DS is 2yo and fairly bright. Like many first-time parent, I am amazed at how advanced he is.

Over the weekend, I asked my mother if DS much more advanced than I was. To my surprise, she said I was fairly advaned when I was younger and started to list all the things I was doing when I was 2.

Any parents will similar experience out there?

yes..me too

When I started questioning why dd's were doing things so far in advanced I found out that I had been tested gifted when I was about 6. Funny no one ever said anything about it before. My mom did tell me that I was reading by the time I was four and I learned things quickly and I remember this, I just didn't put it all together that I might be gifted until I had my younger dd's

I was/am definitely what is considered gifted, but my mother states that DS7 is far beyond where I was at his age.

But, and not to toot my own horn, I think that she may not have known my full potential because 1. I am a girl, so I tended not to show signs of boredom, etc... and 2. because I was her first born, and the first of a whole new generation. She also had issues with her own self-awareness/self-esteem, which I believe hindered her ability to really recognize what I needed as a child. Don't get me wrong, she is (and was) a terrific mother, but I believe she was stuck in a very "old school" way of thinking until I was a teenager. I believe truly that both of my parents are gifted as well, even though my mother will say I got my "smarts" from my father. I just wish I got all of his other talents as well (he's an extremely good artist & musician). I hope at least one of my DC get it!

Yes, my mom told me how I was in my highchair and started reading the back of the newspaper that my dad was reading. My parents frantically started putting labels on items all over the house: sofa, door, table, etc. but I could already read all those words...instead I asked, "What is lingerie? (of course mispronounced!)

Then, when I was in 1st grade the school wanted to have me skip a grade but my parents wouldn't let them. They thought I would end up being "a follower" if I were younger than my classmates. Just like JJ'sMom, I was a typical "good girl" who never showed signs of boredom, frustration, or any misbehavior. My son, however, has made up for all of that... Nan

I surely assume I was gifted as a child, although the closest I would have heard was "very smart" (spoken with eyelids raised high for emphasis). �Which was emphasized far below, "she's very responsible.". Although I can't recall any kind of gifted pull out. �They did have me teach my own little group of struggling students to read one year. �That was the year I hated my teacher because she hated me. �I remember asking her, "why don't you just skip me? �You don't like me, I don't like you. �I don't need to be here.". She said because it was too much work to give the test. �Quote. �That was the only year I cared about a skip. � Apparently I knew I was entitled, but in second grade I thought mom was in charge of our house but not the school, so I didn't tell her that I asked, uh, since I tried and it didn't work. �They must have known I hated it there or they wouldn't have given me those kids to teach. �They didn't do that any other year.

I almost replied with a full auto-biography. �Here's the cliff notes. �"And he made me into a mother. �I sure hope I'm a gifted parent. �I'm sure I have gifted kids. �It would sure help me raise them if I still have access to that gifted agility to adapt quickly."
Yep. �This is the short version of my post.
The funny version is,
I used to have a photographic memory, but I never learned to focus it. �I still have a few faded photographs left but the camera's broke. �Looking at a repair manuel now.

Growing up was a different world from what my DD is from (for me anyway) and you didn't hear the word gifted. Smart, bright, intelligent, etc. these were the words to describe the gifted population. When I had my DD I never really understood what we were experiencing. My GM was very clear on her opinion of DD's abilities and being a retired elementary school teacher she knew what she was talking about but never did she mention gifted. She did make a point to stress that DD was smarter than her and 'even' smarter than me. Okay ... news to me. I never understood that I was 'gifted'. It has been through evaluating DD that I have also been able to analyze my past. Things started to click. Yes, I'm gifted and yes DD is a higher LOG than myself.

Grandfather Paternal side tested iq of 140
Grandmother Maternal side I would guess at 140+
Hubby not tested but I'm guessing 135-140
I'm tested twice and met entry criteria to an elementary school program and then later to a highschool pogram but don't know result ?135ish
Both our girls are tested at 138

we are a MG family

My 3 years younger brother was 'gifted' - taught himself to read at age 3, and was playing Monopoly and being the banker not much later. I was the 'dreamy, nothing-special' kind of smart. We both learned to read at the same time, and I thought I was smart because I could beat him at card games, sometimes. I'm sure this is why I always insist that you'all test those daughters no matter how content they look.

There was no gifted program when I went through school, but when my brother hit middle school age, one was started, and he tested in. I remember reading a booklet that was given to my parents about 'what is gifted' and it helped me understand myself.

