Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Feedback please: Is this normal for your children?

#9 for sure; we needed lots of noise in the house, including the TV always on. Couldn't fall asleep by himself with nothing going on, often in front of the TV or sitting in a chair and spinning. We now tell him (age 7) that he wouldn't go to sleep as a baby and we had to make him so dizzy he would passout every night.

I personally can't really remember much outside of just thematic stuff like that with a couple of incidents sprinkled in( particularly at what age what happened.) Though we do swear he had psychic powers around that age and an obsession with buttons.

I know it was around 20 months when he noticed letters and got fascinated by them and started accumulating sight words and the alphabet.

I am pretty sure a child like yours will NOT have an average IQ. Those milestones are extremely advanced and it takes a differently wired brain to be able to accomplish that at such a young age. (Someone correct me if I am wrong)
To what level, I am not sure. Hard to tell at this age. But I am sure that throughout the years you will continue to be blown away by him.

We just had DS5 tested and he tested PG. Did I know? Honestly, yes. But I was in complete denial. It was very obvious to everyone around us that DS was very, very different.

There are lots of other aspects to the whole milestone issue too though. Drive and motivation to learn. From what I was told the first born is usually the driven one. Therefore it seems much more obvious that they are gifted. But high IQ is more than just academic milestones. Some might have early milestones but still not be gifted, but "just" bright.

You will start noticing later that thought process of your child, the depth of thoughts, abstract thinking etc. also plays a huge part. It sure is a ride, this whole "gifted child road". And you might want to prepare yourself for it....;-)

I found my notes from when my son was between 14 and 17 months. I stopped writing down all the words he could say at 150. He was saying two and three word sentences like "sorry spit" when he spit out his milk and "go get it" when he wanted something. He had a mild disability that affected him physically and had gross and fine motor delays that had nothing to do with intelligence. His manual dexterity was affected by this disability. He could not walk until he was 18 1/2 months old because his muscles seemed weak. I carried him around a lot so he could look at whatever he wanted to look at and answer his questions.
He was saying "is dat?" at 12 months about everything and he learned a lot that way. He was a happy kid and got so excited when he learned new things.

He wanted me to read at least 20 books a day to him. He recognized some letters at 12 and 13 months and would count to four because he watched a show called Teletubbies and heard the numbers.

He did some computer games where he had to identify letters when he was two and at three he was doing Reader Rabbit first grade and it did include some math. At 2 1/2 he could not only read some words but also identify words that were spelled out for him. At 4 he memorized a 300 word script and could read his Alice in Wonderland Lines that were about 5th grade level.

When he was seven an educational psychologist that gave him an achievement test and brief intelligence test. He thought he was probably highly gifted but would need a full scale IQ test to confirm and we could not afford it. My son's friends at the time were three and four years older and we were told this was fine since his mental age was higher than average.

He always had trouble sleeping.

Sounds familiar. At that age DD was so easy to reason with and pacified by mental stimulation. She loved conversation, had an endless attention span for any book, and was quick to understand abstract things like colors, reading, and counting. She understood everything. And, she was always making connections. She has always been an observer. I think she takes in her environment and files it away succinctly as to better understand things in the past and experiences to come in the future. It so easily developed then that I just kept exposing her to new things.

I focused on making sure she could entertain herself in imaginative play for long periods of time. I wanted her early childhood to be brimming with unadulterated play. We invested in high-quality, open-ended toys that have payed off ten fold. Personally, I eschewed early learning toys and videos, and at four we still have yet to introduce workbooks and such (I have written this before, and for a while now I have been thinking, 'though I really should.' I know she is ready, but I guess it is just not our style. ) We love going to museums, reading books, and having late night conversations in the dark. The majority of her learning takes place in the car or waiting in line for something.

There is no rush in teaching anything but I do understand the feeling of keeping the beast fed and happy. Our DD really enjoyed rote learning at that age and she seems unscathed by it. She memorized anything. We explored a lot of pre-literacy stuff and she did become a very early reader.

We barely did any kind of number activities, and while she was not that early in math skills, at four she is actually showing more number sense than her second grade cousin. She is having no trouble figuring out what three threes make or four fours. Fractions, negative numbers, division, even/odd numbers--have come really easily to her now. She can mentally calculate addition facts by deduction ("I know 8+8=16 and 8+9 is one more, so 8+9 must be 17" and "8+2=10 and 10+2=12 so 8+4 must be 12) which I think is advanced for even kindergarten so I am thrilled. We really let her figure it out and I think it has payed off. I would have had no idea how to teach this anyway.

