Addressing the Special Needs of Gifted Children, #7

[OTMomma]

Maybe we should really just start a new thread every month, instead of having ones with over 800 posts?

All with Gifted Kids (or you think they might be gifted) are welcome to come hang with us!

[surf mama]

wow a new thread....I am a newbie to this thread....I was too overwhelmed by the last to jump in!

Well I think my dd is gifted or at least really smart. She is only 2.5 so I'll see how she continues to develop. So far she is really well rounded in her development and especially creative with an extra good memory. I am noticing other people noticing how smart she is which is confirming my suspicions that she is well above average.

I look forward to learning more from all of you....I really want to do my best to nurture who she is.

[Emeline]

Subscribing to the thread! I posted an introduction at the end of the last thread but I'm too tired to retype the whole thing now. Looking forward to getting to know everyone!

[Velveteen]

I'm enjoying the conversation too!

[teachma]

Hi, Velveteen.

Subscribing. Also wanted to quickly brag about dd. (Since I am always talking about ds...) Last night, I was counting for ds to see how quickly he could do something (counting motivates him) and I stopped at 8. Dd continued counting where I left off, all the way to 20. I never knew she could count past 10! She hasn't been "taught," but obviously picked it up. Now, I realize that some of the profoundly gifted kids have been doing this from a year old, or maybe even earlier, but at 20.5 months old, she is far ahead of the "norm," I think. And this is where I find it so hard for my kids to fit in. I can't compare them with the super-gifted, but thinking about them in relation to the regular just doesn't work for us either. Are there any more kids like this around?

[allgirls]

Originally Posted by teachma

Hi, Velveteen.

Subscribing. Also wanted to quickly brag about dd. (Since I am always talking about ds...) Last night, I was counting for ds to see how quickly he could do something (counting motivates him) and I stopped at 8. Dd continued counting where I left off, all the way to 20. I never knew she could count past 10! She hasn't been "taught," but obviously picked it up. Now, I realize that some of the profoundly gifted kids have been doing this from a year old, or maybe even earlier, but at 20.5 months old, she is far ahead of the "norm," I think. And this is where I find it so hard for my kids to fit in. I can't compare them with the super-gifted, but thinking about them in relation to the regular just doesn't work for us either. Are there any more kids like this around?

I thinkthis is my dd...not profoundly gifted but pretty exceptional...then again, whose to say? Her learning follows such an odd pattern. She is also well rounded though her motor skills are a bit behind..can't jump yet and is pretty slow on stairs. I like it here because I learn so much about how they learn and how to deal with other people.

My dd just moved up to the preschool room at preschool from the toddler room(her first early advancement ) and is the youngest there...she fits in quite a bit better with those kids even though she looks so tiny...she is by far the youngest there, all the others are 3 and up but she is quite ready. She's one of the few that can put her shoes on the right feet

Sophia stood out quite a bit in the classroom of kids her age. She was the same age as many of them but the difference was obvious.

I posted on the other thread about her tantrums and the difficulty I have been having.

So here is how yesterday went. She got up and nursed. Then we had a long talk about waiting. I explained what "waiting" meant and that Martina needed to nurse first and be taken care of because she didn't understand waiting and that she would cry if left to wait because she can't understand but that she was bigger and maybe she could wait a few minutes for me to finish nursing Martina or taking care of her.

I also didn't turn on the tv all day and around 4pm I got Sophia a snack and a drink and turned on Dora for half an hour...and Iwas nursing baby and Sophia wanted more drink. I said you have to wait, Martina is nursing and when she 's done I will get you a drink. Well of course she started to whine and get upset and I said "remember how we talked about waiting and that you are bigger and can wait a little but I will get you what you need as soon as I can" so she turned back to the tv and continued to watch Dora. Now I was not sure that she actually understood and was waiting like I said or if something on Dora actually got her attention but anyway I continued nursing Martina and then I burped her and laid her in the bouncy seat and immediately Sophia turns around "may I have my drink now" and I was "yes, that's why I put Martina down, to go get your drink now" and she was so happy and I said "that was very good waiting, you were very patient" and she said "what is patient?" and I said "it's when you can wait a while without getting upset" So I got her drink and all was well.

And that was the only sign of a tantrum the entire day! I also had squeezed a nap in there too. She went to bed easily...my older dd watched baby so I could read and nurse her to sleep. She had a very happy day!!!

I think I really need to talk to her more and explain things to her before hand. I always did this but haven't much lately. I have been busy.

I don't always expect her to wait and be patient but along with being well fed and rested and understanding what it is I think it will get a bit better.

[m&m]

subscribing

I introduced myself a long time ago on a previous thread, but thought a re-introduction was in order.

Hello, I am Monique a gifted person, with a gifted brother and father, wife to a gifted husband, and mother to two gifted daughters. Sounds odd I know, but hey gifted people tend to get along well, and genetics plays a big role.

anyhow...

My oldest is 6.5 now and doing grade 3 and above (the education ministry considers her grade 3, but in many areas she's is above that). We are now homeschooling but are enrolled with a virtual school to which we report to and get advice from. There are many areas she is passionate about.