Smiles,
Grinity

I remember hearing above average a lot growing up. There wasn't a formal gifted program in my school growing up so I was never tested. I was in a reading class all by myself in K because I could read better than the rest of the class.

My husband was tested and he's very gifted. He went through a gifted program at his school growing up.

DD though might surpass both of us.

I remember clearly picking up the newspaper and telling my mom that I wanted to go to the Smurf's Ice Show ... there was a picture of Smurfette skating toward the camera. Apparently I was about 18 months old when that happened and she was so shocked that she had me read the whole article to make sure.

Since I've had my son, my mom has mentioned a lot of other things that I was never aware of -- talking in sentences at 6 months, cruising at 4 months, etc.

My mom had a tested IQ of 165 when she was 12 (about 50 years ago - so I don't know what type of test it was). I was never tested. I was one of the complacent girls. Even the Asperger's didn't become apparent until I was in my late 20s (beyond just being very socially awkward).

I and my son both did/do some advanced things early, but differently. I was a quite late talker, but then sprung into advanced reading soon after (I went from my first book I taught myself to read, "Little Bear" by Maurice Sendak, to reading "Gulliver's Travels" within months).

My son was very verbal early on and learned to read early, but his reading has sort of plateaued as he has achieved the ability to read what he wants-- which is mostly comic books these days-- and has turned to other interests. Harry Potter is about as far as he can go reading-wise without risking a lot of frustration, and he doesn't seem to be the type to rush to college-age textbooks so far, though he is interested a lot in science and how things work in general.

I had good mechanical problem-solving skills as a kid, but my son is more advanced there. He also has more advanced general problem-solving skills, which are for instance displayed when we play games. He can beat adults (including me and my quite smart wife) at a lot of games we play. He's a demon at Risk-- very hard to beat unless we gang up to stave off disaster. He plays a credible game of chess after little instruction, whereas I know it took me much to pick up that game.

The differences I see in us are interesting. I think that a lot of them are due to environment-- for instance I didn't play nearly as many different types of games, or as often, when I was a kid. I think he would beat the five-year-old me handily in a number of areas, though I was probably more single-minded than him in my focus on a few areas, and probably less easy to distract in general.

My second son is 14 months old and verbally delayed, like me. He has shown some early puzzle-solving abilities that roughly align with some things I learned from my mother about myself. Whether he will be gifted within one definition or another remains to be seen. We were quite worried until I remembered my own delay, and until the doctor told us that second children with hyper-verbal older siblings are more likely to show verbal delays. He's quite physical and very, very determined, again like I was.

Since my dds are adopted, we often wonder if their biological parents would have done great things in the world given an opportunity. Both sets of parents are uneducated.

Nature plus Nurture is a wonderful combination!

[putting my hand up]

This is something I have talked about before. I was considered good at school, but not one person considered that that had any impact on anything else. So my social isolation because I had nothing in common with the other children, or the trouble I unwittingly caused by saying things I knew were true that others didn't want to deal with or the fights I got into over injustices, these had nothing to do with my brain, so they were personality flaws. I recall getting an award (for citizenship) in which the introduction included that I was nonconformist. That became fodder for fights later with my mother screaming she would make me conform I recently found out my school wanted to skip me ahead but my parents wouldn't let it.

That sounds really negative towards them, and I suppose that is a stage I am still going through - the being angry at someone else rather than blaming myself, although I am completely aware that they were absolutely doing the best they could and the conventional wisdom they were receiving was really no help for a child like me!

The fact that all this happened is really a strong motivator to do differently with my own children. Now if I could only figure out 'differently how?'

Wow. Your feelings in that post really resonate with me.

I attended grade school beginning in 1966. I was already reading. I had some wonderful teachers that encouraged me at a time where girls should not be smarter than boys. Gifted did not exist yet - but weird did.

In junior high, ability grouping ended and I learned little during this time. This was a very difficult time for me. My father was dying and I got very little sleep. I remember being too tired to think.

My high school would be considered low performing today, but we did have honors classes. My high school years were turbulent also - my father died and my mother abandoned us. I finished high school, but spent quite a bit of time finding places for my sister and I to stay.

I totally understand the social justice. During high school, I argued to include our black athletes in our homecoming activities. With my friends, we conquered this. Yes, that is hard to believe this was happening in 1975.

I was not prepared for college and had to spend more time catching up to students from other places. I enjoyed learning and loved this part of college. I was asked to major in computer science - application programming (now called CIS). This was a new major and I was guaranteed a job. At this time, the first computer systems were being built and that was really interesting. There were no prototypes and we invented them.

