Child Prodigy

[supervee]

Our local paper ran the story of a 13 year old who just graduated from college in Virginia. Apparently he did 10 grades in 3 years or something like that, was doing "math equations" at 14 months, and "reading and correcting other people's grammar" at 2 years.

Okay, so I'm sure he's a genius IQ-wise. Otherwise I doubt he could have done all that. And I'm sure his family are very nice folks, but gosh they must have been pushing pretty hard, don't you think?

I'm assuming he was homeschooled because I don't see a public or even a private school skipping him that many grades so quickly.

For those of you who homeschool, do you just skip grades if your kid is advancing in all areas? Would you put your kiddos in college at 8 years old if they were academically ready? If not, why not? Would you just slow them down if they were advancing really quickly?

Curious what y'all think.

[Starling]

Maybe the family wasn't pushing. Maybe the child was eager to learn and the family was just keeping up with his great hunger for knowledge.

[supervee]

You think so? That would be awesome. I think I just felt sorry for him, losing his childhood and all, etc. etc., which might not even be the case, and I was wondering if anyone's homeschooled child has just gone through grades like that. And what do you do? I think that I would run out of, say, math or history knowledge, and have to send my kid to college for him to progress any further. My experience is that public schools go through material mind-numbingly slowly, so I believe you could go through it quickly if you had a mind to.

[LiamnEmma]

I dunno, I tend to agree that there was some pushing going on, even if it was somewhat unconscious on the parental part of things...just seems like every story of read on these kids once they've gotten older talks about emotional distancing from one or more of the parents (beyond the normal familiarity breeding contempt issues) based on the pushing stuff. It'd be hard not to encourage and inadvertently push I think. My kid's no genius and I find myself stepping back from the ledge all the time.

[anythingelse]

[anythingelse]

triggerfinger

[khrisday]

I could not see sending my kid to college at 13. There is definately more to college than academics, and I don't think that many 13 year olds are ready for it. Heck I skipped one grade in public school, and I wasn't ready for that!

[momto l&a]

I doubt he was pushed. For two reasons the first being he seems like a happy kid that knows what he wants, second being my Dad was accepted to a collage at the age of 7, his Mom said no and though my Dad has never said it I feel he lost all desire because of that. His parents never asked what HE want to do.


IMO it not really up to the parents, if the kid wants to go to whatever school and learn whatever I think they should be allowed to do so. I think its a shame so many parents kill their childs desire learn, though I am sure many dont realize they are doing so.

[Dar]

What makes you think he sounds like a happy kid? I didn't see that anywhere in the original post...

I think it's just a sad symptom of our achievement-oriented society. If learning were truly the issue, there are plenty of ways for a child to learn without going to college, many that are more effective than college.

I know many kids who take college classes "young", usually 11-14. They take things they're interested in and generally do quite well, and they're not geniuses. Still, they see it as one way to learn more, they don't think of it as "going to college". They're kids..

dar

[anythingelse]

QUOTE] I think that I would run out of, say, math or history knowledge, and have to send my kid to college for him to progress any further[/QUOTE] that is the fun of homeschooling an older child with a passion for something, they teach themselves or find a way to learn it, you don't nessarily need to find them a traditional teacher/classroom like a college course.

[supervee]

So if your kid is doing things like solving math equations at 14 months or rattling off the periodic table at 5 years, what experiences have allowed them to do that? I can't believe (maybe I just haven't seen it in action) that a kid would just spontaneously do math while in diapers. Someone must have put the seed in his head or interpreted what he was doing as math (like, did he ask for a second cookie so he would have 2?).

So, Vanna's Mom, and pleeeease don't feel like I'm picking on you, but I am truly truly curious how it happens, what did you do, if anything, to encourage that kind of early knowledge? How did you first identify that he had that capability? Did you ever have a time that you thought you would just let him advance at a standard pace vs. letting him "run" (if you did that, my assumption)?

