Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion this is going to be a weird question but...

I was tested by a private psychologist through my school when I was in 6th grade, and they said I was gifted, although I never found out what my IQ was. I thought that was bunk because although I liked to read, I couldn't do math. I was (am) also very artistic. I did have unusual interests in elementary school, like wanting to be Japanese and being completely interested in Japanese culture (I am of various Celtic descent) and being very interested in plants and gardening to the point that I joined a plant of the month club at 10 and was very happy receiving plants through the mail until my dad found out by getting a bill. But I didn't feel that much smarter than the next kid, although I did feel like I didn't belong etc. probably because of my unusual interests.

Fast forward to now, my 9 year old son just tested HG (GAI 159). We had him tested by a private assessor because he was inattentive in class (and this going several years to 1st grade). His third grade teacher told us she thought he was gifted and wanted him to get tested in the school system which we did (at the moment awaiting results), but we also had a private assessment done because our understanding was the G and T test would not tell us if he had ADHD or other issues. Assessor said very smart, very persistent, slow processing (21st percentile) due to perfection and anxiety, but not ADHD.

Also had my 7yo daughter assessed turns out her score is almost the same numbers (GAI 160).

Neither of them appear to do any of this advanced stuff I read about all the time - like what you see on those "how do you know if your child is gifted" lists.

Neither of them read early, they both learned in kindergarten and were not in the top reader groups. Now my son loves to read non-fiction books about science and animals and many of the book are adult level books- but I don't know if he's actually really reading them or just reading parts of them with the pictures that interest him. When he was 18 months the ped told us to get him help because he had no words. It turned out that he had childhood apraxia so we did speech therapy. At that time he was assessed and found to be age appropriate or slightly delayed in everything with the exception of puzzles, he was about a year ahead of his peers [EDITED: I have since looked back at the assessment they did then and he was actually advanced several months to several years in everything except fine motor. The apraxia was related to his physical development, he understood everything but couldn't physically talk.]. He also likes to draw animals of his own creation, and between 1st grade and 2nd he made a very long "mural" of pictures by taping 8" x 11" pieces of paper together (100 feet). I admit that seemed unusual.

My daughter couldn't care less about reading, she just wants to do all the age appropriate stuff like rainbow loom, playing with stuffed animals, art, minecraft etc.

I actually wouldn't believe they were HG except for the following:

Both have tons of the over-excitabilities.
Both kids have chosen best friends that are either at least a year older or are gifted or both.
Both kids have way too much energy.
My son constantly starts sentences "Well, technically... " but I say that a lot so I'm sure he picked it up from me.
My son does something I do, which is when something interests me I get sort of obsessed about it, read about it, talk about it, generally annoy people with my all consuming interest in one particular subject until I'm over it. Currently his is How To Train Your Dragon.
My son would much rather talk to adults than kids any day.

But any physics breakthroughs going on? Nope.

Do they say things every once in while that are interesting.. yes. So can anyone shed light on what is going on? Am I just looking at it the wrong way? My son and daughter do fine at school but they are not at the tops of their classes, they are 3s and 4s (proficient and advanced in all areas). My daughter's behavior is fine, my son gets "impulsive, inattentive" notes. All his teachers love him though.

In my life I have met many many people that I felt were more intelligent than I am. This may be my own perception of myself. One caveat, I did recently discover that 80% of my close friends were actually in the GATE program as children. It's actually weird, either there were a lot of us, or I have a radar for this...so maybe I have a lot of intelligent friends which is why I don't see it?

I just keep feeling like I am missing a piece of the puzzle somehow...

PS I also have tons of family stories about how smart my parents, grandparents were: my dad took apart clocks and put back together at 3 years old, doing math in his head that was incredibly hard to do, etc. My mom went to the national spelling bee, you know that sort of thing. My kids seem (to me) to be moderately gifted, I don't see the HG part...

If you have read this far, thank you.

Maybe your kids haven't been given a lot of opportunity to use their gifts yet?

What were their areas of strength on their IQ tests?

Do you trust the private tester?

I think your perspective is skewed. I know I have pretty much exclusively very smart friends because they're interesting to talk to, and probably because they don't find my enthusiasm for strange things off putting. And since my friends are smart, so are their kids. I doubt I know any children would would test as average.

GAI in the high 150s is really really crazy high (99.9%+), but slow processing speed is a very very significant issue which can cause them to seem lower than average, and which people automatically take for low IQ. It is a common problem, we came up with a very unique solution which probably isn't available to you, so I don't know how helpful I can be.

I see my son's "giftedness" when he is really enthusiastic about something he enjoys.

I don't know if I'm gifted, but I do know that I'm intelligent. It started to show up more around the 3rd to 4th grade, when I became really interested in reading for pleasure. My vocabulary and writing skills built up quickly. Up until then, I wanted to be outside to explore and run with the neighbor kids.

My point is that children are on a different timeline. Often you hear about gifted children being interested in mainly academic or intellectual pursuits, but I think that all people are on a different timeline.

