First, here are our answers to the first post. DS1 is 6 years, 1 month, and DS2 is 27 months old.
1. When did you first expected giftedness in your child?
DS1- Looking back, it was interesting that so many people commented on how intelligent he looked as a newborn, following people with his eyes, etc. I think I first realized at 12 months when we joined a playgroup with children all 9-16 months older. Within a few months, he was talking more than every single one of them and was the first to have his colors/numbers/letters/phonics memorized, the first to get 1-1 correspondence, and the first to be potty trained, read, etc.
His gross motor was fairly normal. He started crawling at 6 months and walking on his own right before his 1st birthday.
DS2- I intentionally tried not to look for it since DS1 sets a high bar as a big brother, but his became first became obvious when we accidentally discovered that he knew his full numbers/colors/etc at 18 months. He definitely does not get the same amount of 1-1 time and he doesn't watch tv, so he picked these up on his own very quickly. His is becoming more and more apparent because he's starting to read at 27 months and is extremely good with puzzles and is extraordinarily interested in how things work. He's also extremely athletic, to the point of amazement. He started crawling at 4-5 months and was fully walking before his 9th month. He can now throw a ball and play soccer easily with the older kids.
2. What milestones/traits (gross motor skills, fine motor skills, verbal skills, literacy skills, mathematical sills, social) really made you suspect giftedness? Oops, I guess I hit this above.
3. Did your child have any delays? If so what area (gross motor skills, fine motor skills, verbal skills, literacy skills, mathematical sills, social)?
DS1- His only delay was that he could not for the life of him figure out how to jump until he was almost 3! I actually took him to a "help me grow" consultant to make sure he didn't have a developmental issue! Haha! He also did some speech because he was such an early talker that he developed some habits with ks/gs.
DS2- I kept thinking he was "average" with speech because he wasn't as fluent as DS1, but every teacher I know tells me he's still well ahead of the curve, and DS1 was just phenominally ahead w/ early language development.
4. Is your child 2E? If they are did they have other signs besides the obvious, more quantifiable ones? No.
5. Has your child been tested?
DS1- yes. DS2- No, because he's only 2.
6. Is your child across the board gifted or quite asynchronous? If so what are his/her strengths and were they obvious from a young age?
DS1- Seems to be across the board gifted in terms of academics. We thought he was asynchronous towards language arts because he is such a great reader and loves to write, but in the past 6 months, he has jumped 3 grade levels in math and now claims that it is favorite subject. He has a wonderful gift for memorizing and spelling, too. He is on a normal curve for sports and fine arts, and we haven't tried formal music lessons yet.
DS2- Too soon to tell.
7. When your child was young (baby/toddler/preschooler), was their development fairly even or did they excel more in certain areas (gross motor skills, fine motor skills, verbal skills, literacy skills, mathematical sills, social)?
Both of mine have always been extremely social children who easily make friends and entertain people with their humor. DS1 is clearly visual and developed his verbal/literacy skills before his gross motor, but that is because he would rather play trains than run around the playground. DS2 developed gross motor first, but again, is starting to read at a very early age.
Clay, I get myself into trouble with friends all the time with specifics! With DS1, I assumed everyone knew how their alphabet/colors/numbers before they were 2, and probably gave many other 1st time mom friends heart attacks in the way I'd talk about it without realizing this wasn't normal.
I did it again today with a bunch of 3rd-4th grade homeschool friends. I thought I was being inclusive, talking about how great it is that homeschool blurs the lines so that our kids are learning even during the summertime without that designation between "school time" and "summer break." I used the example of how DS1 was playing "stump the stumper" with multiplication facts in the car with his friends on the way to camp, not realizing they fit in half an hour of math practice. Instead of nods and smiles, my comment got silence, followed by remarks about how their kids would never do that. Uh...ooops again.