[chfriend]

My kid is no prodigy. My neice however is. She had the vocabulary of a 30 year old when she was two. She had a long conversation with my other sister (her other aunt) at two about how interesting it was to compare adding number and multiplying numbers. Her parents were attachment oriented and she had a brother that was 18 months older. He's smart but it's a different thing from his sister. My neice's parents have focused their attention on making sure that she develops all the other areas of her life (social, spiritual and practical). Her early education was Montessori focused. They work at meeting her requests to learn new things.

I totally believe that in the great bell curve of humanity some kids will just go nuts learning with no pushing. Takes all kinds.

[NoHiddenFees]

I don't know the specifics of this particular case, but from what I've read of the profoundly gifted, the children tend to be the driving force rather than the parents. The exception is for children gifted athletically. These are only trends of course; I remember reading with horror about the upbringing of Doron Blake http://slate.msn.com/id/102689/ (see Slate.com's series entitled Seed... I highly recommend the whole series). I suspect however, that no matter whether a profoundly gifted child were encouraged/pushed/discouraged/whatever, they would still not experience a 'normal' childhood. It's a huge responsibility to raise such a child, and I suspect that it would get a bit tiresome having everyone (including yourself) second guess all your decisions.

I've thought a lot about this. Both DH and myself are moderately globally gifted... probably a bit moreso in mathematics. We've discussed at length about what may be the best approach if DD proves similar (at 16 months, she's a bit young yet to engage in the dialogue). We've pretty much decided to give her her head (so to speak) when she asks for it and try as best we can to foster a love of learning and the pursuit of intellectual stimulation rather than a piece of paper. Whether that involves self-study, classes or some other arrangement will be up to her, and we'll be there for her if she changes her mind.

Vanna's mom:

Some majors are easier to get through time-wise than others. A major in science with 30+ hour weeks of classes and labs would obviously be far more time consuming than classes and tutorials in mathematics. Easier to get advance placement or challenge for credit in mathematics too. I dunno what his major was, but I'll wager that this kid -- owing to celebrity if nothing else -- got every scheduling break imaginable.

[mom at home]

Originally posted by supervee

So, Vanna's Mom, and pleeeease don't feel like I'm picking on you, but I am truly truly curious how it happens, what did you do, if anything, to encourage that kind of early knowledge? How did you first identify that he had that capability? Did you ever have a time that you thought you would just let him advance at a standard pace vs. letting him "run" (if you did that, my assumption)? [/B]

Some kids are just wired that way. They soak up everything and that combined with the ability to reason and process information ahead of their years gets them to that point.

My oldest dd is 7. She's not college bound, but she amazing abilities. We have never worked with her, she's just that way. I don't know when she started to read as she never told anyone, but she started with chapter books and now reads books off of my and dh's shelves. We didn't do anything to "encourage" it, short of reading to her and playing with her. We didn't do anything to teach her to read and have never pushed her in any way. In fact, I'm one of the least pushy parents I know and have always had the philosophy that kids should move at their own rate.

She also is able to solve complicated math problems and figure things out. We've never worked with her on this either. It's interesting because her simple math skills aren't much higher than most kids her age, but she is able to figure out how to solve problems at a much higher level. This kind of thing isn't taught, it's wired, at least at this age. I am no math whiz so she definitely isn't learning it from me.

I guess I am sensitive to the insinuation that all kids like this are pushed. I don't exactly understand what you mean by a "standard" pace vs. letting them run with it. Would a standard pace mean that I should only let my dd have access to books for her reading level, that I should somehow not allow her to figure out math problems and tell her that she is only allowed to do the math that she does in class -simple addtion and subtraction. That she isn't allowed to create complicated structures.

In so many ways, it would be easier if she were a "normal" kid developing at a "normal" rate. She's never been interested in regular kid stuff, never played dolls, never played pretend. She's mostly interested in figuring out how things work, why, etc and has a challenging temperment, mostly because she is easily frustrated because people don't understand her. Also, her emotional maturity is, if anything, behind her peers, which makes it hard for her because she doesn't have that much interest in younger kids because they don't want to talk about the things she is interested in.

