When is a child considerd gifted???? - Page 2

[MamaMonica]

I was looking at that chart too and both my kids were early in most everything- I mean really early- except my ds is talking late.

I just don't see how doing something early means gifted.

I think of gifted as having something like a talent- like an ability to draw, make music or do math. A special gift or talent. Those need to be nurtured.

[normajean]

I read the checklist and my son is early on nearly everything, but in reading some of those stories, I think my son is definately bright, but not necessarily "gifted."

DH came home from work with a particularly difficult parent the other day and said "The only thing worse than a parent whose child is gifted and doesn't notice, is a parent who thinks their normal child is gifted." Apparently he had a parent insisiting the child was brilliant, and testing showed the child was actually very behind and instead of needing more advanced classes, needed remedial special ed help.

[apmomto4]

It sounds possible!!

Your toddler sounds like my now 4 year old!! I remember being on one of those online playgroup boards and I was always afraid to post what my son was doing because I didn't think anyone would believe me!!

What 2 year uses words like 'evaluate' and in context?? My son did!

Other things to look for, if you're interested in checking for gifted traits, are things like empathy (my son, even as a toddler, was very empathic -- he was able to comfort people, which means he can put himself in the other person's place, which is not usually a trait toddlers are known for!)

Another thing is memory. We ran into a family the other day, that we haven't seen in a year, and my 4 year old was able to describe the last time we saw each other and what we did that day. (Even though he was barely 3 at the time).

So, yes, it does take more than language to make a child gifted, it's a vast array of things, as others have noted.

[bailey'smommy02]

wow, i never imagined i would offend anyone with the word gifted! i guess i should have thought before i spoke. i really was wondering if she was above average, so to speak. thanks for all the replies, sorry to all those i offended!

[Britishmum]

Whilst I agree that labels aren't always useful, and can have a negative effect, it is also very difficult as a parent of a 'gifted' child to have their special needs recognised.

So many cliches come out when you talk of very able children. Like, 'all children catch up in the end' and 'if they are gifted in one area, they are usually behind in another'. While these may be true, often they are not.

My child is very advanced verbally. She is also gaining literacy skills well before her peers. She is way ahead mathematically. She has good small motor skills. She is as capable on large apparatus as her peers. She is able to negotiate and cooperate with other children, often ahead of what you'd expect for her age. The only thing she is maybe 'behind' on is on being extrovert and performing in front of other children's pushy parents in dance classes! (we gave up classes and came home LOL)

For my child, there are no areas that are underdeveloped. I don't believe that all the other children will catch up in the end. If that were to be true, then how come dh is way ahead of most of his peers still intellectually at 37? And how come I'm way ahead of mine? I'm not saying that she is Einstein, but she is 'gifted' in many ways. This poses a real challenge in parenting her.

For example, what do I do when I visit schools and look at the curriculum for Kindergarten, and realise that she has mastered just about every thing on their list two years before she is even going to start in K?

What I"m trying to say is that it can be incredibly frustrating as the parent of a 'gifted' child to have your child's special needs constantly dismissed by others. I've heard a lot of this as I've been touring schools recently. "Oh, we'll go back over the basics - mums don't tend to cover phonics very well", and "Oh, even if she can read, she may be behind in math, so we'll focus on her weaknesses". Aagh, she knew all her shapes at 18 months, can count up to 20 random objects, and will tell me interesting facts about how she's arranging her triangular blocks to make squares or rectangles. In two years time, I hardly think she'll be needing remedial maths!

The assumptions about 'gifted' children are enormous. They are often correct, but not always. If a parent were to say, is my child behind or delayed, they would get support and help. If you say that your child has special needs because she is ahead of her peer group, you are often dismissed or people get offended and tell you all children are gifted.

Just trying to point out that being 'gifted' presents its challenges. All children are individuals, and the needs of very able children deserve to be catered for along with all the others. It can be worrying having an able child, you worry about how to challenge them but how to keep them socializing with their peers. It's exciting and fun, but it isn't easy.

I'm just trying to point out how it sometimes feels to have a child at this end of the spectrum.

[IdentityCrisisMama]

I took a great child development class (incidentally, by the daughter of a woman featured in one of Mothering’s “inspirational people” – the article towards the end, kwim?).

Anyway, she addressed the issue of giftedness and stressed the importance of identifying “giftedness” in children. I guess the idea is that they will have special needs. I thought what she said was important both in helping to identify “giftedness” and to help put certain advancements into perspective.

What she said is that it is not an indicator of giftedness if a child is advanced in one or two areas of development (even if the child is very advanced in say language or math). She said that a good sign of “giftedness” is a child who is across the board advanced in every aspect of development including social, physical, emotional, comprehension and language development.

When you have child who is advanced in a few but not all aspects of development, then I think it would still be appropriate to nurture those interests. That said when a child is “behind” in some aspects then one must nurture whatever stage the child is in. My daughter, for instance is interested in the shape sorters intended for a younger child but in books for an older child so that is obviously what I give to her to play with.

I liked that gifted website posted because the ideas for activities for a “gifted child”, not because I think my child is “gifted” (in the way we mean here) but, because they were great ideas for any child! Petty Warning!!!! I thought of another idea that the author could have added to his list…ask your "advanced child" to spell check your essay! Sorry, I’m a terrible speller but I still couldn’t resist!

Anyway, “giftedness” is a tempting idea for me because I would love to think that I have some freakishly intelligent child. (I also wanted a red head)
My daughter was moving along at an advanced level and I got excited until (like another poster said) my father told me that I was very advanced for about the first 3 years and then I went rapidly down hill, catching “down” to all my peers! Oh well, my daughter is just like me! There much worst things.

In the end I know that she will have special needs regardless of what level she is on in a given area of development so I guess that I too feel the identification is not of too much use.

[normajean]

Ok, you guys have created a monster!!! I'm back to this thread AGAIN, lol.

I stopped by DH's office last night and came back with all kinds of information, and even an assessment. Talk to your district psychologist, there are a couple of different tests they can give preschoolers to see where they are at. The one we did for DS yesterday was one where you simple rate whether they can or can't do something, example are:

Listens to a story for at least 5 minutes

Imitates sounds of adults within a few seconds after hearing them.

and on up to more advanced things like:

Cleans room other than own (kitchen, bathroom, etc) regularly without being asked.

This test is called "Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Classroom Edition" and is valid for kids ages 3-13.

My son is only 2 years, 3 months, and 10 days....so he's really too young for the test, so the standardizations and percentiles were off, but you can look up the raw scores in the book and it tells you what age the kid is functioning at. For instance, My son's raw score for Receptive Comminication gave a adaptive age of 5 years, 5 months old. But in another area-- Community Daily Living Skills-- DS scored at a adaptive age of only 1 year, 1 month.

When we went back to see what those questions were, we realized a big flaw in the test--things that I would assume most preschoolers can't do or don't have many opportunities to learn:

"Obeys traffic lights and Walk/Don't Walk signs" --we don't even have walk/dont' walk signs in our small town...

"Uses the telephone for all kinds of calls, without assistance"

"Budgets for monthly expenses"

Obviously, many of those things don't even apply to toddlers. (DH realized in reviewing this why so many preschoolers are deficient in that area--he usually doesn't administer this assessment, only grades it, so he had never seen the questions.)


There is another test, which is an IQ test kids can take if they are 2 years, 6 months old. However, IQ's change until a kid is about 9 years old and then remains fixed, unless something major happens like an injury causing brain trauma, or something like sexual abuse. That's why a lot of schools don't even do assessments for gifted kids until they are about 4th or 5th grade, because up to that point, it can and does change dramatically.