Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Hooray for Asynchronous Development

Wolf (5) just finished doing his paperwork for the day which included grade 4-6 Logic and grade 3 reading/comprehension (still too easy, but the stories are short enough that he doesn't get tired). Then he went and threw a temper tantrum tears and all because his baby brother (2.9) had taken apart a gun he had built out of Duplo blocks and was currently building something else with it. He grabbed the blocks from his brother and ran to his room. I made him give them back (he had seen his brother taking it apart while he was working and hadn't cared). He got all worked up because he wanted one specific block (that we have at least 15 of) and wouldn't even look to see if there were others. He finally looked found one immediately and now all is good.

Sometimes it blows my mind...

LOL. How true.

Mr W is mature in many ways, but sometimes he goes off the deep end.

I am so glad that someone else has these experiences too. It blows my mind how DD4.5 can thoroughly grasp the History of Ancient India and the origins of Hinduism and Buddhism, and then on her own relate the similarities of the Jade Burial Suits of the Ancient Chinese and the sarcophagi of the Ancient Egyptians.
Then not 5 minutes later pitch a royal hissy fit (tears and pouty face followed by angry face and incoherent babbling/crying), because the �pretend plastic vanilla ice cream cone needs, NEEDS, NEEDS to be put in our real freezer�. I simply reminded her about the house rules of "no toys in the appliances" and she then snaps out of it with a "oh, yeah...I remember now" and wipes her snotty nose on her sleeve and takes her ice cream to her playroom without another care in the world.

What the heck is that about? LOL

PS - Of course I did follow her and solicit the appropriate apology for her over-reaction, followed by a 5 minute sit down snack consisting of a "delicious bowl of not-so-frozen-solid pretend vanilla ice cream" (her exact words) LOL

Oh so true....even at 2.8 it blows my mind sometimes...it is so hard to remember she is 2 when she is doing many things on a 6 year old level, but then bam....I will get a sharp reminder in the form of a terrible 2 tantrum. Dh and I say it always brings us back to reality, but it can be terribly hard as a parent to switch gears from dealing with a 5-6 year old level back to a 2 year old level in a matter of seconds.

I'm hoping the asychronous thing will push dating back a year or so...

I used to love finding the toy ice cream in the freezer, actually.

questions - honestly, I like those moments too. ;-)

DH and I almost have stopped being amazed about the gifted moments in DD's life and sometimes are more amazed about the times that she exhibits real-age moments. They know how to keep our heads spinning!

Great stories! I love the pretend ice cream story Jewels. As my mother always says, "I hope you're writing some of these down."

I'm also happy to know I'm not the only mom with a child developing so asychroniously! My DH and I have begun to remind ourselves in all these moments, "Wow! She's very 5 today!" It's our personal joke and a reminder that she's still just 5 and totally appropriately her age.

Smiles!
Crazy Daisy

I wish I could share any of the enthusiasm exhibited over asynchronous development -- I find that part of raising a GT child to be the most frustrating. DH and I tend to expect so much out of DD-almost-4 that we both have a hard time understanding and dealing with the age-appropriate fits. It takes a real effort for us to stop, take a look at the situation and realize DD is just having a totally normally moment for her age. DD finds it equally frustrating as well when she cannot perform fine-motor skills far beyond her real age -- writing perfect letters and dressing Barbies (those darn, rubbery legs!) to name a few.

So this asynchronous development has been rough on DD and on us -- I cannot wait until her body catches up with her mind!