I was just reading this and realized it sounds really defensive -sorry.

Alison

[heartmama]

Actually the OP said the boy *gradutated* college at 13, meaning he must have enrolled at like 9 years old. And I saw another boy on Oprah who enrolled at 7.

I think it's a mistake.

If a child is that bright it isn't going to "wear off" at some point. College can wait. No, they won't fit in stuck in a second grade classroom. But lots of kids don't fit in that environment. If they were homeschooled, it might work great. At our homeschool playgroups the kids just play--climing, trucks, hide and seek, etc. It is not an academic get together. Kids pursue their academic interests elsewhere.

I really don't see how intelligence would keep a child from having fun with their peers in non academic settings. If the kid can't have fun--there is something else going on, maybe depression or anxiety isssues.

I would opt for homeschooling a child like that, giving them lots of access to information on whatever interested them, and hiring private tutors when needed (if I could afford college I assume I could afford tutors).

I think college life is inappropriate for anyone under 15/16 years of age.

[anythingelse]

[geekmom]

I dated a child prodigy for awhile (while we were adults). She had gotten some degree/s as a teenager. She had such a hard time in college at the regular age. She was so internally self pressured and thought she should be doing all these amazing things at all ages and had a hard time as a "regular" adult. She did not have a good childhood and had many other things going against her so she didn't have any real support or help learning the other things she needed to know like self esteem and social skills.

My friend's daughter is gifted. It was clear from a young age. She's just been evaluated as such so she can get some extra services in school. My friend and I have talked about making sure that she realizes that gifted doens't make parenting easier, and sometimes it's harder to teach them some of the other important things in life.

Basically, my feeling is that intellectual ability is one part of a who a human being is and our kids will range from very slow to very quick. Often someone who is very intellectually capable will be sort of "starving" for input. I think it would be nice if there were options other than college for kids who needed more information earlier. If a child is in college any earlier than 15 then it's highly unlikely that the parent's pushed him or her, it's more likely that the child required it themselves. The problem is that these kids need as much support and help with other areas of their lives as typical kids. They're not easier really.

Honestly these news stories do little to help these kids because the kids think that they have to live up to being better at everything. Once you've finished college there's not much more to do, but get a job and that's just not amazing and these kids turned adults feel disappointed with themselves.

[Alexander]

This is interesting. I often see comments (not just in this thread) that children are gifted because they can do equations at such 'n such an age or read by 3 months or some such thing.

This is not a measure of a child being gifted in the least. No, this is not a typo. not in the least. How so?

Ability is not a measure of what someone can retain or regurgitate on demand (although by looking at our Industrial Age Education Model ™, you'd have a hard time believing anything else is possible), it is the ability (amoung other things) to asses the weight of importance to other things in the universe, to keep a perspective that is useable, to see how this or that can or does have an impact on other things, to be able to work out the solutions to problems or situations, and (perhaps most importanly) to be able to recognise the importance of events or items of knowledge with respect to the world at large.

So. how is it that a kid so young ends up in collage?

1) It is quite possible that the child is indeed a sage.

2) The education system has been turned into total poo, and collages have become used to accepting students that have been retarded by the system to such an extent, that when they encounter a child from a decent family, who has yet to be crushed by the system and/or who can read and write, he appears to be comparativly gifted.


Hmmm. Let's see.

I choose 2) as being the less unlikely.

a

[sha_lyn]

I know a child who's IQ scores are off the chart. The "experts" wanted the parents to pay big $$ for in depth testing, but they didn't want to label him at age 5(?). Now he is doing algebra at 7. The parents don't really aknowlege to him what grade level he works on in any subject. He is not pushed into any work, he works at his own pace. The fact is the PS wanted him so they would look good. They really didn't have anywhere to put him, other than moving him up to middle school at age 7. His needs is the main reason they homeschool.