Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Help - How advanced is he?

I'd like some input into my 24 months old...I think he's advanced - but how advanced is he, really??? We didn't notice all that much in his first year, except perhaps, that he smiled a bit early (4 weeks)and never seemed to need much sleep, but he didn't start walking until past 1 year, pointing with his finger was even "late" if I remember correctly etc. My mother first remarked that he seemed to have an amazing attention span (at a bit over 1 year old, he filled and emptied his shape sorter dozens of times for around 40 mins). Well, at 20 months old, he spent a couple of weeks learning the alphabet in capital letters (he insisted on learning, starting with his alphabet playmat). When we reluctantly introduced the lower case alphabet a bit later, he mastered it in a few days. He still loves spelling (he used to spell every word on signs, in stores etc.), and is starting to read a few words (though not always perfectly or consistently), and loves to observe us writing words (he has also "discovered" letters in the shape of noodles, pieces of bread, the way he spreads his legs into an "A" etc). When we ask him to find the fish on his laptop, he will find the correctly lettered button that, when pressed, will show a fish on the screen.
Also at 18/19 months he was doing his first real puzzles (he finished his second peg puzzle - 9 pieces - we got him a bit earlier, in less than a minute, so we abandoned peg puzzles...), and now at 24 months, he does 100 piece puzzles (boy, are interesting ones difficult to find for young toddlers!). The first time he does a new puzzle, he wants quite a bit of help to keep going (ie. we suggest a new piece every now and then - but don't tell him where it goes, or we ask him to look for the mouth of this animal etc.), but after that, he only needs occasional encouragement to keep going. His 60 and 48 piece puzzles are now completed very quickly and without help (we've also mixed up puzzles, and he knows exactly which piece belongs to which puzzle, even if both puzzles are Thomas engine puzzles). He looooves puzzling.
He has an excellent memory, when he encounters something new in real life (an animal, a plant etc.), he will find a corresponding example in his books (knowing exactly where to find the example, even if it is a tiny picture off-center, say, not the focus of the page - sth we would never have noticed). We recently bought a memory game, and, while not perfect the first time around, he is better than my husband and I.
He is trying to count with his fingers, but his fingers won't comply yet; he knows his numbers up to ten (we haven't tried more than that), and he knows 5 is bigger than 2, say, but he is not quite counting reliably yet (well, he will point to each element one at a time, but he does not always say the corresponding number correctly - except for stuff like stairs which we count with him routinely). He does know, however, that cars have 4 tires, for instance (a couple of months ago, he surprised us by pointing to where the 3rd and 4th tires should be in a two-dimensional picture of a car). He knows the basic colors.
His language development is difficult to judge, as he is being raised trilingually (my husband and I speak to him in our native languages, and he hears us and others speak English). In my husband's and my language, he understands hundreds and hundreds of words (for example, at least 50-75 animals in both languages), but his active vocabulary is still very small (we haven't counted, perhaps 25-50 words?, and he has only very rarely strung 2 words together). Sorry for the long description...
I like the idea of having a smart kid, obviously, but now am worried that he may be more than just smart, and that we may face problems in school; furthermore, he is a few days beyond the state's age cut off, so would be among the oldest in his class, even in the private schools around here. Based on what we can observe now, how advanced (gifted?) is he? Should we expect major issues in school? Or does he just have a good attention span and memory? He is our first-born, so we don't really know what's to be expected of a two year old. Thanks so much!

I think that it is very hard to ascertain how gifted a child is at age two or what his future academic needs may be. He sounds like some kind of gifted but whether that will prove later to be the type or level of giftedness that can be accommodated in a public school classroom with gifted enrichment or will need grade acceleration or some sort of alternative arrangement isn't easy to say at this point.