My youngest is 4 and has just started to show her own abilities, etc. She is not as exceptional as her sister so we haven't noticed her skills as much early on. (for example, her sister started talking at 6 months, with big sentences by 9 months, whereas she talked in sentences at 14 months but she started walking earlier than her sister did)

anyway, enough about us for now...

[eilonwy]

Subscribing.

Allgirls, I remember having that same discussion with BeanBean when he was 20 months old and we had a brand new BooBah. It helped that he had an older cousin who could help explain the concept of patience to him. I have to say, though, that I totally second the recommendation about looking at Sophia's diet. BeanBean was anemic at that age, and as I've said before adding an herbal iron supplement to his diet did wonders for his temper.

My brain has started to shrivel up and die... and I am miserable and angry all the time now. Yesterday was actually pretty decent; you can tell because I wasn't on MDC all day, pretending that I have no life outside of the computer while writing my least-coherent posts ever... I really need to take more flax seed oil. Bleh.

BeanBean really wants me to make more of an effort to do "schoolish" things with him every single day. He absolutely loves it, and I don't think that it's just because "he likes spending time with Mamma." He'll drag anyone who is sitting still into a discussion about nouns, or addition, or whatever. I feel guilty as heck for not being able to do more with him. I really need a lot of help to get organized, though, because we don't have places to put everything... I dunno. I've got plans, but they all seem to require things that we don't really have right now. We'll see what happens, and in the meantime I'll do what he drags me to do and feel guilty for not offering more.

BooBah is really starting to talk like a person now. I have a feeling that she wouldn't say anything at all if BeanBean wasn't around, that she'd be one of those kids who didn't say a word and then started talking in complete, adult sentences around 24 months just like magic. However, BeanBean *is* around, and he never. shuts. up. So BooBah's picked up all sorts of things to say, just by listening to BeanBean and repeating what he says. He never stops talking, so I think that BooBah thinks that's the default setting for kids, you know? It's kind of cute, and very funny.

[Girl Named Sandoz]

:

[Emeline]

Originally Posted by m&m

subscribing

I introduced myself a long time ago on a previous thread, but thought a re-introduction was in order.

I should re post my intro from the other thread too, here it is. Oh, I posted it yesterday if that makes any difference.


I realized that aside from my Santa Clause rant, I never formally introduced myself. I'm mom to two wonderful children ds, just turned 4 and dd, newly 3 months old. I came across your board doing some research on giftedness because it is becoming more and more clear that ds may be gifted. He could just be really bright, but I thought I'd subscribe anyway. You'll have to forgive me as I have not read through this whole thread, so I'm not sure we fit here or not.

I won't go into boring details, but here are some things that have stuck out about our son the last few years:

*rolled over at 1 month, crawled at 3.5 months, walked at almost 6 months and ran by 7 months

*spoke his first word at 1 month old, had a vocabulary of over 50 words by 5 months, was stringing words together by 6 months and spoke in full sentences by 1 year

*always just had a greater sense of awareness and understanding than other babies

*hit all the milestones early, knew the alphabet and could count to 20 by 11 months, had figured out how to count backwards by 15 months and started saying the ABC's backwards around then too

*could read many words at 12 months, could read almost anything by 18 months. Was reading chapter books by 24 months, his first being "The Magic Treehouse" series. He finished those by 2.5 years old and polished off Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web and the The Mouse and the Motorcycle by 3. He's currently devouring the Chronicles of Narnia series and loving them

*He understood complex math concepts like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and skip counting by 2.5 years

*Could do 100 piece puzzles by 18 months. Is now into those 3D ones of buildings and stuff

I don't want to bore you, that's our son in a nutshell though. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone here!

[lovemyboy]

Hi everyone. I introduced myself in thread #5 and have been lurking ever since. : For good measure, I'll introduce myself again. I am mom to one DS who just turned three. I'm hoping for more children but that is another topic. I've never been tested for giftedness, my mother was gifted and was disturbed by the way she was treated in school so she refused any testing or special stuff for her children. DH is gifted.

I've never had DS tested for giftedness or anything but he does lots of things that absolutely amaze me. He has been in preschool since he is 2 1/2 and is the youngest one there. Even though he is now three he only wants to play with the 4-4 1/2 year olds because they can communicate on his level. He has an amazing vocabulary. Just yesterday he was counting (unprompted) in the car in the 70's. I had no idea he knew that many numbers. He is extremely curious about everything and asks tons of questions.

Anyway, for the past few weeks when I pick him up from preschool his teacher makes a point of saying how smart he is. I'm not sure how to handle this so I just say, "thank you." Yesterday she said, "I can really tell you work with him at home." My jaw dropped because I think she is under the impression that we grill numbers and facts and words into his head at home. We absolutely don't do that. He asks questions and we answer them and use that as an opportunity for learning. That is all.