Now, I am in heart failure. My meds and other issues cause me to "forget" often. I work in a tutoring lab at a college and love the people I work with. I have been an instructor, but am only teaching one basic CIS course next semester.

Sometimes, my memory is clear, but often I cannot recall facts or other processes. I know when I should know something, but I can't recall it. This is difficult for me because I have always loved intellectual pursuits and feel like a person with a low IQ. However, all my fairness and sensitivity issues are going full force. I just don't have the energy or mental capacity to do anything about it.

Yes, probably. Two of my grandparents most definitely were, my grandfather is extremely intelligent as far as I am aware. He's a physicist and an inventor of sorts but he's not very nice so we are estranged so I can't ask him about it
I recall sitting a test in grade four with the rest of my class and when the results came back there was a hushed discussion of my marks amongst the teachers and my mother. One of the teacher's own children let me in on the fact that my result was very very high but that I wasn't supposed to know about it. I was back home last week and was going through some old papers of mine in my mother's cupboard and found a test where I scored 80.5 out of 80. The same test had been given to the whole 4/5/6 class and the younger grades were given a handicap score of a few points which is how I managed the ridiculous score. I find it really upsetting to know that the teachers knew I was needing more, I was clearly advanced, and they did nothing! I was so incredibly bored in primary school! I'd sit in silence listening to the teacher desperate to scream in frustration. Unfortunately I was very much a people pleaser and I never once complained. I worked for high grades (and, by extension, approval,) and never for the joy of learning (until I taught myself to play the clarinet as a young teenager, finally something that challenged me!)Now I am one of those adults who never really learned to work for anything and I've not been particularly successful at university. I think only now at 30 do I have the work ethic to be really successful (and by that I mean work to my potential), and I shall soon see as I start a law degree in March...
Geomamma I definitely hear you on the "how" to do it differently!

My brother and I were both gifted. My Dad has been described as a genius in engineering but clueless socially (aspie?). I don't know about my mom, she is a very different sort of person, very intelligent, but daily life tasks seem to overwhelm her. She hated school as a child. My mom wouldn't let my brother and I be pulled out for the special program that our school had just begun for gifted students because she said she thought it was elitist and didn't want us thinking we were somehow better than others.

My brother couldn't tolerate school and actually walked out of class and all the way home a couple times. My mom said at some point I just started putting zeros for all of the answers in the math assignments that were well below my ability level (I don't remember this, but she said she thought it was clever because if you didn't do the work, you couldn't have recess and I was not willing to put effort into non-challenging work so I found a way around it to where I still got to have recess).

We tried 3 or 4 "free" or "democratic" schools in California before finally being sent to a boarding school in England where attending lessons was optional and children and adults were treated as equals. I didn't set foot in a classroom between the ages of 9 and 12 but by the time I did decide to go, everyone else in those classes wanted to be there and wanted to learn so the pace flew very quickly. We never had mandatory homework assignments and I never did more than review the textbooks before exams. I loved every moment of it and although I didn't have to learn organizational and time management skills until I started college, they came to me when I needed them. I was able to skip high school upon returning to the states and I now have a masters degree and have been told I have an amazing work ethic by every employer I've had, so I guess those organizational traits don't necessarily have to be hammered in so early on in order to develop. I always sort of wondered what heights I might have reached if I had gone through the gifted program and had been pushed, but I had a very happy childhood and I wouldn't trade that for anything.

Both of my DD's are gifted: my oldest is adopted and her biological parents never went past high school (I don't think that was due to lack of intelligence though), she just graduated college at the age of 20 and is starting grad school this spring (in addition to working 2 jobs and volunteering as a big sister -yes I'm very proud!!!), my youngest tested even higher than her big sister but didn't get the people-pleasing/hoop-jumping gene that big sis had and she has hated school. In hind sight, I wish I would have sent her to Summerhill (my boarding school).

My youngest and her difficulties with school led me to this fabulous forum, I just wish I had known more about the problems of highly gifted children in crappy schools. I wish I had been able to take more time off work to advocate for her more in school or at least been able to move back to a better district. Oh, well, I am trying to make up for it now, better late than never.

