Does anyone know if there are ways to determine if your child is gifted, whats normal/within range and whats definitely exceptional?
My 18month old is doing a lot of things other children in my coffee group are not. Everytime we go out people ask how old he is and me and my husband are already starting to worry about whether we need to think about special ed and schools. Or at this age is there just a huuge spectrum or could he just be going through a phase and it will stop and even out?
These are the things weve been surprise at:
He has amazing vocab, sometimes using 6+ word sentences, at 13 months I decided to sit down and list all the words I had heard him spontaneously use, I got to 100 words and stopped (and that was off the top of my head). We went to a specialist when he was 13 months (because he was having not seizures but tremor type shakes sometimes when he woke from his mid day nap), at the office he pointed at the clock and said 'tick tock clock' then he saw the doctor holding his pen and paper and said "pen and paper" etc. the doctor said then he was very advanced. But we are wondering now whats just clever and whats gifted?
Now at 18 months I guess he would easily have upwards of 3-400 words. He can sing several nursery rhymes (incy wincy spider, hickory dickory dock etc.) But when prompted you can stop singing/reading a nursery rhyme or book at any point and he can always complete the next sentence (or more - and thats for about 40+ rhymes and at LEAST 20 + books). He can sing the whole of '12345 once I caught a fish alive' ending with a "ouch" when he says the fish bit his little finger on the right. I often catch him singing to himself like this while he plays etc.
Within one reading of a new book he has memorised its title to be able to ask for it by name when he wants to be read it again, and up to 1/3 of that books content, actually hes memorised large bits of lots of books (the titles of at least 40+ books, the whole content of perhaps 5 of those so he can essentially read them to me, and in most of his 40+ books he can open the page randomly and tell you what the words on it are I guess from recognising what goes with the picture).
He can count to 10 easily. He counts all the time, steps, toys etc.
He's addicted to the library and asks to go there daily.
He uses words like "shemozzle" as in telling the cats to "stop this shemozzle" when the cats were being noisy. But knows words like triangle, spaceship, volcano, lichen, poisoness, dangerous etc essentially lost of big words. He won't for example just say 'bird' he will identify it as pukeko, duck, seagull, sparrow etc.
He's also good at sharing and taking turns e.g. will give someone looking at his toy a turn and say "boys turn now" and after they've had it for a bit if he wants it back he wont grab but go over and say "Cody's turn again now". This is the most frustrating thing as other boys his age are very nasty when it some to grabbing and pushing and he gets upset by that.
He thinks hes hilarious and tries to play tricks on the cats e.g. if we all go for a walk (the cats follow us) he will do things like say "Sepp, eat the car Sepp, eat the car" and giggle, then as we keep walking he might say "Sepp, eat the paper Sepp, eat the paper" or tree, or whatever it is we are passing at that time.
Does anyone know whether this type of thing is just very bright or more than that? Would be interested in your views. Is there any way for determining stuff like that at his age or just wait and see how he goes?
Sounds like my son was at that age. I didn't think much of it -bright kid, so what? Then he started reading at 3 which was a big lightbulb moment. He was tested HG at 4.
Yes, my guess would be absolutely gifted. It is even more obvious when they are young. Particularly when you have a coffee group and none of the children are even coming close to what your boy can do. He will begin to realise that he is different and will most likely prefer to associate with children older than himself. Does he have 3yr old cousins or friends' children? Get him interacting with them and he will fit in much better.
My boy tested PG (profoundly gifted 99.8%) at 4 and this is generally seen to be a good age for the first test by an Educational Psychologist if you want to go that way. I knew something was different and began looking on the web when my boy was nearly a year old and already knew half of the alphabet by pointing to the correct letters when asked.
Here is a website that gives a huge amount of info, just click on all of the related articles and links and you'll be engrossed for hours. By the end of navigating the site I'm sure you will have no doubts that your boy is gifted. http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Characteristics/
Small Poppies have a program for gifted kids age 2-3 and 4-6. Get in touch with them and I'm sure he will meet like minded kids there, and you will meet mums that are open to talking about giftedness. Here is their website http://www.georgeparkyncentre.org/SmallPoppies/index.htm
All the best on your road to discovery of your boy's special gifts.
