Had a discussion last night with my kids (22 & 17 years old) about what their earliest memories were and what they remembered from before K. It was very little that isn't supported by pictures/stories. I myself only remember very little glimpses of myself before 5. I believe my earliest memory is when I was 3. But my husband (who is profoundly gifted) remembers extremely little from childhood even through his junior high school years.

This had me wondering about gifted kids & early learning. When my DS17 was 3-4 he was largely fascinated by animals. He watched TV shows, read books and knew an incredible amount of facts about animals more than many adults know. But he seems to have forgotten a most of this detail even by the time he was 7 or 8. (He was onto other topics like mythical creatures.) It's hard to tell exactly how much he retains from those years but he even looks at me funny when I suggest he knew that level of detail.

This started me thinking of how this corresponds to average kids "readiness" for school & what's often refereed to as being developmentally ready to learn to read. My experience is that 5-6 seems to be when people start remembering more details. And how even when talking about a gifted kid, if a subject has been learned as a 3 or 4 year old if it's not maintained it can be quickly lost unless it's continued to be studied or built upon.

Take for example language, a 3 year old gets adopted from a foreign country and is never spoken to in that native language again often looses that language unless someone keeps speaking it to them. I would imagine a 3 year old who learns to read, but is kept away from books (written material) for over a certain length of time would forget how to read. Or one who learns long division, yet gets bored with math moves onto other pursuits might completely forget. They might pick it up again easily, and I'm in no way saying they shouldn't be encouraged to learn.

I know there are kids who do are savants and do have incredible memories for things average people don't. I know they are an exception to what I'm talking about.

I'm sure there must be someone out there who has researched this. I;m mostly just fascinated. Obviously kids from that age must remember some of what they learn. They must build on what they have learned, and perhaps their brain is busy 'remembering' other details of the world around them. I really know little about how memory works.

P.S. Seems the "Recent Posts" is broken as it doesn't seem to be updating for me?