Ellipses, i was born in '78. That personal info you wrote is why this Board just says gifted issues. The whole family has issues �^� .That's a smiley face standing on it's head. I was browsing Amazon reviews about Ram Dass book Remember Be Here Now. Someone complained rightfully that the readership was old hippys. I know many; they are in their 70's now. His original book, Be Here Now was for them in their thirty's. That was great and right on for that group at that age. The complaint was that Remember Be Here Now was just a rememberance of things learned in Be Here Now and the poster was hoping for an evolution from such an insightful man to help put perspective on the 70 year old's stage of life. So, ellipses, you be many of our next evolution. Stick with us and let us talk you through this because it will help us when it's our turn. Thanks for sharing. And HelloBaby, thanks for asking.
Ellipses, I forgot by now if you participated in the flylady forum. But it's not the time to turn back time. Maybe you can expand your potential from here. Flylady will help you make before bed and wake up habits. I haven't looked into situational awareness because I'm working on family self discipline habits, my kid's are young. Maybe situational awareness training can help you divide your focus between multiple situations simultaneously which will multiply your working memory capacity. And don't give up. A 15 yr old boy won the young scholars award for successfully turning skin cells into stem cells in mice. I could be wrong about who won and what the award was, but the story about what happened is right. They might be able to grow you a new heart with your very own individual DNA here within your lifetime. Hold on a minute. That was insensitive of me to point out. I don't do well offering comforting words but I'm just good at offering friendship during your time of need. I might not be what you want, but I'll be here to talk if you want to. It's too late to eat right and exercise. Not that you didn't. I can't believe my friends still want to talk to me when they have illness and injury and heartache because this is really how I talk, but they do. (scratches head). I'm not good at it, but I guess it's just because I'm willing to try/i guess. At least there's many conversations. Links. And book recommendations here to keep the ol' brain fired up in our spare time.

Apparently I was good with puzzles and had good language skills when I was very young. But life got very busy for the parents and a younger sibling arrived. I've always learned things very fast. My younger sibling was recognized as "gifted" in math. I was not recognized.

Now that half my life is over, and that I have my own child, I understand more who I am.

But with my child now, everything is with a new perspective. The person I could have / might have been. Oh well. I will start anew.

I've learned some techniques to manage my intensities and intend to help my child ... but even then, not that many people understand. I fear for my own child's future intensities.

There is time now to do all the things I love, even if we have to eat toast every day, it is worth it, to spend some time/money to enjoy something creative and wonderful. Just take your kid with you, right?

There are many ways to be gifted, of course, but there are also different approaches to learning. You and your son can both be gifted yet display characteristics that vary from one another if your learning preferences aren't the same.

There's a list of traits that you can take a look at that may help explain your uniqueness. Maybe you'll be able to tell if you're Auditory-Sequential or Visual-Spatial.

Just came in needing a think-fix, and so here's my story

I don't know. I was ID'd as gifted.

I DO know that DS's dad is a gifted parent. A PG one, to be precise. That DS's close relatives are... well... suffice it to say that their recent set of presents reveal a certain assumption that reading will happen imanently (DS is 1 3/4 years old). That's on both sides, even though I'm an only child and I did not read early -- and there's no communication between the two families. (I read late... but after a couple of months in remedial reading classes, was dismissed and given an adult-equivalent library card). DS was offered to play what I had assumed was an extreemely prized antique instrument at one relative's place, and I discovered (being shocked by the offer) that, oh, no, he BUILT the darned thing. Just felt like it, so he did.

I'm sure my mother and father were both gifted. My father was also LD, like me. So, I guess if I'm not smart, I'm the only one in living memory on either family tree.

DH thinks I am. And he's pretty smart, so he should know, right? Maybe. I really don't know. This moment, right now, I'm pretty convinced I'm not at all. But I certainly like to think. Is that related? Of course? Maybe? Nah, not at all?

I don't know if DS is gifted, either.

Maybe he's LD, though. We've even got a diagnosis. Uh. Kinda. At least he's already confusing diagnosticians, anyway.

I know I'm needing some help with this parenting thing that I ain't gettin' in the park down the street. I don't know if that's becasue of who I am or because of who DS is. I know the stuff said on here rings true, both about me, and about DS. I recently realized that it's a little odd that I remember trying to teach myself to read in secret becasue I though I'd get in trouble if my parents found out.

I know that I've got a lot of baggage I really really really need to work out NOT on DS. So if I'm not a gifted parent, I guess I'm a reasonable facsimilie thereof.

I know that I really, really, Really wish I knew more about myself and my history, and that I have no way to find out. I half want to go and get an IQ test done, just to see. Becuase I feel like I just don't understand myself well enough without knowing more about THIS.