She was also never much interested in writing or drawing and has caught up a lot. She still is probably only average in handwriting, but has already started writing out sentences the best she can sounding out words.--It is not amazing, but she has always been behind in writing output, only ever developed a consistent pencil grip a few months ago.

This is all to say, your kid may have strengths and weaknesses and that is OK. It is OK to wait for him to become interested in developing his weaknesses. It is OK to indulge his strengths. Every child has their own timetable. You do not need to worry about what comes next. Your child will lead you. He will surprise you. Stuff will come out of nowhere, trust me.

As far as comparisons, when DD was that age they were so stark. But, she is now four and it is interesting to have seen her peers develop along side her. Unless you listen close, you would not know who spoke first or who now has the larger vocabulary. But, it is easy to notice who never gives up, who is most independent, who is the most outgoing, who never gets frustrated, who is good at making friends, who is most competitive, who always has a smile, who has a huge imagination, etc. They all have strengths.

I always appreciate your candour in posts (e.g. OMGYES!! Haha!).

Re #9: My little man can't shut off for sleep. The learning must.go.on. Like a bad James Cameron film. Until he started to communicate more clearly, he became downright angry anytime we tried to settle him. Our trick is to run around the house (literally) naming everything we see in rapid succession until he seems satisfied. It's as though he resents the opportunity cost of sleep immensely. We look insane doing it, but he seems to love this...err...settling method.

Re #3: How did your children's math interests evolve?

Thanks again!

I couldn't remember much about DS's early milestones, so I searched some of my early posts and found this interesting thread: Developmental milestones

I think a lot of the items on your list are fairly normal for the population on this forum. I'd say gifted, yes, but what flavor no one can tell yet. For DS8, I would say yes to your numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, and 9. He's still not so great with right and left!

As for fussiness, he would not nap and he was fussy if you weren't constantly entertaining him or dancing around with him in a Baby Bjorn. He slept well at night, though, so we were lucky. And he was happily entertained pretty much since birth by us reading to him. He would happily pay attention to picture books very early on.

DS8 reads at a high school level now, and he has always been highly verbal and an early reader. When he started kindergarten, he hadn't really taken off in math yet, but then he started to really progress quickly so he completed the 2nd grade curriculum at the end of kindy. Math is still not his strongest subject, but he's still near the top of his 4th grade class for HG kids (5th grade base level instruction on up).

I do remember some specifics from when he was 18 months old, since we went on a trip. His grandma gave him this Leapfrog Count and Learn Math Desk, and he recognized his numbers 1 to 20 shortly after getting that. Also, he could read the Exit signs and loved all the road construction because of all the signs.

Sounds like you have a lovely DS. Have fun with him!

You asked if it rang a bell and how to prepare for a possible IQ, and after raising three gifted kids, I'd have to say that only time will tell. My kid who achieved milestones the earliest and seemed the most gifted as a toddler is probably the lowest IQ of the three - although still obviously gifted. The one who missed most of his milestones and still hasn't managed to register a valid IQ likely has the highest if we can ever measure it.

So keep track of them (it will matter to committees when you're asking for testing/services) and just enjoy your kiddo.

Yes, my DD also enjoyed memorization as a young toddler. She learned most of the countries in the world and a huge array of flags at that age. I was reminded of this when you talked about your bedtime ritual. We used to have her find 8 countries and 6 flags (or something) as part of the bedtime routine. Interestingly, she probably knew more world geography at 2 than she does now at 9. (I'm sure she could pick it up if she were motivated to, though; she learned the 50 states and capitals effortlessly.)

Ditto to everything ABQmom said. I also have three kids, one of which matched just about everything on your list at the same age. She's HG but she's not my highest IQ kiddo, she's in the middle of my three. She's very much a high achiever and for the most part looks like your classic "gifted" child as recognized by schools (ie, high achievement), but she's 2e and still struggling with reading and phonics - in third grade. My ds, otoh, also 2e, didn't start to even talk until he was 3 and didn't match much of anything on your list. Once he started talking it was obvious he was thinking at a level that was well beyond his peers. He's my EG kiddo, and he's never been one to easily benchmark against anything.

Definitely write down the benchmarks you're noting as your ds grows - as Lisa mentioned, you'll be asked about them when he's tested as well as you might be able to use them later on if you're trying to get him gifted services.

And in the meantime, have fun! Enjoy these early years

polarbear