Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Toddlers

Hi Leah,
Your description of your son reminds me of my 2 yo. I had never talked about my 2 yo here before because I am not sure if he is gifted. He has an older brother (3 yo now) who knew the alphabet, count to 100, and started sight reading before he turned 2. Now at age 3, his reading and math are at 2nd grade level. He is obviously gifted. DS2 on the other hand, is not obsessed with numbers and letters like DS3. He still doesn't know the alphabet at age 2. His talents and interests are very different from DS3. For instance, DS2 could talk in complete sentences and recite familiar books from memory before his 2nd birthday (neither of which DS3 could do). He can do amazing things with blocks and puzzles (neither of which DS3 is interested in). Compared to DS3 who is very academically gifted, DS2 does not seem extraordinary. However, compared to other 2 year olds, he is shockingly advanced. I also suspect that he is gifted because he is just like my DH and DH is profoundly gifted (before I met him, I had never known it was even possible to have an IQ as high as his). DH told me he did not show any academic giftedness until school age, but everyone suspected he was very smart based on his verbal and creative talents, just like DS2.

I'm saying all this to let you know that gifted children can have very different abilities and interests, especially at such an early age. Please read my old posts about DS3 if you're interested in my own current struggles and questions, and others' helpful responses to them. Even though your son and my DS3 are very different in terms of their academic interests, DS3 is also very sensitive and has special needs in preschool which I'm struggling with. You might empathize with that.

Junior

Junior-

You're absolutely right about children who may be equally gifted presenting very differently. Firstborns are much more likely to be obvious about being gifted, but in many cases, later borns are tested and found to be very close in overall intellectual skills.

Your younger son might be the visual spatial type described by Linda Silverman. Have you read her book, Upside Down Brilliance?

Ditto, I would have totally missed DD5's giftedness for these reasons. We had her evaluated out of concern for ADD and have found she is HG. In my gifted denial ignorance I would have totally mishandled her, it would have been tragic.

I

Same here i haven't mentioned my DS23mo yet because I didn't think he was gifted until the last 2 months. He just does things differently. He wasn't showing anything achedemically. But he has always had very advanced motor skills. He walked at 9mo. He was climbing something by himself at the park at 19 mo that DS3 had just figured out how to climb that week. He also has held a pencil perfectly, like an adult, since 20 months (DS3 still can't figure out how to hold a pencil correctly). He has very good consentrated control of his writing.
Recently though, I thought he didn't know his letters because he wouldn't tell me when I'd ask him. But i found now if i ask him to get a letter for me from his magnetic letters, he knows them. He also was walking around a couple weeks ago and counted to 12 out of no where. Then the next week i started to count in Spanish..Uno, Dos....and DS23mo finished to 10. I couldn't believe it because i hadn't taught him the spanish.
I think a big thing was when it was just DS3.. i had more time and did consentrate more on teaching him things, more one on one time. With more kids maybe we get a little buisier ...even though I fell i really try to make that time. Also I think the sencond will lern the same way as the first, but then I realize they all learn differently. DS23mo seems to pick up a lot of his learning from listening to his big brother DS3. HE wants to do everything his big brother does.

Ditto your situation, I think, Junior.

I was worried that DS3 may have had an LD. He had no interest in learning letters or doing more than scribbling on paper. In literally ONE DAY (no exaggeration!) he went from random scribbles without any attempt to make anything recognizable to writing his name perfectly legibly all by himself! He's also playing the "Last Letter Game" with us...even though he doesn't know his letters...or does he!?! (Hint: you can't play the game without knowing at least the letter sounds!)

It's been really, REALLY freaking me out! Just a totally different, utterly wholistic style from DS6. If DS3's not a GT, visual-spatial kid, I'll eat my hat!

I totally feel the same way about DD3, our youngest. I really thought she's going to be my "normal" kid. She was a little speech delayed (especially compared to DS) because she had non-stop ear infections for a while and had ear tubes placed at 18 months. Non-stop talker now - blah blah blah. Went from not writing a lick to all of a sudden being able to copy any letter and writes her name all over many surfaces she shouldn't. She actually has much better small motor skills than DS7. DS7 took about a month into kindergarten to hold a pencil consistently correctly. She's actually much more "academically interested" than DS was at 3. She has a number of sight words and loves early readers and all this stuff I never did with DS. DS learned it, but didn't care or ask to do this kind of stuff. She wants "homework", "workbooks", etc etc etc.

But she is also princess ballerina dancing fairy girl. Oh my. Still getting used to the girl angle! Yesterday she said to me "if it isn't too much trouble, would you get me some juice". She makes me laugh daily. And pull my hair out. Like when she gave herself a haircut right before the holidays. 6+ inches of hair gone in the blink of an eye.

Hey Kimck,
I spotted a cousin's child because the princesss ballerina fairy girl was saving endangered animal babies by fighting dinosaurs with her light saber. ((giggle))
Her Parents thought it was cute. I was like....'you should have her tested?'
grin

Ha! That scenario could have definitely happened at our house, light saber and all!

*laughing*, (*thinking*: I need a little girl!) Someday hopefully...though boys are so much fun!

I have found it interesting to observe DS2, as DD9 has had her "gifted" label since he was born. With DD I was oblivious that kids weren't supposed to do what she did. Now with DS, I was concerned about his language development because DD was talking full sentences before 2 and reading at 3.5. Then I realized that DS is very bright but he is just different. His language skills came overnight but his motor skills were ahead of DD's. He is also very skilled at taking things apart and fixing his toys. He loves to organize his cars and trains by color even lightest to darkest within a color, size or cars etc.

Where they are similar is that they both love puzzles. DS lacks the fine motor skills for maze puzzles, but if I hold the pen for him, he figures them out.

As far as the boy/girl differences, in our house DS will use Barbies for weapons (we don't allow guns/knives etc. as toys) or will run around with a tiara and high heels. He loves to dance with DD and knows the lyrics to all High School Musical songs. Poor guy, LOL!!!!!