And I know that I wish, intensely wish, that I didn't care. But I do care. It's very... strenuous.

-Mich.

I've known I was gifted since I was 11. We moved to a new school district, and I was tested, identified, skipped 7th grade and was placed in a school for the gifted.

Before that, though, I really had no idea. In fact, I thought I was stupid because I was quite socially inept and couldn't figure out how to relate to other kids. They teased me and called me stupid, so I believed them.

The new school changed my life, and even though I only went there for three years (we moved again,) I had the sense that there were other people like me in the world, and that I did belong somewhere.

Reading other people's posts here makes me glad that I do know my IQ and that it's commensurate with my other test scores and academic achievements. So I don't have any doubts about myself as a gifted person. Still, figuring out how to be myself and live my life is a work in progress!

I've really enjoyed reading these posts. I never knew about giftedness - other than the tv version of a child prodigy - until I had dd. I knew my dad was smartish, but kind of assumed he was normal. My family only really associated with educated people and I hated the educational aspect of school, so I figured I was at best, pretty dumb.

However, when dd was born and I started reading about giftedness I discovered all these descriptions of ME! It was a revelation. I can't spell well and never did particularly well at school, but I can confidently say I never tried - for me giving something a go was reading what ever scanty notes I took in class the night before an exam, that was literally the most effort I ever went to - and when I did put that effort in, I got As. I got a good pass in my final year of school, but goodness knows what I could have achieved! But people always openly called me an old soul and 'wise', but I always just felt weird.

I've mentioned elsewhere on this forum that I had a somewhat unsupported childhood and I sometimes wonder whether my brain power got channeled in to different skills - reading and understanding situations and people, for example, rather than my times tables. I certainly don't feel confident that I would do outstandingly well on an iq test.

When dd was tested, I shared the scores with some members of my family and it was revealed that all the members of my dad's family are pg. In hindsight I think 'of course', but I really only ever viewed them as normal. It was also revealed that I read early and was ahead in maths early on. I don't remember either of these things. I've always been better with abstract, global ideas rather than things like maths facts and I think because I struggled with those and spelling - the foundation skills from so early in school - I always assumed I was dumb. Even getting straight high distinctions at university (again, with little effort), didn't convince me I was capable.

But what I have learnt about giftedness has been such a relief! I finally feel in charge of my brain - though, and this might sound odd, I am now having to relearn how to use it! I am not brilliant at everything, but I am capable of anything I actually want to do. But it is pretty isolating. I suspect I'd already have a different view of the world to most if I had had a 'normal' - whatever that is - upbringing, but because of the experiences I have had, I have a different view of the world again. It means that even among other gifted people I feel pretty weird (hence the username!)

I was never identified as gifted. My father's side of the family is all PG - and in fact I can relate to much of your story Giftodd. Reading about giftedness in relation to my daughter certainly cleared up a lot issues for me (and presented a whole lot of new ones!)

This is so true for me.

Isn't that true?

Michaela,
It is very possible that you are gifted, and perhaps in some way not gifted at the same time. I don't know if you've heard about being 'twice exceptional' (being gifted and also having a learning disability) or not, but I noticed there's a thread about that here in this forum. It might help if you haven't seen it yet.

As an adult, I've found that it's much harder to be identified as gifted, mostly because the majority of the ways giftedness is screened for are predominantly done in a school setting. You can have an IQ test done, but to be honest, in the end it might not tell you that you're gifted anyway. Not because your IQ isn't high enough, but because there are many factors that define giftedness that won't show up in that test.

By the way, if you're gifted, you cannot be 'ungifted'. You might not be using what you have, but you don't really lose it, so if you were identified as gifted before then that means that you still are, even though you might have 'gotten out of practice'.

Here's a suggestion that might help. I have a website geared for gifted adults. I've found that many people who have come there have recognized themselves in the posts and as such have realized that they truly are gifted, even though they didn't have a recent specific test to prove it. Try taking a look around there and see what you find out. It may bring you, and your family, the relief you're looking for. It's called Gifted for Life and you can find it at http://giftedforlife.com.

I'd be interested to know how it goes if you'd like to share later. Best of luck!

Even if you weren't officially identified as gifted that doesn't mean that you aren't. Even with IQ tests people perform differently on them at different times, so ideally you would have to have had a series of IQ tests on various occasions to have a better idea if you qualify as gifted in terms of IQ.

