Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Tell me some positive things about gifted kids

LOL, so true...DS5 was helping a HS boy (friend of our family) with his algebra last night. I thought maybe he could start a job as a tutor soon as he has been asking how he could make money to buy the list of things he wants (a hydrodynamic plant, a telescope, and a snap circuits rover are the top ones on his list now).

And the spelling was not possible at 2...so I started using sign language with DS (just spelling words in sign language). But apparently DS had already picked up on sign language from a puzzle and some computer game so he already knew it and DH didn't, LOL. Then we tried spanish (but DS knows about as much as DH) and pig latin. We finally gave up and just said "I'll tell you later"

Some other good things is that although my DS isn't a good sleeper we have found things to keep in his room to occupy him in the morning if he gets up early. One saturday morning DH and I slept in until 8am and when we went into his room DS5 proudly announced he had already read a book, cleaned his room, learned how to play a song on his piano and built something with k'nex. He was having a grand old time, and all before I had even had my first sip of coffee.

And they make us laugh daily. My kids say the funniest things. Yesterday DS5 told us a story that started off this way "On friday, the 152nd day of school, during center time in the morning...." So glad he gave me all the details as to the time and location of this event (which by the way nothing at all important happened in the story). We were in the yard this weekend and we caught a frog and DD2 said that the frog was "the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life." She is quite dramatic and funny. They are quite different but they keep life quite interesting and I love who they are.

My daughter (12) has always been an interesting companion. She does not bore easily like most kids her age. When she was young, I could take her to art galleries, museums, or practically anything and she would point out cool things to me and would be totally into it.

She gets really interested in her studies and always looks up more on any subject. I enjoy discussing things with her since she always brings an interesting viewpoint.

My DS9 had a hard time PreSchool. I even felt uncomfortable in his preschool. Many preschools are very loud, and overly active.
We switched to a Monstessorri type of school that was much calmer and wonderful. That made a big difference.

When I have a bad day, I get out a parenting book to help me refocus and deal with it all. I like "Children are from Heaven", This is not about gifted but does offer advice for sensitive kids.

Getting Breaks from the kids will gain you lots of patience.

Try to look for the good in them, ignore the negative as much as possible. They need our love to let them know it's ok to be different. Embrace who they are. I try to frequently tell my kids they should be proud for all their efforts.

It's all still hard for me, but it keeps getting better. Hugs to you. I hope this helps.

shellymos - DS6 cracks me up with this too! Dates, times, etc... the details are amazing.

I think another positive thing is that gifted kids come with manuals and support groups. The explanatory power of all that is known about giftedness (not just the academic stuff, but also the social and emotional characteristics) is so far-reaching, revealing and instructive that I feel like I know and understand my son much better than many parents of non-GT kids know theirs. The availability of all this material that summarizes my son and his issues to a "T" makes me feel more equipped and confident in my parenting.

As an example, you should feel confident and take comfort knowing that many gifted kids (mine included) are terrible sleepers as babies--it's not you, your parenting skill or lack thereof. These kids really are wired differently.

This is one of the favorite things about my son! I heard the other kids during the class trip to SeaWorld saying, "I'm bored!!" all the time and was shocked into remembering that DS7 NEVER says that. How wonderful to love life and always be able to find something interesting in what we are doing. Nan

I love these stories! I think I enjoy my DS6's advanced sense of humor most, but there are so many fun things. You will learn all sort of things along with whatever your child's latest passion of the time is. You may find yourself searching on eBay for a rare Lego Boba Fett minifigure because you know how delighted your 4yo child will be. You will get to know many school personnel very well (which in our case has been a positive). You will enjoy quickly skipping through some of the rather dull young children's books and board games. I love that I could read Chronicles of Narnia to my DS when he was 3. I don't really love that he's loved Monopoly since age 4, since he seems to have a longer attention span than I do when it comes to that never-ending game!

My verbally gifted twice exceptional son is really fun to be around because of his sense of humor, especially his ability with improv and imitations and also his love of music. He is very articulate and teachers and doctors, like the neurologist he saw yesterday, often tell us they notice this about him. He always has interesting things to add to the conversation because he is interested in a wide variety of subjects and has done a lot of reading about a lot of different things since he was 2 1/2. He also watched a lot of educational television. He likes to watch Cash Cab and sometimes Jeopardy to test his knowledge.

In spite of some sensory issues and a mild disability that affects motor ability and endurance, he seems more mature than kids his age because he can also see the big picture and even the positive things about having his disability. Because of his intelligence he can be an active participant in getting an accurate diagnosis for his disabilities because he has done a lot of reading about neuroscience and now microbiology. He often knows a lot of the material in his science books before we read them.

He often wonders out loud about things and whenever he does this we look it up. Because he wondered if his grandmother's disability might have been caused by an allergic reaction to anesthesia, we read about malignant hyperthermia which can happen if you have central core disease, a myopathy with some symptoms that sound similar to some of my son's symptoms. The neurologist that we went to for my son's migraines ordered tests to see if he was possibly misdiagnosed with motor dyspraxia because there are so many things that don't fit. The neurologist told us myopathies can sometimes be caused by genetic mutation when we told him there was no family history of my son's difficulties. I think my son was 8 or 9 when he first asked me if his disabilities were caused by genetic mutation. He had been reading about genetics and he had observed that none of his family had the disability.

He is very intuitive and very observant, but also has a good sense of aesthetics, good at knowing what colors look good together. My daughter emails pictures of different outfits when she is trying to decide which would look better on her and she does it because he gives really good advice. My husband and I value his opinion when selecting new furniture and tile and just about everything else. This is one of his gifts that I find a little ironic since he didn't like to color and couldn't or wouldn't color in the lines in Kindergarten.

I love reading about your son. From previous posts I'm aware of the difficulties he has to overcome and am always amazed by his and your upbeat attitude. But I really got a kick out of this last paragraph. What you described is truly a gift. One that I took for granted most of my childhood into my adulthood. It wasn't until an art professor actually talked about it with the topic of people taking advantage of it that a light bulb went off. It just comes so naturally that I never thought twice that most others don't have this ability. I know for me, when I see outfits put together that don't quite work I have this biological reaction to it. My stomach churns. LOL As for coloring in the lines or even coloring ... I don't think it has anything to do with it. Your son is an artistic person ... I know this from your wonderful posts about his acting and singing. He might not choose to be in the visual arena at the moment, but make no mistake about it ... he is a creative being and will gravitate to the art side in some form or fashion.

So many positive things, but what comes to mind quickly is when my dd5 was 3 she starting writing stories, books (about 10 pages stapled together) complete with her drawings,which are just amazing. My brother in law started collecting the drawings and putting his favorites on T-shirts then proudly wearing them when he goes on trips (he's retired so he travels a lot) She also writes me sweet little notes and puts them on my work desk at home, makes my day everytime.