If you've been lurking here for a while, you may have already read about my son. In case you haven't, let me tell you about him. But first, let me tell you about my daughter.
My daughter is now nine. She talked very early, walked early, and read very, very early. She was handily reading chapter books at four. She is, and always has been, outgoing and precocious. She tends to stand out in most situations because she knows so much, learns so quickly, and isn't afraid to let people know. She was nominated for the gifted and talented program in kg, and it wasn't a surprise to anyone that she scored very highly.
My son is 14 months younger than her. He didn't talk early (in fact, he was a little late), he didn't walk early, and he didn't read early. He was reading at about a beginning first grade level when he started kg, but nothing astonishing. He's always been a bit quiet, introverted, and a very literal rule follower, which means he doesn't stand out at all in a typical classroom setting. He happened to have the same kg teacher as his sister, and when I told the teacher that I intended to nominate him for the gifted program as well, she told me, "You really can't expect him to be another [dd]."
However, the thing we had noticed from very early on with DS, was his intensity of curiosity and attention. As a toddler, he would spend hours and hours with his toy trains. At 3, he would pace in circles counting to 1000, or sometimes higher. At 4, he was fascinated by sea animals, and would have us read nonfiction books about sharks to him over and over again. Although I didn't know the term at the time, "rage to learn" definitely describes him.
When the district GT coordinator did his testing after I nominated him for the program, she told us that his numerical scores were a few points too low to qualify. However, she was so enamored by the depth of his conversations about sharks and robots that she pushed the committee to admit him anyway.
He started to really blossom in that program under her guidance, and he hasn't looked back.
He is currently almost eight. He's reading at a high middle school/low high school level. He's doing math at a fifth/sixth grade level. We made the decision to accelerate him to fourth grade next year, partially because we wanted him and DD to be able to work together since they're both so far ahead of their peers. He's a bit 2E, because his handwriting and his articulation are still weak for his age, which makes it more difficult to find educational settings/teachers that are a good fit for him than his sister.
As part of the evaluation process for the acceleration, the school gave him the K-TEA 3. He's just a bit above average in writing/spelling, considerably above average in reading, and in the 99.9%-ile for math. He actually hit the ceiling in math computation.
Both kids are highly/profoundly gifted, but they have different strengths and have followed very different paths.
Don't be discouraged by the lack of early milestones. I really believe some kids just take a bit longer to "come into" their giftedness.
Last edited by Cnm; 07/19/17 09:25 AM.