The bigger part of being gifted, and the part that isn't easily measured, is the internal part - the intensity, the sensitivity, the high level of insight etc. Those things are much harder to measure, but certainly define a gifted individual.

If you look beyond the standard IQ measurement, would you consider yourself gifted? You may be the only one who really knows, depending on how much of your inner world you have shown the outer one. Any thoughts?

I don't think I am a gifted person. I've always had an easy time in school with the exception of math. I'm anti-gifted in math. I do believe my husband is some sort of gifted though. He just thinks really fast and is always fixing things and problem solving. Must be where my son gets it from

GeoMamma,

Your school career sounds just like mine! As does your approach to wanting it to be better for your DS
K x

I completely missed this fabulously interesting thread over the holidays!

Part of the reason I went looking for answers and found this board six months ago was this question - was DS more than what DH and I were and does he need more. No IQ data for us. I read at 4 was always in gifted programs, off the charts verbal but struggled in math - turns out I was dyslexic and used my giftedness to compensate - wasn't revealed until matrices in college math - rows and rows of numbers was an awful awakening to my disability - discovered by my TA!

I always thought I was smart - and reveled in being the smart rather than the pretty popular one. Once DS started revealing his skills and gifts, I started to question what I had been at 4, what did my parents do, what level was I etc. As we tested and began the hunt for appropriate schools I asked my mom whether she thought he was "more" than my brother and I. And she said absolutely. Which was surprising because smart is what our family was "supposed" to be, so this was usual acknowledgement of his difference. She said I read picture books - he is reading encyclopedias - I wasn't doing chapter books till later. Of course I am also thinking she didn't offer them to me either - but I think the voraciousness of gathering information and processing is different - I devoured books but not knowledge. I did not make connections the way DS does. I wasn't making a sticker collage of my own universe with a ringed planet tilted on its side like Uranus at 4.5 (if ever). In retrospect I would say I was somewhere between a level 2-3 - optimally gifted with the LD factored in - perhaps not if it had been dealt with - but I think DS is a pretty solid 4 most of the time although does have some level 5 stuff.

I think one of the reasons I am so obsessive and worried about kindergarten is the feeling that I didn't get what I needed - I was so bored in school - and knew it from an early age - I was always finished first. DH doesn't have those same memories but everything came super easy for him - both of us had periods where we suddenly had to work much much harder - me in my gifted high school and him for college.

I think this thread is like therapy!

DeHe

I'm not surprised, Katebee.



Yes, me too!

Actually this recently came up again for me personally. Another issue really bought up some really uncomfortable reminders for me. It is difficult in this kind of format to explain, but in recent discussions regarding my choices regarding my children's education, some things came up that I hadn't been aware of. I find I am carrying a lot more anger about it than I had really thought about. And I realised how much of an impact this was having on me. I'm still trying to work out what to do about it.

DH and I are both 2E. He tested at 167 on the SB-LM and I tested 173, way back when nobody questioned the norms because they were current. DH is dyslexic,and was not identified as such until he was in the military,and I am dysgraphic, also not identified until I was out of school. Our experiences in school with boredom and frustration, partly from failure to provide appropriate curriculum, and partly from failure to accommodate undiagnosed disability, certainly influenced our willingness (or lack thereof) to go along with the public school's ideas about what an appropriate education would look like for our son, who is also 2E (visual and motor impairments, possibly autism spectrum - most recent eval says Asperger's). We homeschool in large part to protect him from the sheer hell that we both experienced.

I certainly won't claim that being gifted makes us understand my son - he is a unique individual who experiences the world in his own way - but it has given us perspective that someone who hasn't lived in a gifted brain doesn't have, and allowed us to share that perspective with him when he is perplexed by the fact that most of the rest of the world doesn't see things his way, and it has given him teachers who can keep up with him, for the most part, which I don't think he would have had in our local schools.

I am probably going to be the odd one out here. As a child I was socially out of it, picked on constantly. Also was very depressed and would not do homework or study. Homelife was disfunctional. My mother had mentioned to me later that she had tryed to get me into Special Education. I did enough to get through school without ever being held back, and graduated high school with a 0.9 GPA (a feat that I havn't and hopefully will not ever hear broken). College was never presented as an option to me, so I never thought of pursuing it.

After the military I had the funds with the GI bill to get an education. My girls provided me with the motivation and my dh became my rock I needed to get up my self esteem. It wasn't until I started pulling all A's, and invited to join the Honor's Society that I thought there may be brains in there lol. Now I have my Associates in Nursing and would love to go back to school to go further. I would like at least a Masters Degree.