FWIW, age cut-offs for school can change. My youngest just turned 11 last week. When she was your ds' age, she too would have missed the K cut-off where we live. The year she started K, one of the local districts pushed their cut-off out to a later date (10/1 rather than 9/15) which allowed her to get in by mere days. She changed districts later to one that had retained the 9/15 cut-off, but districts tend to honor other districts' student placement and did not make her repeat K. Since then, the governor of our state has signed a bill allowing for early admission to K for "highly advanced" gifted children, so kids who miss even the 10/1 date, which is the latest the state funds, can get in if they test highly enough.

i was just after the cut-off and my mom had them test me and get me in, i still remember doing some of the testing! lol

as far as his level of giftedness, no idea. DS10 was skip counting at age 2 by 2, 5 and 10. knew his alphabet, all the shapes (trapezoid, polygons, etc), was reading, starting to play complex video games. we more discovered he knew this stuff rather than taught him any of it! we were lucky to have a gifted preschool to send him to. Never had him in a traditional school so I don't even have a clue where "normal ability" kids are and how far ahead we ever are! Actually my poor 2nd born child (MG) probably gets have the props she deserves because we only have her older PG DS to compare to!

You can check out various milestones for gifted kids on this site: http://www.talentigniter.com/ruf-estimates

But keep in mind that these vary a lot. Gifted kids can be quirky! I have learned not to worry too far ahead. Try not to worry about school just yet. There will be time to figure that out down the line. It sounds like he's off to a great start

I think sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference in an early bloomer vs. being gifted. Either way, your son is very bright!

Like the previous poster said, gifted kids can be quirky. I have an almost 4 year old who scored very high in testing yet she did not walk until 14.5 months. I think for me, the biggest indicators outside of the test scores, has been DD teaching herself to read and write, her obsessions with subjects not typical for her age (like anatomy) and just her general behavior. She's a very intense child!

Does he spend part of his week in preschool/daycare? If so- how is that going?
If not - what are your ideas about that?

Generally, parents of first borns have the advantage of not knowing what to expect and do well because they just observe the child and do more of what's fun for that particular individual kid. Issues can arise in group care because the teachers are taught what 'normal development' and can have trouble percieving that 'nomal' in this case just describes the middle 95%, not the whole world.

Hope that helps,
Grinity

Thanks for the replies so far! Yup, intense would be a good way to describe DS1! We've been following his lead - he tends to be quite obsessed by his favorite activity(ies) at any given point in time.
He's not in preschool/daycare at this point, but he enjoys playgrounds/trucks etc. as much as any kid his age; however, he tends to rush through the more intellectual activities in play areas, like matching complex shapes or interlocking-block type puzzles, very quickly. I like the idea of a play-based program, but it seems that private schools around here mostly have openings at the nursery/pre-K level, so we may have to commit soon (especially if we can overcome the age cut-off). OH and I were not challenged in school (we were both at the top of our classes; he skipped a year; I tested in early, and wrote with my non-dominant hand and solved problems many pages/chapters ahead during class time to reduce boredom), so perhaps that's why we are worried so early on.

It sounds like he's gifted, though it's probably too early to begin worrying about HOW gifted. I wouldn't worry about the late walking... my daughter didn't walk until 13 months. I also wouldn't worry about his lower use of vocabulary, because of the whole trilingual thing. A number of studies of kids in bilingual families have demonstrated that it's pretty common for them to begin speaking late, because they're dealing with multiple sets of linguistic rules (sounds, construction, etc.) and expanded vocabulary... but once they do start talking, they advance very quickly in both languages, more than catching their peers. This is observed among non-gifted children. I would assume that a third language further complicates the language acquisition process, so just give him time.

The giveaways for giftedness in this story are his attention span, photographic memory, and the fact that he's already working towards rudimentary math and language skills that most kids aren't expected to start learning until kindergarten.

These are excellent reasons to worry.

In a way it's best to hold off on group care until the child has enough emotional reserves to handle the boredom and difference if possible.

OTOH - if he enjoys the older children and you can get him in with an older group early, a play based setting might work well.

No instruction manual,
Grinity