beyond with his verbal abilities (had a list of 10 words at 6 months old, full sentences by 13, and major monologues by 18) and pretty much on track for a gifted child in terms of the physical development.

WRT IQ testing, I am going through the "should I?? shouldn't I?" right now. Ds just started seeing a psychiatrist for anxiety and OC tendencies, and she briefly stated that we should seriously consider it...but we will talk more in a couple of weeks when she is finished evaluating him.. I am not clear what the benefits would be, and I'm not really a numbers person anyway.

[oldcrunchymom]

School age--My kids are 7 and 9, so possibly the oldest kids in this thread? Gosh, that's a scary thought. Anyway, we homeschool, so they are not actually IN school.

IQ testing--Hollis did IQ and achievement testing a couple years ago through the school district. The school psychologist had never tested a gifted child before, and Hollis was not very cooperative, so all in all it was pretty disastrous and the score is not valid/useful. We might do it again but only if we NEED a score for something like a program he wants to do. The achievement scores came out better since he didn't need to interact with her to take those.

Physical milestones--Again, Hollis was just average in his physical milestones while Nan has always been way ahead. I don't think this is something that is necessarily related to giftedness, although like everything else I'm sure it CAN be. If that makes any sense.

[meemee]

physical milestones - the first 6 months she hit them real early. following with her eyes at 5 days, rolling from back to side at 7 days so she could nurse in bed, holding her head up well so i could shower with her by holding her up at 3 weeks, rolling off the couch at one month while i went to the bathroom totally not expecting her to roll off. dont remember when seh sat up but i remember another mom was amazed my dd was sitting next to the sink helping me wash dishes. but when crawling hit at 6 months and walking not until almost 16 months. but then i discovered it was a personality issue. she is the kind who will only do it when she is sure she is not going to fail. refused to pedal on her tricycle and then at 33 months old just sat on one and pedalled right around the block. christmas last year she went from a 3 piece puzzle to a 45 piece in one month and then hasnt touched one anymore.

Testing - i will only do it if i need doors open to me or i am struggling with her. if she is happy where she is and seems to be happy with what is going on around her i am not going to test.

am wondering how u all feel about having gifted children (whether they have been tested or u suspect they are). my dd is not an academic child at all. i discovered she knew her alphabets, colours and shapes at around 18 months when she started using them in general conversation. hated being quizzed adn i have never been able to 'teach' her. apparently she was doing addition and subtraction in her head from when she was 2 but i just discovered that recently. anyways i digress. i get some comments from people wowing that my child might possibly be gifted and that i should be so lucky to have a child like her. i enjoy who she is, i really enjoy her personality but the gifted part really scares me.

my xh whole immediate family is gifted. some of my immediate family and many from previous generations were gifted too. some moderate, some profoundly. can speak 15 languages fluently and write 10 different scripts but cant make toast without burning it to save his life. the average people seem to have had socially successful and happy or positive lives. the minority of the gifted have achieved that. some of them have committed suicides, some are v. dark unhappy people, some suicidal but wont do it and is finally on medication, some psychopath not in the criminal sense - just a huge range of 'negative' or 'not happy' behaviours. and that part concerns me about my dd. esp. since i notice my dd is sooo sensitive. i would much rather have a happy average child than an unhappy gifted child. KWIM?!! i have seen so many of my 'gifted' family on both sides take the recent tsunami disaster so deeply. they grieved for a few days and either took days off of work or hid in thier houses and did not venture out.

does that aspect of 'giftedness' worry u? not one of my xh's siblings have had a successful long term relationship. neither their parents or grandparents. and i know a couple of them would like a longterm relationship. yet they dont seem to get it together to have one.

[loraxc]

Meemee, without getting into it too deeply, yes, I do worry a little. I have several friends and family members whom I would guess to be 150+ IQ (including my own dad, who is a pretty awful person ) who are not what I would call happy people. They did not have the greatest childhoods, either. In fact, my conversations with them about their school years have been pretty depressing. This gets me, because, as I am always saying, I do not want to homeschool, and we cannot afford private school (assuming that's even better). I am secretly hoping that DD's giftedness is not so profound that it will make public school a catastrophe and making friends a boondoggle.

I just don't know yet, but my DH is extremely smart (his GRE scores were very close to perfect, for instance) and he didn't have too, too much trouble in school (though he was branded "hyperactive" and "aggressive" for a while). I'd call him socially skilled, too. I think it's very individual, and that personality traits play a big part. One thing that makes me feel a bit better about DD is that she is very outgoing, friendly, and fearless.

Being aware and vigilant is always key to being a good parent, no matter what your child's intelligence, and I hope that I can be sufficiently tuned into DD's happiness or unhappiness and make the right decisions (even if that does eventually mean pulling her from public school).

[isisjade]

[

[eilonwy]

Am I worried that my kids will be unhappy?

I was a profoundly gifted and profoundly miserable child. There are some aspects of my life which I'm sure were miserable because I was gifted-- school in particular, but there were some others. Most of the things that made my life unhappy were completely independant of my mind; they'd have made me miserable even if I had an IQ of 110. The circumstances of my early life were not easy, pleasant, or fun.

More than their intellects, I worry about the effect that my brain disorders will have on my children. I know that my mother's depression was a huge source of crap in my childhood (who am I kidding, it still is ), and I really don't want to pass that legacy on to my children.

Would we still be depressed if we weren't gifted? I'm inclined to think that we would. The two are probably related, but I think that they can be separated. Mike should help with this; he's definately a gifted man, and he's also incredibly mentally stable and sane. I'm hoping that his stability and calm will help counter (somewhat) my own erratic behaviors and make things easier for my children than they were for me.