I sometimes spot gifted kids at work, which is in a poor, urban area. Besides chatting with parents, is there anything I can "do" for kids age 3 and up who I fear may be overlooked?

In my hometown, there's a Grant Program...Parent's As Teachers... A lady from the local school goes into homes once a month to chat with the parents and children. I was visited by this lady and it was wonderful. She'd give the kids books, toys and play games with them. This is how I found out about the free IQ testing at our city elementary school. If your school has this program, you could recommend she contact the parents of these children and then later she could suggest IQ testing to the parents.

When I encounter a child that appears to me to be gifted, I am torn, too. It depends on the situation, but I will often say something like "wow, he really expresses himself well, doesn't he?" This is often a springboard to more discussion. If the mom seems amenable to discussion I might share a little, just to open her paradigm a bit. If she seems really interested I might email a file I keep for just such occasions! Several people I have decided to approach persued the options, most do not. But, if it makes a difference to some, then it is worth it.

Susan in Reno

Susan - I'd love to see your email uploaded to this forum, perhaps under it's own topic.

It's funny how many times you can "see" a gifted child and knoe that the parent has no idea. I saw a 3 year old in a shopping cart going on and on asking very good questions to her mom. Mom was clearly irritated by the distractions and not engaging the girl with more than "mmhm" "ok" but not answering any questions. I felt for that little girl and hoped I could speak to the mom but couldn't. Next time I have an opportunity I will. And I'll let her know what a lucky mom she is and how much she is going to enjoy the adventure of raising her child.

Trinity, if you are interested in my file I am happy to send it to you. It is simply in Word format with some links.

Susan

I was talking to a good friend of mine recently. As my son is PG - we have often talked about gifted issues. Never occurred to me that she didn't realize that her son - who taught himself to read at 3 - was gifted.

Catch is - she is highly gifted herself. She never dreamed her son would be gifted though.....

Oh well...

gosh! I've been that mom in the grocery store with the tireless questioning kid! both my boys drove and DRIVE me nuts in grocery stores. I think of shopping with out the boys (and you know I ADORE my boys) as "Mommy Time"!!! chuckle.

Really it is soooooooooooo hard to concentrate on shopping while trying to field the incessant questions of brilliant little minds. I wish now I'd had the wisdom to take them shopping for specific, them oriented trips and saved the real shopping trips for solo tasks.

They still drive me batty with conversation (highly interesting and very animated) while we grocery shop.

So, don't feel badly for the little girl. feel sorry for her Mom...chuckle.!!

I have to raise my hand here too and say I, too, have been guilty of being "that mom" at the grocery store lol. My son LOVES to talk, and could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on...

I was or I should say "we were" spotted by someone like Trinity. For about a year I was a member of this persons parenting group before I found out that both my kids are gifted, and then I found out I am as well ....

Soo keep spotting them! We would have been none the wiser and I must say, today I am happier knowing why I am special.

My son was noticed by a GT teacher on a trip to the zoo with other kids from our church when he was four. She was driving the bus. Older elementary aged kids on the bus were spelling out words for my son, trying to find a word he couldn't identify and I don't think he got any of them wrong. One girl asked him if he knew what 9 X 9 was and he somehow knew the answer to that also. He loved the attention.

Most of the kids in my son's musical theater class are gifted. I think I am pretty good at spotting gifted kids too. So far, all the kids in the group that I suspected were gifted turned out to be gifted.

There was a four year old at our Vacation Bible School a few years ago that I thought might be gifted. He wasn't reading yet, but he had advanced vocabulary and asked a lot of questions. I said something to his mom about how smart he was and she just gave me a strange look. In our small town, it is better to be good at sports than smart.

Hello! We suspect our son who is about to enter kindergarten in the fall is gifted. We are concerned that the instruments used as part of his evaluation will be inappropriate. Our district does not ID gifted until third grade, and has been underidentifying gifted. He has thus far been given a PIAT and a K-BIT with oddly incongruous result. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Hi Denmark,
I'm so pleased for you. Nowadays I am finally feeling "like a grown up" and I know that I would never have this kind of peace if my son hadn't introduced me to myself!

I'm so excited. My son just completed his online application for Splash at MIT. I reccomend this experience for folks with Middle School and High School aged kids who are within a 6 hour drive of Boston Mass. So this morning at work, I asked a lady if she had any Middle Schoolers in her life, and when she said yes, I told her about it, and she said she will check it out tonight because her daughter definitly needs it, and she will talk to her daughter's school to see if they can get a bus together! ((happy tears)) Let's just say that I've been on the "other end" of this lady's Intensities in the past, and that because I have new eyes to see the effects of gifteness that aren't so pretty, I have been able to manage things fairly well, but I never directly stated where I got my special insight. So today was the first time we both acknowledged to each other that we are similar in this way. I sure hope the other few families that I 'keep an eye on' come in in the next few days so I can tell them!

here's the link to Splash: http://esp.mit.edu/learn/Splash/index.html

Smiles,
Trinity

So sad that I live so far away....

You could travel for this one! I figure the more gifted the kid, the farther the parents travel for this one. Boston is a very historical city - LOL.

One kid's mom said that they were from Florida, on their way to Thansgiving in Chicago.

Did she think I was going to swallow that one?

Smiles,
Trin