You "might" provide a bit of supplementation in reading or math (something interesting- not too "school") to see if your kids pick up on it. I'm thinking more along the lines of math games or broadening reading horizons. My opinion is that the elementary school curriculum is a bit boring- depending on the teacher of course. Maybe your kids are underachieving?

Second that there might be subtest variance that could be holding them back. I would definitely look at those subtest scores and ask for interpretation.

Can't agree more. High IQ helps, but it's one of many factors that make one successful. My DS asked me a few times about his IQ scores when he was little. He doesn't ask anymore, I think it's partly because my family de-emphasizes talent and we are always about effort and efficiency. But when he asked, my answer was always that his IQ is high enough, whether or not he can reach his goals in life depends on other factors. :-)

Kids don't do any advanced work if there is no reward for it. For many gifted kids challenge or satisfying curiosity are their own rewards. If they aren't challenged by content or material, then they may develop their own challenges like "How to do the least amount of work and score high enough." or "How to blend in and look/act like everyone else." or "How to do everything perfectly." etc.

Some HG kids seem to begin slower but are really just accumulating a ton of information and ideas and suddenly as their brain starts its serious reorganization around 11 then everything can change. Some percentage of HG kids aren't going to find their way without help and become disaffected, maybe dropping out of school or other challenges.

The typical term for that performance vs. potential mismatch is underachievement.

SENG Underachievement

Thank you for your responses, this really helps.

If I look at FSIQ instead of GAI he is only 138 because processing speed is 21st percentile which is pretty low. The assessor says it's because of anxiety and because slow processing speed is common for gifted kids (although she did say it was VERY slow, which she believes is due to anxiety). He is not interested in anything at school at all except science and art. He doesn't appear to have ADHD beyond normal disorganized 9 year old boy, but does concentrate so deeply when interested in something or daydreaming that we have to repeat his name several times to get his attention. He doesn't appear to have anxiety to me beyond separation anxiety which is actually pretty strong and we are working on it. It's hard because I remember growing up and thinking I'm gifted I'm supposed to be smart, now I wonder if I have slow processing speed because I have felt a little slow around my friends and have trouble communicating what I know clearly (which is often on expert level because I spend days to weeks obsessively researching things and I am pretty concerned about accuracy).

My daughter has a FSIQ of 148 and processing speed at 79th percentile. She actually appears a lot less gifted than he does, although both her GAI and FSIQ are higher.

But I agree wholeheartedly, high IQ doesn't equal success or happiness in life (in fact sometimes it creates challenges to happiness)- effort, efficiency, the ability to get along with a lot of different people and to appreciate life in general are much more important. None of my family are happy except for me, and truthfully I haven't done all that much with my life that would be wikipedia worthy, but I find I am often grateful for the people and things in it (especially the Internet and for forums like this one where people you have never met will take the time to help you).

It's just hard to figure out what to do with a kid that is obviously bored at school, but it's because he's not interested in academics..my daughter does fine, at least for now.

Cammom, I did lobby for this one teacher who is supposed to be a good fit for kids like my son. I was also an unachiever and I remember just feeling like the material was very dull and not worth bothering with. I only liked art and journalism until I took the GED at 16 and went to Community College. That was eye opening for me, suddenly I loved school.

Talullah- can you PM me what your unique solution was? The assessor says the speed issue is due to anxiety, but I'd still be interested in what you did...even if it's not available here.

I don't know if this helps but I know a few others like your DC. Their FSIQ were well over 140 but they were just not all that academically driven and they stayed under the radar at school. They coasted throughout their prep school career and they didn't do much more in college. One of them went to a law school only because she didn't feeling like working.

On the other end of the spectrum, I know someone who won every single STEM award in the state for 4 straight years in high school. He was always extremely driven but his younger siblings were not as high-profile although all of them are most likely at least HG+. I think it takes more than high cognitive abilities to strive towards exceptional academic achievements.

If I learned anything from my friends who have raised GT children who are now adults, is that with some of them, you have to push a little bit to find something they find challenging and rewarding that could lead to a career. A boy I know was floundering but his middle school science teacher saw his talent then talked his parents into sending him to a NASA-sponsored summer camp. That really turned his life around and now he is on a full scholarship in college and doing very well.

Both of your DC are still young. They have many years to find their inspiration.

Well...he's 9. His scores and anxiety are almost identical to my son's, and my son is interested in a lot of different things but he's not curing cancer. Right now, he's delving into chemistry and science because that is what interests him. We use his interests to bridge him over to other things. This week, as an example, he is taking a workshop on archaeology because it's about mass destruction (think Pompeii and eight-year-old boys).

Does he enjoy the Horrible Science and Murderous Math books? My son LOVES those and totally enjoys sharing the gory details with me. I recently discovered they have Horrible Histories and Geographies so those are the next two sets we will buy.

My son loves to do science experiments but hates to write (something to do with the low processing speed). We made a deal that he would type up a "Scientific Proposal" to include a funding request. They aren't terribly detailed but it does help him to organize his thoughts.

Sometimes I think I expect more of him because I know my own capabilities but...he's still an eight-year-old boy.