Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Do some gifted children hothouse themselves?

This has been a really fascinating conversation. So many interesting things to think about.

Dad22, you sound like an awesome parent.

My kids all love starfall, and each one at a younger age. My 18 month old is currently obsessed. I will have to think about whether I should limit her time more. She's so strong willed though and I confess to taking the path of least resistance at least some of the time.

In actually fact you might argue that she IS hothousing herself. She went through 4-8 week stage of being obsessed with television, strictly her favourite shows only, and could not be interested in anything else (when we were home). I was getting quite freaked out about it and feeling like such a terrible parent that my toddler was TV obsessed. She then made a dramatic leap with her speech and lost all interest in the TV. Instead she moved on to books and starfall, I see signs that she will loose interest in starfall soon, she's not as obsessed as she was. Mercifully her interest in books continues to increase and her list of acceptable books is widening steadily. I look back at the last few months and it seems pretty clear to me that she is determinedly spending as much time as she can working on whatever it is she wants to learn at that point in time. But she absolutely WILL NOT move on to an activity that I want her to do until she's good and ready. Books being a great example, she would scream and throw them across the room if you tried to read to her only 6 weeks ago. Not ready, not interested and not having a bar of it, now it's a favourite activity.

Perhaps she'll be ready for puzzles soon, I am so ready to move on to puzsles, or lego, or block towers that she will at least let me get past 3 blocks before she knocks down...