My 3 1/2 year old remembered specific activities (i.e. attending a concert, riding in a stroller and doing a lot of walking) from 10 1/2 months ago at the fair after driving through the fair grounds and hearing family discussing that this is where the fair is held each year.

Typical recall for an intellectually average child of this age or no? It's clearly not anything special for a profoundly gifted child. I am just wondering what to expect from a Level 2 or 3 child, even.

I don't know if it's typical but my kids both do it, my eldest in particular. She's got no working memory to speak of but she's like a freaking elephant for long term memory.

Here too for the freaking elephant memory, WM isn't bad but long-term is scary good sometimes. Although then you expect them to always do it and are surprised when they don't! DS 5 can remember book plots and characters from books read 2 or 3 years ago and now can remember really intricate details from books and signs that we don't always notice. Really helpful for learning to read early, DS recognized words that showed up in different places like exit in stores and on road signs, seemed to click for him that it was a pattern to recognize!

DeHe

Yeah my DDs amazing memory is experiential or visual, but sadly was profoundly impaired when it came to learning to read.

DS' long-term memory amazes even outsiders.

I think it's pretty typical, but what do I know? I see parents post sometimes about their children remembering specific dates a year or more later at a young age, which I think is atypical (and which is far beyond my own abilities as an adult, where I have trouble remembering family anniversaries etc. ).

At about 3-5, my son could remember in perfect detail just about any situation that had happened from about age 6 months forward. However, at about 5, these memories started fading and turning into snapshots instead of stories. At 8 now, he remembers some incidents or situations but we have photos of many of them (birthday parties, festivals in town etc) so it's hard to know what is a "real" memory and what is remembering looking at the pictures.

The stuff he does really clearly remember is now mostly from ages 3+.

I remember reading that young children often have better recall of specific facts, which shifts towards reliance on pattern recognition etc. as they age.

That describes my DD8 as well - her memory for things she's seen or done amazes me, and yet she struggled with remembering how to pronounce a word that someone had just helped her with at the top of the same page.

Oh gosh. I'm still getting the feel for this particular forum, so I don't yet realize how wording is interpreted.

We don't know if our dd is gifted (at any level, although I would be absolutely shocked if it was at a higher level), but we have gotten so many comments from people who have gifted kids, that I am trying to figure out what is typical and what isn't.

So my question really was, is this typical, e.g. something a completely average child would do, or is this more on the gifted spectrum? I probably shouldn't have picked a Davidson's forum to ask this, but this was the first gifted message board I found....

I've heard that children's memories are much more detailed and vivid prior to learning to write. Once written communication begins, we tend to rely more on writing down information (vs. solely on memory) and those incredible memories fade some.

However, that being said, my DS (5.11) continues to have a remarkable memory (despite developed written communication)
-His passion is for sports and scores (major games/his favorite teams, bowl games of past, etc. (this goes for football, basketball, soccer, baseball). It blows my mind the scores from years ago that he will accurately recall.
It was actually his amazing memory that led us to have him tested. (and he ended up being on the gifted spectrum).

add us in for the elephant memory - goodness, our DS8 remembers everything it seems! Also has the amazing ability to be doing something while someone is talking around him and look completely zoned out or not be paying attention when in all reality he is listening to every single thing and can you tell you all that was talked about a week later.

That is my dd7. In fact, I started a thread about it here.

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....yone_else_have_a_child_wi.html#Post79029

She's still like that. And she remembers the exact word-for-word title of books, movies, shows, products at the store, authors names, parking space locations. It's effortless for her. I can't remember anything like that.

And amazingly,at least with DS, that zoning paying attention thing only works on conversations that are interesting or not for him, never happens when he has to do something, go somewhere or otherwise pay attention to the parent repeating his or herself for the 40000 time!!!

DeHe

I don't know if it means she has a "great" memory. If it's completely typical, then it's just normal for the age. That's why I asked. I've looked at Hoagies, and I don't find anything specific enough to answer my questions.