Hello -
I was wondering how parents *really* know if their young (under 3) child is gifted. I am pretty sure that my DD (22 months) *is* gifted, then again I am not sure! Does that make sense?
She does things that are so normal for her, but out of the ordinary for her age (according to the child dev. charts I have seen). The thing is she will do something and then not again for days/weeks/months.
After she takes a "break" from what ever it is she will come back to it and it's like she has been practicing and/or building upon this skill that she never utilized. (At least not that I saw her utilize it). This makes it so that I am constantly scratching my head wonder if she really did *X* or if it was just my imagination...that is until the next time she does it (or someting similar).
She does tend to not do things that set her apart in front of other people and sometimes hides it from my DH and I until she is comfortable with that skill (perfectionism, perhaps).
Here's a quick list of what she does/has done that makes me *sure* and at the same time not sure if she is gifted and if I should even be pursuing this. I didn't start keeping track until she was 16 months old. So, she may have been doing "above the norm" things before then and I just didn't realize it. So, I'm not including dates, but the top of the list will be around 16 months and the list will progress to her current age. I'll try to keep it brief, as this is already quite long.
Expressive vocab over 400 words, showed a true understanding of the words (not just mimicing); uses complete sentences 5 or more words; used proper grammar, pronouns; speaks in paragraphs (however, not all words are always intelligible); too many words to count in receptive language. (I started noting her language skills at 16 months and haven't counted or anything like that since then...)
Understands and speaks about 30 words in Spanish and French (self taught). Knows about 50 words in sign language (I only taught her about 15. She learned the rest from some sing and sign videos and from my sign language book -- on her own)
Knows all shapes, including obscure shapes like crescent and heart. Knows all colors including concept of mixing colors to get the color she wants.
Has exhibited knowledge and use of basic addition & subtraction up to the quantity of 20 (perhaps more, but that's all I've seen). She understands basic fractions, in so much that if she sees the number 1/4 and 1/2 she knows which is larger, the same with if she hears them spoken.
She has at least 50 sight words, has memorized most of her books, has started to read (decode words, sound them out, with and without using picture clues and knows what the words mean).
Memorizes songs and videos after listening to/watching them 2 -3 times, including actions, scenery, voice inflection, etc.
There's more but I'll stop here.
Sorry so long, I just want to give as accurate a picture of DD's abilities.
Thanks for reading! I look forward to the responses.
MM
