Very interesting article.
We had no idea our HG+ daughter was gifted. We knew something was up... we thought just ADHD. Her psych-ed assessment blew us away. How could we have parented her for 7 years and not know?? In hindsight, she was premature, talked very late (3.5) and was functionally blind in one eye and vision in the other was very poor. She didn't reach milestones early. Her memory was amazing and she could do fractions at 4. Those things were freaky, but she was our first and we had no yardstick to compare her to. Her little brother is 2.5 and I am of two minds about him: either a) we are paying attention to little things and noticing his abilities more than we did with his sister, or b) he is a smart cookie. I will be shocked if he is not at least as gifted as his sister. Her ADHD hides ALOT. Classic underachiever.
Here are the parts of the article that stuck out for me:
14. Perfectionism, sensitivity and intensity are three personality traits associated with giftedness.
I remind DH of this when DS 2.5 has full-blown anxiety attacks when bugs fly near him, he gets his hair cut, someone gets upset with him, the hair dryer is turned on, the dog looks at him while he is eating, we try to get him to sit on a ride-on toy, or another child looks at his trains. He wants to know why our children can't act normally. Who else has to wrap their child in a blanket with one parent laying on top while the other does a hack job on the hair with a pair of clippers, all because no salon in the city will let him in??
18. Many cases of underachievement are linked to chronic early ear infections (9 or more in the first three years), with residual effects of auditory sequential processing deficits and attentional problems. Spelling, arithmetic, handwriting, rote memorization, attention, and motivation to do written work are all typically affected.
Our pedicatrician often jokes that we keep her in business. Both kids had chronic, non-stop ear infections.
