We have a gifted 6 year old and we recently had our 5.3 year old tested not quite knowing what the results would be.
These were his characteristics and progress before his testing:
- Was within the average range for his reading and mathematics
- Scored averagely on PIPS testing
- Had a hard time concentrating at school. Teacher described him as being 'away with the fairies'
- Poor organisational skills
- Was never as advanced as his older gifted brother in reading, mathematics, general knowledge, learning
- did not have that hunger to know about the world and how it worked
- loves creating and drawing
- Very good imagination
(I thought he sounded like quite a 'normal' little boy)
This was what he was like as a baby and toddler:
- Was very happy (unlike his frustrated HG brother)
- Had no daytime naps by the time he was 18 months
- Walked at 9 months
- knew colours and shapes early but not numbers and letters
- Said his first proper word at 9 months and spoke fluently very early
- Started reading at 3 but did not excel fast
- did not like any formal learning activity
- could concentrate for long periods of time on the things he enjoyed doing
(I knew he was bright but not gifted. All I had to go on was his older brother)
So, as a baby he presented as being very bright but by the time he got to 18 months old, he went in one direction and his HG brother in another. It wasn't until later that I realised his brother was a logical/sequential learner and that our 5.3 year old son was visual/spatial. I still wasn't sure if he was gifted or not based on his results at school.
We had him tested last month and he came out being in the 99th percentile with strengths in Mathematics (99.6th percentile) and creativity (drawing, making, etc).
Never compare your children (as I did) as they can be so totally different. I realise now that my boys are both interested and fascinated with the world around them but in very different ways. Do not take what the teacher says and the results of tests as the only evidence of ability. Note what they do as babies as this is incredibly important for identification. Do not disregard small things like smiling early, walking early or even being able to turn a page in a book before they are 1. Look at the small things not just the obvious things.
There are potentially many children out there who are not identified and have little chance to shine due to the so called 'brighter first born'. We cannot ever make this mistake in our schools or even within our own families. Let us not always be seduced into only taking notice of those children who are easy to identify. We need to dig deeper and really know what makes a gifted child tick so that we can as parents and educators find these treasures and help them to excel.
As I understand it iblings are usually within 10 IQ points of each other (can't remember the source -was well known reasercher).
This would obviously mean the sibling of HG child would fall into the gifted range usually.
I have basically the same situation as OP. It's funny to watch the younger studiously avoid all areas that the older excels in -carving her own niche perhaps.
Linda, here is the information you were probably referring to:
This is a snippet from her famous article, "What We Have Learned About Gifted Children." - Linda Silverman
"Brothers and sisters are usually within five or ten points in measured ability. Parents' IQ scores are often within 10 points of their children's; even grandparents' IQ scores may be within 10 points of their grandchildren's. We studied 148 sets of siblings and found that over 1/3 were within five points of each other, over 3/5 were within 10 points, and nearly 3/4 were within 13 points. When one child in the family is identified as gifted, the chances are great that all members of the family are gifted. "
"Second children are recognized as gifted much less frequently than first-borns or only children. They often go in the opposite direction of their older siblings and are less likely to be achievement oriented. Even the first-born identical twin has a greater chance of being accepted in a gifted program than the second-born!"
Thanks Natasha, and thanks for understanding my post -my spelling and grammar are all over the place in that one! Must not assume that my fingers can keep up with the brain!!
Rose is fantastic.
My second-born starts school in a few weeks so it should be interesting to get the teachers opinion after a month or so (if she's still up to it, lol).
I actually probably have too many web-based resources and need to get the kids off the computers more.
Youngest loves starfall.com and really enjoyed readingeggs (when she applied herself and we had a subscription), she loves TuxPaint.
Oldest is going to do a lot of web-based activity at school as he's going into a Y3 class but needing work at a much higher level to avoid 'this is boring' and 100% assessment marks before being 'taught'.
I put a lot of the resources my kids enjoyed on a thread in the forum a few years ago. Might try and find that again for the newbies who have joined recently (that and the recommended reading lists!!)
You may well already know but Linda Silverman has written a book about Visual-Spatial learners, 'Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner'. I ordered a copy from Australia (I couldn't find it in NZ but it might be available somewhere!?). I figured that as I'm a VS learner, our daughter might be too so it'd be helpful to be prepared. It's a useful and illuminating read and it's one I'd recommend to others.