Now its my passion to make sure that my kids embrase their quirkyness, and to know that college is expected as are good grades. Life is good!

It doesn't sound odd to me Adrienne. I think way too many gifted children grow up thinking they are not.

Thanks GeoMamma, I'm slowly finding that out. But also wishing that I could have known some of this while I was growing up. But then I wouldn't be the person I am today.

It was interesting, I was finding out (officially from teachers) about DD10 being gifted at 2.5 years while I was finding out about my own ability in college.

Aculady, you must be my lost twin, LOL. Very similar reasons for homeschooling and very similar IQ on the SB-LM. Though I believe I understand dd so much better because I am gifted and (still) can keep up with her. Dh and I and get the brilliance in the way she thinks--skipping lots of steps in between and making higher level connections--because our brains work the same way.

Heee.

DH is HG, I am HG/EG (been tested several times), and my father was PG.

Our DD has never been evaluated; partly that has been deliberate on our part. We want her to be more than her IQ score, as long as she is adequately served without the number-- but I say that knowing that it would be VERY high-- high enough to have a definite impact on how she is treated. Her school was willing to accelerate her a full four grades without it, though... so no problems on that front. We wouldn't be getting anything better with a full eval. I feel very comfortable saying that she is EG/PG based on what her school's GT team has said, and based on her cognitive development as a whole. She has behaviors that you just don't see in G/MG/HG people.

I was reading at ~3-4 yo, talking well before a year, etc. but my DD's abilities have even made me pretty astonished by how fast she learns, how well she remembers, etc. She's much more like my father's development. His USN records indicate an IQ over 175 in the 1950's, though they don't mention the tool used.

My (Our?) major insights into my daughter are not based on shared giftedness per se. Mostly they are based on shared temperment and sensory sensitivities on my part, and on shared learning style in DH's case. He is a strongly auditory learner, I'm strongly a strongly visual one; he remembers what he HEARS, I remember what I write, and to a lesser extent, read/see. DD is a hybrid-- she listens, reads/watches, and remembers what she SAYS, and to a lesser extent what she hears and reads/sees. She's a totally didactic learner who talks and reads her way through every school day. Lucky me.... auditory sensitivity here. LOL!

My DH and I were both incredibly fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time for authentic GT education in public schools during the 1970's.

Astounding. Very cool!

Learning about my DD8's 'giftedness' has been an eye opening experience for me, as well. I had no concept what gifted meant or what it was. Where we live, there are no gifted programs and no one was singled out in school or advanced or separated (at least to my knowledge). My parents say that I learned things at appropriate times but I picked things up much faster than other children. I had staight A's without doing any work. But I don't ever remember being bored in school, so who knows what that says? Maybe I was/am MG? I do have vivid memories of feeling different. And I know that I just see and feel things differently than others. I still love to learn and after 12 years of university and three degrees I have finally tired my brain out enough to want a rest.

It wasn't until we found out about DD that I began to wonder about myself. Knowing would not have changed anything, but it would have explained why I felt different. DD is so articulate and excels at putting her feelings into words. I can understand her feelings 100%. Funny, but it is like I have finally found my 'kindred spirit'. She is the first person that I feel understands how I see things and why little things bother me so deeply. Things that I gave up talking about years ago. On her side, I think she appreciates having a mother who 'gets' her (those are her words). If nothing else, that is worth everything to me. I hope I can be there for her and offer the right kind of support. I can't even begin to compare what I was to what she is but I hope that having a good support will help make her navigation through this world just a little bit easier.

I was IDed as gifted at age 6 through testing. I've asked my parents about the score but they have no clue anymore (and knowing them probably promptly forgot it after they heard the number). I was always the youngest in my class and tended to get picked on even within the gifted program by two girls who were red-shirted gifted (basically, they would tell me I wasn't smart enough to be in the program and that I had the lowest score to get in). I really can't say if that's true but later testing doesn't support that. For instance, I took the ACT in middle school and it would've been above the Davidson cut-off. My parents also have a few stories about me doing a shape shorter at 9 months, and I know I went into preschool (age 2-4) and announced I could read but my parents don't remember how old I was.

