Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion this is going to be a weird question but...

Zen Scanner -That's a great link. I was definitely an underachiever. In elementary school, my grades were average at best but I was known as "the artist" until in Junior High when another kid started being "the artist" and I lost my identity- so I basically gave up.

Junior High and first year of high school I underachieved until I failed out for truancy. I transferred to another high school (I went to live with my mom in another city, parents were divorced and I had been living with dad) and although I still hung out with the "bad" kids, I started making straight As as my mom paid me for grades I didn't tell anyone about my grades though. In Junior year of High School boyfriend was a jerk so I broke up with him and took the GED since I felt there was nothing left for me in high school.

I did fine in college except that I never felt like I figured out where my real talents were. My father always said being really really good at one particular thing was a trap, because once you have an identity as that person, no one will ever let you do anything else

Anyway, my son seems a lot like me, and I am learning a lot about myself in the process of trying to figure him out. After learning about giftedness I realize that in many ways I'm textbook. Now I understand why I did (do) so many things. It's a relief actually.

Mana, that is good advice -

Minx, your son sounds a lot like mine, in fact he is sitting next to me reading two of the Horrible Science books as I type this. We also have Horrible Geography and Horrible Science but not the Horrible History and Murderous Maths books. I think I will order those today for summer reading.

My son also loves disasters, at one time very interested in the Titanic and likes watching shows about killer fish like "River Monsters" (but then we can't get him to go to sleep because the same stuff he loves during the day scares him at night *sigh*).

I am going to have him do a typing program on the computer over the summer, I think some of the slow processing speed might be helped by typing.

Thank you all, this is making me feel better.

I have a 7 and a 5 year old with fsiq percentiles of >99.9 and 99.8 respectively. They don't do anything amazing either. They like to kick halls and ride bikes and didn't learn to read until school (though they were more ready than many). They seem normal to me - but then I meet a kid that is average...

I would agree that skewed perspective is a significant contributing factor. I grew up in a community that was heavily over-selected for presumptive high-IQ individuals (judging by the percentage of PhDs, MDs, JDs, college professors, patent-holders, and national academic & professional award-winners among the parents of my friends). The kid whose social role in our peer group was that of the sweet-but-none-too-bright kid graduated from a selective four-year college. It was not unusual for peer group members to enroll at the flagship state uni instead of elite private universities, because, well, it doesn't matter where you go to undergrad, just where you get your terminal (real) post-grad degree. Until I entered my current profession, where I measure it regularly, I really had no idea what normative intelligence looked like.

And gifted kids are still kids. There are still many who will take the path of least resistance, whether that means skating through academics, quietly daydreaming through boredom, or disguising abilities in an attempt to fit in socially.

Help them to feel loved, valued, and secure as human beings, without conditions associated with performance or accomplishment, and you will have laid the foundation for them to explore and discover their talents and interests, in their own time.

I actually regard it as a completely triumph of parenting when a child who is HG/HG+ seems... completely their chronological age in some (maybe even "most") ways-- provided that they are happy and seem comfortable in their own skin, I mean.

That's an indication that a parent has taken the time and dedication to respond well to that child's NEEDS, and hasn't pushed him/her to BE something other than s/he is.

My DD may have a scientific publication at age 14, but she also likes to draw (badly), go to the movies with her friends, wear adorable unicorn slippers, read webcomics and high fantasy, and worries about not "looking dorky" in whatever (kooky, occasionally) outfit she's put on. She is still figuring out how to apply makeup, and is terrified to learn to drive. In other words, in many of the ways that count, she IS only 15 years old. She's also a complete rock star who is among the top 1% of the students admitted to her college next fall. BOTH of those people are the "real" DD.

I think it is to our credit that she has the freedom to BE both of them.

Brava!

I think that the stereotype of say, reading by 2 years old, discovering new elements, a more elegant proof of Fermat's last theorem and completing an Ngala opera by age 4 and decoding the mystery of Andean quipas by 7 is really damaging. I felt embarrassed and presumptuous for even testing my DD for giftedness until I found that my DD who didn't learn to read until about five and a half is apparently gifted.

My DD is a normal (ish) 9 year old that happens to have a GAI > 99.9 percentile an FSIQ at the 99.8 %'tile. While she can be intense and preternaturally observant but she will also play my little pony, Wii or just goof around with the boys and girls that are her friends.

DW and I thought DD was NT with behavioral issues until we tested her because learning stuff quickly (some things do take more concentration than others, admittedly) etc didn't seem that special to us as we do the same.

Ha. I was thinking about starting a new thread because DD has discovered My Little Pony and that is all she ever cares about. My little scholar who used to fit many of the stereotypes of PG children is now a child fan of MLP. I don't mind that she likes MLP but she is taking it to the extreme, as always.

Good to hear that this doesn't mean that she has lost herself in the land of Equestria.

I happened to be looking though DS9s records from when he had a speech delay and when he was assessed at 3 years of age he was advanced anything from 6 months to a couple of years in everything except fine motor skills- those he was age appropriate.

So I guess he was advanced at a young age, but because he had a speech delay I didn't see any of it beyond the puzzles. He was definitely pretty good at puzzles. And honestly I just assumed he if he was advanced it was because they'd been working with him.

Still think there's 2e going on, just don't know what it is. There is a note that he had a visual sequencing problem...but he's a good reader so..

You sound like me! I'm struggling to accept DD is gifted because she doesn't fit any of the lists. But now she is relaxed I'm starting to see it. We don't have any "geniuses" in the family however we do have a raft of rebels, trouble makers and poets etc. so I guess it just shows itself in different ways. DS18m is gifted at giving me gray hair....