Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Deep questions only indication?

Hi. I have a gifted DD10, and a rough-and-tumble DD4 who isn't showing "typical" signs of giftedness - except for her "interesting" questions.

She asks things like: "Where does light come from?" "Can the world die?" (she lost her grandpa last fall, so there are a lot of death questions still.) "Do cows dream?" etc.

But she's showing no other typical signs. (In fact, she is not interested in learning to write her name at all, and often mixes up descriptive words [says big for small, fast for slow, etc.])

I'm not really worried about her development (she's a pretty happy, on-track kid), but just curious if others have had similar preschoolers who've ended up being identified as gifted.

Gratified: What a fantastic mind your DD has - and lucky you remember that wonderful "god" exchange; I regret not writing down my DD's questions, and plan to start keeping a journal. There are many more involved conversations that have fallen out of my brain...

My son didn't read any earlier than the kids in his Kindy and 1st grade class, but the questions he would ask! I just assumed that all kids were having similar 'nature of the universe' discussions with their moms at home where I couldn't overhear.

Yeah, why do some animals have their eyes on the side of their heads instead of in front??

I think questions like these are surely indications of ability to think about things in great depth.

My dd4 has not been 'reading' either but she has tested in the gifted range (in effort to apply for kindergarten) and shows other signs of a drive to learn. I have to do a lot of reading out loud what she calls 'information books'. She doesn't always show off her learning, but I think there is a lot getting absorbed.
Reading early is a great sign of gt-ness, but not reading early doesn't preclude giftedness.

Yeah!
High IQ scores are a great sign of gt-ness, but lack of them don't preclude giftedness.

Giftedness is about special educational needs. If the child just blossoms when they are in a learning environment that is more challenging that what children of that age in your neighborhood usually need, then we can detect that a true learning need has been met. I call this the "Gifted is as gifted does" test.

Just in case you're looking for an actual answer . . . (!!)

It's a tradeoff between being able to see a wide area around you (sides of the head) vs. getting good depth perception (front of the head = overlapping visual fields for the two eyes = depth perception). Prey animals tend to have eyes on the sides to keep an eye out for predators (e.g. rabbits) and predators tend to have eyes in the front to allow them to zoom in on prey accurately (e.g. owls).

Meg the Nerd :P

DD (8 tomorrow!) is PG and we had no sweet clue until just this year. She had no interest in doing anything 'work' related (seat work, colouring, drawing, writing, etc.) and she still doesn't. Her verbal skills are out of this world, though. She was very late to talk at 3.5. Once she started, the questions just poured out of her. It got to the point that I would cringe when I heard "Mommy, can I ask you a question?"

I wish I had written down some of the questions, too. She made my head spin. And I could never make up answers or just give quick answers. I would actually have to do research because I could not answer fully enough for her. Our family joke is "Just ask Magic Google... he knows everything!" And she is like a dog with a bone. She will not leave a topic alone until she understands it and she can regurgitate facts from discussions that we had years ago.

I want to be like her when I grow up. Even just a little bit like her.

Absolutely. My son jump 5-6 grade levels in reading in kindergarten. And I had no idea he was gifted before he was IDed at school. He was quite intense and questioning as a toddler/preschooler. He was verbally precocious. People would comment on him and call him an "old soul". But didn't show academic interest particularly early. He was interested in math and showed understanding of conceptual math topics. He also loved to discuss and explore duct work, plumbing, gutters, drains, etc etc etc ... I remember getting trapped outside buildings with him while running errands because he wanted to discuss how water got off the roofs of buildings. Now, as a 9 year old, I suspect he would qualify for DYS if I had him tested (hard to justify given local cost of testing and the fact that we already pulled him to homeschool). He has achievement testing that shows him in the ball park. He about drove me bananas as a preschooler.

My daughter who just turned six is just starting to show her colors. She doesn't read much willingly, but I just assessed her at about a 4th grade reading level and I suspect that's going to leap even more once we start homeschooling this fall. She has similar intensity, but wildly different interests.

LOL - me too! Even when DS9 was 1 and 2, he would just blend when we were out with other kids. I assumed all kids went back to conversational mode on their home turf.

LOL ... love it!