Because of that early experience with the girls and due to my parents always insisting that I was a hard worker, I was really convinced that what I did was not unusual but that I worked harder than anyone else. My mom talked about skipping me every now and then but never followed through. They tried getting an algebra tutor for me in elementary school but the tutor rarely showed up. It seemed like my younger years were filled with good intentions that were never followed through on. Once I got into high school and I could pick my own classes things changed dramatically. I took a lot of AP classes, independent studies, sports etc. My day was packed but even with that I was still bored. You think it would've clued me in that maybe those girls were just teasing me when I was younger but it still bothered me even then. College was very similar. I made my own path, convinced professors to let me skip classes/prerequisites, I studied abroad... a lot, I also made some more independent study classes when the college different offer what I wanted.

For me grad schools was much more of a challenge mostly because I no longer had the motivation of grades/praise. Instead I needed to work for the sake of working and I still struggle with that. Sometimes I wonder if I picked the right career path. I like it but I picked it because the subject was the most challenging to me, not necessarily the most enjoyable.

Now after having DD I've reevaluated a lot what I've been through in life. I realize a lot of my frustrations/shyness/difficulty finding friends in elementary school was simply due to the lack of peers. It wasn't that I magically improved the second I got to high school but that's when ability grouping really took over and I had friends that shared my same interests that didn't think I was a freak of nature. I realize that not everything I got from life was due to hard work but somethings DID come naturally for me and were easy because of that. It's a strange realization because it makes you feel less proud about your accomplishments, in a way.

I've also come to the conclusion that I really don't want to send DD to a traditional school. I want her to be able to follow her own interests and not have to do something challenge just for the sack of challenge. I also don't like the idea of a grade based system that distracts from the actual learning.

DH is also gifted although he was never formally IDed but there's just no way this man isn't gifted. He's much more focued than me, though. I'm more well-rounded but don't have one thing that I excell at (I'm definitely better at math/science but still have strengths in writing, languages etc just NOT spelling!). However, he's 100% focused on about 2-3 areas of interest and could careless about anything else. Sometimes he'll be interested in something new for a bit and dabble in it but it just can't sustain his interest. He had absolutely no accommodations whatsoever and basically almost failed out of HS because he never showed up. However, after getting to college/grad school he really found his niche and his life changed dramatically.

Ok, sorry for the novel.

ETA: I really can't comment at this point if DD's at a higher level of giftedness compared to DH and myself. Somethings she's done ahead of us some behind. However, my parents rarely paid attention to milestones and both DH and I were raised very differently than DD was so I'm not sure how much that affects things (for instance, we did baby signing with her and while DH and I weren't particularly super early talkers DD talked sooner than both of us and was much more verbal in general than the two of us and she's bilingual and we were not growing up).

Just had to throw in my 2 cents. Yes now that I think about it I probably am at the very least very smart and so are my parents. I remember in elem. school that I moved from a group of 5 or 6 readers into doing my own research projects. It wasn't formal it was b/c I had read everything they had. I was also the little fat girl who loved teachers and to please. Much later I found out I was asked to go to an elite girls school on scholarship. My mom worried about me fitting in so I didn't go. By middle school i was lazy and had a major attitude still teachers loved me. I remember getting an academic award and being told by one of the others that I didn't deserve to be on the stage.
After that never lived up to potential. Slipped by b/c most of work was easy didn't have to put in much effort. I was recognized once for getting a top score on a statewide test and the shocked responses that I was cabable of doing that.
Somehow I did get thru college w/ honors and a masters as well. I remember a hs classmate telling me "a hood made good"
These experiances help me with my son but also as a teacher. background and looks don't matter, it is the nuturing and believing in success that do it.

I went to a public kindergarten & when it was time for me to go into 1st grade, my parents were asked if they would like for me to skip to 2nd as I was already reading. They declined. We moved to Costa Rica where my parents went to language school when I was in the 2nd grade & I remember going to the 3rd grade class for reading instruction. After moving 4 more times (and having some interesting experiences) I finally landed in a school that had a formal gifted program & was tested for placement. My IQ (according to my mom) was measured in the mid-140s. That was in the 8th grade; I don't know how accurate scores are at that age.
My brother's IQ has to be at least as high as mine if not higher; my dad's is about the same. All 3 of my kiddos measure between 130-135.

I had an epiphany the other day in relation to this.

I spent most of my middle high school years lost in a fantasy world I created complete with alternate life history to adulthood, culture geography in various place etc etc etc. It was very detailed and involved. Freaked the heck out of my parents, LOL! But 'coincidentally' it faded out at about the same time that I had to start studying units for my university entrance exams and I couldn't hand in assignments written during my lunchbreak anymore. Hmmm...

How could I be gifted, and yet never make that connection before (humour alert)