Hi All,
I am in the midst of trying to digest my DD(just6)'s report. We have done the testing a bit out of synch, eldest (DD-almost 10)was tested about 3 years ago when she was just super frustrated with life and then we have just had our youngest tested as she was/is doing really well at school and was going to use it as ammo for the teachers/principal re class placement for 2011.
Having this latest assessment has possibly made me think more about our eldest and how she is doing at school, as the discrepancies are so much greater in her. Ie. youngest daughter is finding everything a breeze and zooming through the ranks, but didn't 'test' as well as our eldest, who does well at school and tries really hard, but is not REALLY shining.
I have always felt she excells accordingly, but we as parents don't really fully understand (so I can't imagine her teachers understanding) why she still gets SO frustrated with school and life in general.
I am now looking forward with curiosity to our middle daughters turn sometime in 2011....she is the in the middle with everything, school comes easy but doesn't look to be trying at all and just muddles along at the top end of 'average', and is 'happy enough' with life giving the image of cruising....just all done at 1000mph if that makes sense...not that I compare them... :-)
Jan
PS Just as I got the appointment for the youngest's assessment her teacher/principal approached me and said they would like to move her up to a y3-5 classroom for 2011 and asked how I wanted her classified...go figure- I guess she "looks" more gifted than the older sisters.
High achieving gifted students are treated much better in schools...to the point where many schools/teachers don't recognise that the high achievers are not the only gifted students!
To be fair, schools have limited resources and limited testing criteria. They usually don't know what to do beyond "are they getting it right or wrong?" or insufficient time to dig deeper.
Hi, I'm coming from the point of view of not having a 'formally' identified gifted child, but my eldest in retrospect would fit the bill - he was labeled stupid by school and then scored 95-99% on SAT tests at intermediate (after years of refusing to produce any work, join in or even appear to be listening, and spending much of his time outside the classroom due to disruptiveness) he's now 22yrs old so a bit late to test!
The thing is, I had him as a teenager, and he has two sets of siblings to two other marriages, - the older two girls from my first marriage are bright, one spent her entire primary school time running from one GATE class to the next - the school put her in everyone available, both girls are very different but both do well at school.
I also have a 4yr old and a 2yr old - Mr 4 was talking in whole sentences at 14mths old, is very sensitive and and seems quite bright (though I don't really know how to quantify that as to me he's just 'normal' but not slow) Miss 2 has slow speech - missing lots of sounds still, but has a wicked sense of humour - Mr 4 and my eldest share a lack of sense of humour.
So anyway, what I wanted to know is - if siblings IQ is within a close range does that still apply to step siblings - all the kids fathers have high IQ's but my mother swears IQ is passed down the mothers line ;) (For what it's worth my Mum is super bright and so is my Dad, I'd be the slow one of the family and I usually manage ok)
I'm a bit concerned about Mr 4 starting school as while he's not as quirky as my eldest he still has issues relating to others and does seem to get on best with older children and adults - I just don't want to see him go through what my eldest did at school, constant bullying and refusal to produce for fear of getting it wrong (highly self critical child who's already worried about the teacher asking him to do something he can't and him getting in trouble)
Any advice?
Your mum is probably right. The X chromosome is thought to be responsible for intelligence and the X from mum (in daughters and sons) builds the cortex and brain except for the emotional centre which comes from the dad's genes. Because sons have only one X (from mum) giftedness and retardation are more pronounced in boys where girls have two X's which softens the effect of giftedness and retardation. Here are some websites about this if you wish to read more in depth. I found the last one about the difference in brain development between gifted children and non-gifted to be remarkably interesting, particularly since there does seem to be a physical difference.
Quick overview of female DNA vs male DNA
http://flatrock.org.nz/topics/men/thank_mom_for_brains.htm
Child intelligence & brain growth (difference found between normal & gifted brain)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/30/science/30brain.html?_r=1
As for your DS4, you have the perfect person to ask about what to do at school... your 22yr old. He will be able to give you lots of insights as to what it was like, what would have motivated him, how you could have encouraged him to try more or what you could have said that he would have understood at that age. Even if you ask your DS22 to have a chat with DS4, the mutual understanding would be apparent to DS4 and he may be able to take some tips from DS22.
