I have read many articles that have been posted on the web site and I appreciate the wealth of information that was provided. You would think that after reading endless stories on giftedness that I would have some understanding of the subject but I do not.
Where to begin? Our daughter, Brenna, is 4 years old and will be attending Kindergarten this Fall. Just after the age of 2, she learned her ABC's and could say them without a problem. Before the age of 3, we purchased the "Letter Factory" video from Leap Frog and she became fascinated with it for 2-3 days and mastered all the sounds within that time. 4 months after her 3rd Birthday, she started reading on her own. It wasn't spontaneous but we helped her along since she had an interest and was reading simple books at that time. New words were not difficult for her to master and she rarely sounds out any new words... she just knew them. Also, the word only had to be sounded out once and it became committed to memory. She also has an ability to remember birthdays. We would have fun with her, having her site a family members birthday.
At age 4, we decided to test her on the Dolch sight words because her older sister was learning them. She knew all the Kindergarten and 1st Grade list and about 90% of the 2nd and 3rd Grade list. She also could count to 100 without much difficulty (we would have fun practicing) and later could do it by 5s and 10s. We also play a game called War with the numbers up 999 and she knows how to read them.
As for her maturity, I believe she's not at the same level as her friends. It seems that every day she gets mad and frustrated about something...What 4 year old doesn't? However, it's the intensity of them. She puts all her might into them, with a grinding of her teeth. She also can be crying one second, only to start laughing 2 seconds later. We have to curb the throwing, banging, and biting before Kindergarten or we will have some issues. Focus and keeping her on task are issues. We are constantly fighting with her to do something simple like "put on your clothes."
We recently had the kindergarten screening, only to find out that she tested below average on the language section (counting to 30, Upper/lower case letters, etc...) and was above average Academically. We were not allowed in the Kindergarten screening process before and after and only now, after receiving a bar graph in the mail, we are trying to find out from the evaluator what happened.
What is your take on this? I hate labeling but do you see giftedness here? How come she can't stay focus? Is that a trait? Why did she fall below average on the Kindergarten screening test when I think she is far beyond it?