Thanks guys. The links were good, very reinforcing of what I have been thinking. I must say I am a bit daunted I remember a friend say to me a while back, very bright is good, gifted would be very hard.
Even just over the past 2 days more and more things are popping up. Yesterday he added a verse to the wheels on the bus song saying that "the Cody(him) on the bus goes cuddle cuddle cuddle', he grabbed his nursery rhyme book and told me he "loves nursery rhymes' then when we were at the park and I was trying to tell him there might be a bear in the cave he looked at me and frowned and said "I don't think so"! Today when we were up early he pointed at the sky and said "planet venus, brightest star" (I think I've said that maybe 1-2 times before but hadn't today) and then literally had to drag him out of the volcano exhibit at the museum (after ages in there) going "more volcanoes, more volcanoes" he's either gifted or highly unusual thats for sure!!
Not sure what that means for us right now, but I'm definitely going to think more closely about waiting lists for better kindergartens and reading up.
Thanks again. Sometimes I think we just need to be told were not crazy.
My Son has been identified as highly intelligent by a leading pediatrician in our city. His vocabulary range and annunciation surprised the doctor. Also his ability to form abstract connections was commented on during the consultation.
A month ago we had the tv on silent during dinner and the news was broadcasting a feature on local fires. My husband and I dropped our jaws when our son said the following; "Fire, trees burning, hot, dangerous, ouch, water?" Our daughter has also been more vocal than other children. She is 3 1/2 and anything other than a comprehensive explanation leaves her asking dozens of detailed questions.
I believe both my children are possess advanced intelligence, but they are also different. Both have advanced language skills. They would read and be read stories all day by choice. My Son has an incredibly strong mindset. As a 6 month old crawler he could not be distracted from something that had grabbed his attention. I could take him to the othrt end of the house with new toys, food, milk and a dummy and he would return to what had interested him immediately.
My Son has i credible humour. he has been outright laughing from two weeks of age - even in his sleep!
My daughter however is incredibly sensitive and insightful. She will see through a white lie immediately yet has incredible imagination, inventing friends, scenarios and stories, comprehensively bringing them to life with her articulation. She conducts lessons with her brother, teaching him the words for everything in their books & corrections.g his errors in pronunc iation, which he then rectified immediately and accurately.
My daughter just knows when someone is unwell or upset without mention.
She endeavors endeavors to then take care of that person and asks after their welfare, needing to understand why, how, when and where of everything.
I feel completely overwhelmed at times with the daunting task of providing my kids a platform to make the most of their abilities. Instead I try to focus right now on their general happiness, health, social exposure, reading, music, and physical activity.
It's tough to know the right course of action.
Hi Deidre,
had to laugh when you said about not just using the word 'bird' but referring to the actual type. At 18mths ours had memorised our entire native bird book and did the same! Language development was the same as yours too. In presch years we did do Playctr (Kindi was a disaster) and playgroups etc as it was obvious that the social skills side of things wasn't going to come naturally. I do wonder if Montessori with it's more ordered system would have been a good option for ours rather than standard school but it wasn't an option that was readily available in our area then. Was good doing those other presch things to provide good social interaction opportunities. Outside of that I guess we were kind of homeschooling in a way, thank goodness for a library! We just did heaps of stuff, from walks where we'd talk about whatever we found, visiting places like the vet and butcher when we were 'into' biology stuff big time around 4 - and I found approaching people like that generally they were really receptive to showing a little kid around. On the assessing front we kept getting told things like 'all kids are like that' or 'no, there's no need to get assessed' (yeah right!) and so on. We were so utterly exhausted and sleep deprived we just didn't at that stage have the energy to argue. I kind of wish now we had, if only to maybe get help early on with developing the social/emotional skills side better. On the sch front we've been lucky to go to a small, very open and supportive sch where staff seemed to be able to let us get involved as much as we wanted, and they seemed in tune with what was needed. I think we were luckier than many there. College - not easy and a whole new system to get your head around. The first year was a waste of time really (not stimulating enough) and bad socially so we're trying another college this year. But anyway, at yr 8 the language side of things was assessed as being at university entry level to give you some idea of where the language level might head for your sweetie! Good luck! It can be such a challenging road at times.
