Absolutely! I 1000% agree - and I think its so important we as parents don't do it because other people will be so tempted to. Although it is a struggle (at least for my DS at 4.5) when they are so good at something to get them to do something which is a struggle at first.

DeHe

I was talking to the hubby about this article over breakfast and he asked how could they trust the results were raw lack of ability in the case of the non-verbal math kids from the research project since some school districts teach for the SAT because higher scores make them look better. I guess it's the same chicken or the egg question about a kids interest enabling their area of ability. But it's the slightly different question of a better education guiding their interests. Did the globally gifted kids get hold of a more engaging teacher that was passionate about their own subject? Did the math only kids get dull English teachers, boring and oblivious to their own many mistakes?

That's exactly where I am with my big girl. She also is gifted verbally and very likely highly gifted. She loves and excels in math and science. It's nice to know someone else has the same "type" of child.

The only reason I even thought DS6.5 was gifted was due to advanced verbal skills at a very young age. The math, which I didn't find out until he was tested for acceleration was actually a shock to me. Now, he still excels in reading/language arts (moreso than he does in math - though he's advanced there too), BUT he clearly loves math and science more.

That's funny. I remember DS6.5 loving patterns at a very young age, and like you, never put that down as a strength for math until after they told me his testing results.

My girls have always shown strength in math -- patterns, puzzles, playing with numbers in sophisticated ways from a very young age. Initially they were not precocious in language arts. In our school, they were not recognized as gifted by their teachers because "gifted girls always show their strength verbally." (Ugh!) DD10 was just a bit of a late bloomer -- her reading took off late first grade, writing in fourth. DD8's reading blossomed in 2nd grade, writing is still a challenge and always may be one since she has 2e issues.

Sounds like my big girl too. Especially patterns - she would see patterns everywhere even in the Chili's Restaurant's bathroom!

People in school districs seem to focus in on academically gifted children and are missing the children that have brains wired so differently they are off the chart at creative divergent thinking but aren't processing information in conventionally ways, through language and writing. So, as a nation we are suffering a creativity crisis. Meaning our nation is at risk of staying a global leader.