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    #246738 02/04/20 08:13 PM
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    Hello
    I'm honestly not sure as to whether or not I am intellectualy gifted. I have been called gifted, brilliant, smart , and various other synonyms for intelligent my whole life by teachers, parents, and people I'm acquainted with. I was also in my school districts gifted and talented program which stops in highschool. However I am not sure as to whether I'm gifted or not so I will list my intellectual development and qualitative traits as a child in the hopes that you guys can pinpoint where I am intellectualy. Also I apologise if my formatting is haphazard and fails at being chronological. I also lack grammar skills.
    As a baby I didn't talk early but I did sit 1-3 months early if I remember correctly. My mom and dad both claim I was very focused and attentive as a baby and was curious as well. I talked on time and in my toddler years was fascinated by certain mechanisms like bottle caps and door handles and would repeatedly use them to see how they worked. In pre-k I was interested in bees, spiders, grasshoppers, and dinosaurs. I did not read early though. As a kindergartner my teacher recommended I get tested for giftedness and I was IQ tested on a test normed for 2nd graders. I scored very poorly because I was extremely nervous due to severe separation anxiety at the time. I was and still am an extremely anxious person. I remember as a kindergartner brushing my teeth than realizing out of the blue that my parents could die and I'd be alone for the rest of my life so I started bawling. I resolved this existential crisis by promising myself that I would kill myself if my mom or dad were to die. This may or may not be important to mention but as a 5-6 year old I was better at roller skating than the 10 year olds in my neighborhood and was advancing through ice skating lessons at a rapid pace. I was athletically talented.
    In first grade I became obsessed with becoming the fastest person on the planet and studied the Jamaican method of running and practiced it a lot. I was not naturally fast so that never really panned out. However I did have superb form. I was extremely unfocused at that age and never payed attention in class. I wouldn't even do the assignments. I'd write random answers down than stare into space. At the age of 7 I learned how to read but I didn't learn to read gradually. It clicked all of the sudden whilst my grandma was teaching me and I was able to read complex passages at passover (I'm Jewish) that week. In second grade I began focusing on school once I realized I would get candy rewards. I advanced rapidly and was years ahead within the span of a semester. I got into GT. I than decided that year I wanted to learn calculus so my GT teacher taught me pre-algebra than Pythagorean theorem. I also got IQ tested and scored around 120. I got tested on CoGat and scored below the 95th percentile. She got moved schools though so I didn't advance any more in that class. Around this time I also got interested in geology and Greek mythology and would read on those subjects extensively. In 4th grade I switched schools. I got interested in the venoms of dangerous spiders, cryptozoology, the paranormal and horror writing. I would stay up to 12 at night in the corner of the bathroom every night scared of ghosts, demons and cryptids. Because of this my mom started me on a medicine. This medicine made me less anxious which also made me more willing to speak out about how bored I was in school to my teachers. I became a hellion. I would throw chairs. Cuss out and flip off teachers and in general be nasty. I did surprisingly get good grades in most subjects but I struggled with math because I'd solve the problem and get it correct but not show my work. They assumed I was cheating and docked my grade. I eventually went to see a psychologist and got diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. The psychologist also gave me an IQ test. I have never seen the results and my mom won't let me see them. She told me however I scored between 130-140. Things didn't get better and in 5th grade I got kicked out of GT for rude behavior.
    From 6th-9th grade I went to online school and would play video games most of the day and work around 15 minutes per day on assignments. I passed all my classes.
    Today I'm in 10th grade and my interests consist of tarantula keeping, arachnology, psychology, math , and neuroscience.

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    Your 130-140 score makes you at least MG by definition.

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    Welcome.

    You've already received a great response above. smile

    I applaud your efforts to learn more about yourself, and this forum is a great place to reach out.

    While no one will critique your grammar here, if you don't mind a suggestion, it may helpful to place a little white space, a blank line, every once in a while. Maybe every 8 lines or so... it just makes your post easier to read.