[darlindeliasmom]

subbing
I have been lurking for oh, a few threads now, though I did post early. DD is almost 9, and clearly not profoundly gifted, but still in the range.
School won't put her in their program, although they all see the creativity and "sideways" thinking I talk about...if it can't be quantified, they don't want to know about it. I think I stopped posting about when they told me that. But her mind is still working away, different from her peers, and I'm still dealing with the sensitivity, curiosity, challenge of her...
So I think I'll hang out a bit, if you all don't mind.

[OTMomma]

Originally Posted by teachma

Hi, Velveteen.

Subscribing. Also wanted to quickly brag about dd. (Since I am always talking about ds...) Last night, I was counting for ds to see how quickly he could do something (counting motivates him) and I stopped at 8. Dd continued counting where I left off, all the way to 20. I never knew she could count past 10! She hasn't been "taught," but obviously picked it up. Now, I realize that some of the profoundly gifted kids have been doing this from a year old, or maybe even earlier, but at 20.5 months old, she is far ahead of the "norm," I think. And this is where I find it so hard for my kids to fit in. I can't compare them with the super-gifted, but thinking about them in relation to the regular just doesn't work for us either. Are there any more kids like this around?

I too have a child that doesn't fit with the super gifted kids, as she's not reading novels or writing at 3, but she just doesn't fit with "average". Around here the biggest thing is language- she speaks like a small grown up and has for a while now. For example, if you ask her which thing she wants her reply might be "Acutally, I would like the red one please", instead of the "that" that I see other kids her age do while pointing. I think there are a fair number of mom's here with kids who fall between super genius and above average, its OK.

[OTMomma]

Lovemyboy- I wouldn't take offense. There are a suprising number of parents out there who don't take the time to answer their children's questions, read to them, and sing songs with them. All those things kids need, I'm sure the teacher was just trying to compliment your parenting.

[SleepyMamaBear]

subbing real quick. i will re-intro when i can get more time to myself. yeah, like that will ever happen!
nice to have a new thread going!

[CAmomto1]

Originally Posted by OTMomma

I too have a child that doesn't fit with the super gifted kids, as she's not reading novels or writing at 3, but she just doesn't fit with "average". Around here the biggest thing is language- she speaks like a small grown up and has for a while now. For example, if you ask her which thing she wants her reply might be "Acutally, I would like the red one please", instead of the "that" that I see other kids her age do while pointing. I think there are a fair number of mom's here with kids who fall between super genius and above average, its OK.

That's DD too. She reads and writes, does adding, subtracting and some simple multiplying and dividing, while her K classmates (some of them, that is) are still figuring out how to write their names, letters and numbers.

[kellywhalen]

Hi!
subscribing too!
I was "gifted" by school standards (though I don't know how much of my brain is left these days! LOL!) and DH has a very high IQ. So it was no suprise to us to find that our children are "above average" in many areas.

It's interesting to see how they have developed and grown in different areas.

DS is reading above 5th grade level and he is quite bored by school-we are sticking with it for now (working on sensory issues and possible diagnosis of Asperger's) and supplementing his education with at home education that he enjoys immensely.

DD is developing in other areas, she is especially gifted physically and has extraordanary balnce and poise in all movement.

DD2 has started counting to 20 recently and is able to repeat songs word for word. She is getting into "reading" more though she doesn't really "read" yet.

It is nice to have a place we can talk about these things, I feel so odd when I talk about them to anyone IRL-like I'm "bragging" or something.

Has anyone encountered issues with giftedness in older kids?

DS has some tics, some social issues, and we are on the journey of having him evaluated. I go back and forth wondering if it is the "system" that labels him as something versus having this special way of dealing with the world that I think may have more to do with being gifted than anything else.

It's frustrating because I know his needs aren't being met daily in the classroom, yet we need to be able to use the "system" right now to see if it helps with the issues we have.

Any advice on that end would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[oldcrunchymom]

Just wanted to welcome the new people. Your kids all sound amazing.

I've been sick for the last week so I'm useless right now. I hope to catch up on everything later.

[TEAK's Mom]

TEAK is also one the the kids who is not, I think, profoundly gifted. She is 3.5 and while she doesn't really write yet, she does read novels and create the most elaborate play. Her vocabulary also tends to alarm people.

I'm not sure about ABKA yet. She's only 15 months old and doesn't talk all that clearly. She has a couple hundred words that I understand and more that I'm not always getting. She is certainly bright, but I don't know yet if she is gifted.

We'll be back.

[teachma]

Originally Posted by CAmomto1

That's DD too. She reads and writes, does adding, subtracting and some simple multiplying and dividing, while her K classmates (some of them, that is) are still figuring out how to write their names, letters and numbers.

Yeah, that pretty much sounds like my 5 year old. He has other markers of giftedness (creativity, verbal ability, and more) but achievement-wise I'd consider him "above average," not amazing. I actually just got off the phone with his teacher who remarked on his handwriting, and how small and controlled it has become...I was quite surprised, as he was never advanced with anything fine-motor related. But the teacher also mentioned some kids still need to learn to identify letters, others are woring on developing longer attention spans, but my son's area of need is remembering that he's not the teacher!