Hi there! I am new here. I have four beautiful, sweet children who all seem (of course) brilliant to me.
Lately, I've been starting to worry about my youngest in some ways as much as I am pleased with her abilities. This child is 26 months old. As a veteran mom with older whiz kids, I am certain that this particular child is miles ahead of where most children typically are at her age. Her gross and fine motor, verbal and reasoning skills are very complex and always have been. There is something else though that is difficult to put a finger on or to explain. She seems to be "seeing things" and is sometimes being terribly frightened by them. This started (noticeably) about six months ago when she was 18-20 months old. Her dad was changing her in our bedroom when she looked past his shoulder and pointed to the area above our television. The TV was turned off and she has never seen any type of scary program. She had a look of complete terror on her face and began sobbing uncontrollably, screaming that there was "a monster on top of the TV". She flipped over and literally crawled up my husband like a cat and couldn't be calmed for over an hour. For weeks, every time we brought her into our room, she immediately looked at the TV with fear, then seemingly relieved, would say "Oh, the monster is gone!".
Anyway, this type of thing has continued. At my grandfather's funeral (she was close to him) when she was 23 months old, she (after being told by her dad that he was "sleeping" at the viewing) insisted that he was not sleeping, but had "gone home" (this is something my grandfather would have said). She continued to "talk" to him throughout the day of the viewing and funeral, at one point, pointing out the window into a courtyard saying that he was out there, then saying "I want to come with you, Papa." then "Why, Papa? Why?".
I am not a religious person. In fact, I am a social scientist who staunchly believes in... well... science. I don't have a real opinion about the "other world", however, since my concern is with this world. I neither believe nor disbelieve.
Does any one else have an um "quirky" kid like this and want to share their experience?