    Identification of gifted is not always easy or clear-cut. Especially early on. If you are interested in reading lists of early behavior characteristics and milestones, and comparing them with your own development, these links may be helpful:
    - Characteristics of intellectually advanced young people
    - Parenting Gifted Preschoolers
    - NAGC's list borrowed from the book A Parent's Guide to Gifted Children
    ((The first item on the NAGC list of Common Characteristics of Gifted Individuals is: Unusual alertness, even in infancy)).
    - Characteristics and Behaviors of the Gifted
    - Characteristics checklist for gifted children
    -Tips for Parents: Helping Parents Understand Their Profoundly Gifted Children
    - Profiles of the gifted and talented which lists 6 different types, categorized by personality/temperament and achievement
    - Bertie Kingore, Ph.D.: High Achieving, Gifted Learner, Creative Thinker? (hat tip to sanne)
    - A common trait in gifted children, often listed amongst identifying characteristics, is alternately described as: "advanced moral reasoning", "well developed sense of justice", "moral sensitivity", "advanced ability to think about such abstract ideas as justice and fairness", "empathy", "compassion". Links to lists of gifted characteristics include several articles on the Davidson Database here and here, SENG (Silverman), SENG (Lovecky).
    - ages at which gifted children may reach developmental milestones
    - thread about Early Milestones - what do they mean?
    - SENG video: The Misdiagnosis of Gifted Children
    - book: Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults
    - old post with link to article comparing gifted characteristics and ASD characteristics
    - post with checklist comparing gifted and ASD traits (hat tip to BananaGirl)
    - post with link to Gifted Resource Center of New England (GRCNE) article comparing gifted and ASD traits (hat tip to Nolepharm).

    Sorry to hear of your existential angst a decade or so ago, when you were a kindergartner. Does it help to know that over the years several parents have mentioned their kids' existential angst and concerns about death? I hope you talked to your parents about your concerns. I hope they encouraged you that for most children, parents live long enough for kiddos to develop strong friendships and support systems, find validation and affirmation in their daily lives, enjoy the challenges of working toward their goals and celebrating their accomplishments. There is much to enjoy, and look forward to.

    Sorry to hear about your classroom behavior as a hellion, throwing chairs, and being nasty. As you know, it's not OK to act out... it's not safe for yourself or others. As you know, a better approach is to take the time to find words to describe the difficulties and disappointments and work toward solutions.

    You mentioned IQ test results. The results are often not one number, but a range of numbers, each representing the strength of a specific skill related to a part of the brain. The brain is considered malleable or plastic in that after damage, often other parts of the brain can learn to compensate. Somewhat similar, various parts of the brain can be naturally stronger or weaker... a person may be gifted and also have a learning difference or learning disability; a person may be twice exceptional. Some links which may be of interest, as you are in high school and may begin self-advocacy with regard to your education:
    - wrightslaw
    - understood.org
    - 2e newsletter

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    Originally Posted by Cyriopagopus
    10th grade... interests... neuroscience.
    As a high school sophomore, reading the work of others in the field may help you begin to hone your specific interests, identify ways to contribute to improvements for humanity, and create a meaningful career.

    You may already be aware of several neuroscience resources, including articles, research papers, books, and simplified information meant for the public... if you have searched posts on this forum.

    1) Neuroscience for Kids - https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html

    2) The movie Concussion (2015), with Will Smith portraying Dr. Bennet Omalu who discovered the connection between concussions and CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy).

    3) A baby's development of neural pathways in the brain can be fueled when people talk to and read to the baby.
    - DOE archive, Read With Me.
    - NPR article, Baby Talk (Hart & Risley).
    - Study overview and book description here.
    - Book: Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children.
    - Companion Book: The Social World of Children Learning to Talk
    - Children of the Code (Risley)

    4) Brain rules for Baby, and videos, by John Medina.

    5) How to control someone else's arm with your brain
    Greg Gage
    March 2015
    TED2015
    Originally Posted by TED video and transcript
    ... one out of five of us, that's 20 percent of the entire world, will have a neurological disorder... it seems that what we should be doing is reaching back earlier in the education process and teaching students about neuroscience... if we took this complex equipment that we have for studying the brain and made it simple enough and affordable enough...

    And so we did just that. A few years ago, we started a company called Backyard Brains and we make DIY neuroscience equipment... electrophysiology! We're going to bring on the neuro-revolution.

    This is just a small sampling to help you get started in sifting through resources to determine what sparks your interest and what problems you may want to identify, research, and contribute toward resolving, to help make the world a better place.


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