Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion but we still believe in Santa and the Tooth Fairy!

Hi all,

I was looking at one of Deborah Ruf's blogs (can't remember which one - outlining levels of giftedness or something similar) and one of her indicators was the child questioning Santa and the Tooth Fairy age 2-3.

DS7 still believes in Santa and the Tooth Fairy. Is he alone?

Perhaps I'm being hoodwinked.....

both of my younger ones 4 & 6 don't have a clue, but DD6 is starting to ask if certain things are real, I'm sure it's just a matter of time before we get to Santa and the tooth fairy. BTW on the Ruf levels DD6 is a for sure a 4 and did all the level 5's except for 5 things Santa being one of those things (that includes some things because we didn't think to try like the computer at age 2). and DD4 is about a solid 3.

DD6 is still a firm believer in both the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, and on Ruff's levels we (DH and I) can't agree on whether she is a 4 or a 5. I do not see those two beliefs going away any time soon either. I think she really likes the idea that we believe in something as "strange" as Santa and the Tooth Fairy (oh, and don't forget the Easter Bunny) when we are always reminding her that movies about fairies and witches and mermaids and things are not real. (Sensitivity issues with getting scared and upset at movies with these characters in them.)

Just my opinion on the inclusion of this on the lists, but I really think it depends on the child's strengths. If you have a child that is more logical than the chance that they question Santa and the Tooth Fairy is higher. I also don't think that a child has to hit all of the things on Ruf's lists. The list is from her dealings with multiple children and not every child she dealt with would be able to fit into that list exactly as she designed it. (I am betting on that!)

Since my DD is still a toddler it is hard to say which level she is at but Ruf's lists opened my eyes to a lot of what we were experiencing. And yet I still have questions on things such as a child that has known her right from her left before she was 2... were does that fall in the levels? My point is Ruf doesn't have all the answers but she opens the door to our thinking about it.

I remember keeping my mouth shut about that subject until I was, like, 14. I wasn't going to blow a good gig any sooner than necessary. I would be curious how DS6 talks about this with his friends, since he hasn't yet tipped his hand to us.

Ruf says this right in the book, so don't bet against Katelyn'sMom! ((Humor Alert))

What's very interesting is how the ideas in our minds (gifted denial) for example, twist the very information and memory to keep themselves alive, long past the time when we've had opportunity to 'know better.'

I'd love to see Ruf's research expaned to include 2000 kids, and I'm sure that things would change a bit. This reminds me of the 'joke' about what a 'female-baiased' IQ test might look like:
1)Watch an hour soap opera - name all the characters and map their relationships.
2)Find 20 items hidden and then scattered in this mock kitchen.
3)A 2 month old baby is crying - figure out why

Love and more Love,
Grinity

DS9 still believes, but it could be due to Santa and the Tooth Fairy being pretty persistent. Santa's been known to leave notes and then there were the gifts that were waiting for us at our house when we were two states away..... I'd bet some of this has led to DS writing notes to the Tooth Fairy and well, it was so stinkin' cute that the Tooth Fairy had to write back.

I think that DS *wants* to believe because it's fun and magical. DSs teacher does this really cool thing for St. Patrick's Day involving a leprechaun on the loose and the kids just had a ball looking for this mischievous creature. I remember commenting that I didn't realize so many kids at this age still believe in things like that. I thought DS was a little behind the curve and that he was probably one of the last ones to figure it out. Logically, I think DS has got it, but we make it so much fun that he's not ready to give it up entirely just yet.

Be careful on Ruf's levels -- a friend of ours just tested with Ruf, with one of the most unbelievable children I've ever seen, and Ruf placed this kid, with one of the highest SB5 scores Ruf has ever seen, at a "high 4, low 5" just because the kid isn't in love with doing math! She's perfectly capable of doing math, ceilinged all her achievement subtests, etc., but just doesn't love the act of doing math. She'd have been a 5 (or a 6, LOL) if you'd asked me before the testing!

Level 5s are really, really rare ("serendipitous," I think, is the word Ruf uses -- so if your dc isn't in that category, it doesn't mean he's not PG. My ds is a DYS and I'd put him a high-3 to mid-4 -- definitely not a 5, imo. Also, the levels are very subjective. It's just another way of grouping, as Grin puts it, the "mildly PG" and the "wildly PG."

The book is a nice intro into the world of gt kids. I personally like more the parents stories and quotes than the milestone lists, but that's just me. The book was a big eye opener when our older one was 3 but I haven't even tried to find LOG for DS4. Let's face these are results of Ruf's very limited "study".

DYS6 still believes in Santa and Tooth Fairy

I always took that Santa Clause/Tooth Fairy idea to mean when the child first realized that it might not be likely to be true. You could tell DD9 had kind of figured it out at 5, but the idea of it bothered her so much she was very conflicted about it. I think she still wanted to believe and didn't want to deal with the reality of the fantasy, IYKWIM...
I also think there was a fair bit of strategy involved, IE, if they know I figured it out they might not get any more stuff,or at least as much, LOL!
I swore up and down until sixth grade(!!!!) that I believed because I thought that statement had a direct relation to the amount of presents I would receive.....so devious!!

DD6 started asking me questions at 4, but I answered her with questions. She'd ask who puts out the presents, and I'd ask, who do you think does it, etc. She thought it was us, but I'd never confirm it while I thought she was still uncomfortable with the idea.

She finally let me off the hook this year! On Black Friday I was out of the house by 5a.m., back by about 6:30. I thought everyone was still asleep, however, she came downstairs about 15 minutes later, sat next to me and said: "I know you put the presents under the tree". I'm still not sure where that came from, because I hadn't even taken the "goodies" out of the trunk of the car, yet somehow she knew where I had been and what I had been doing!!

I definitely agree that estimating a child's LOG, is just an estimate. In Mia's friend's case, I surely think the parent has more subjective evidence to place that child's LOG, than Ruf would have access to in a limited testing situation.

As a *soft* science, though, I still do find the categorizations useful. It's especially interesting to me as a parent, that my youngest seems to have a Ruf LOG that is higher than her WPPSI score would indicate..........

Neato