Hi everyone. I am new here so i will tell you a little about us and then ask my question!
We have a 3.5 year old son who we have always just thought of as special or different . . . moving to the beat of his own drummer. Our 5 year old daughter is very bright and hit milestones early etc. but there is something about our son, P, that has always seemed different. He walked at 9 months, talked in complete sentences before he was 1, rides his bike without training wheels before three, does math, reads simple words, writes, corrects grammar in his sibling and adults etc etc. We have people comment about him to us all the time, strangers as well as family, friends, teachers etc, that he is so smart, he is so advanced etc. We just really always blow it off. Smart seems normal I guess. (I was always in the gifted program in school but would really consider myself really smart, not necessarily gifted, but my husband was writing letters to his parents at age 7 explaining to them how he felt like Jesus because he was going to change the world but no one believed him :-). . . he is super, crazy smart . . .)
Anyway, the last several months have been very trying with P as he has been having crazy temper tantrums and just seems really stressed out at times. I am a therapist who specializes in working with children so I am really tuned in to feelings etc. and have done quite a bit of research to try to pinpoint what is going on with him. He does not fit into any of the "labels" out there. I had 3 people in one day ask me if I thought that maybe it was just hard for him to be him because he was so smart, but only 3?! So, I researched giftedness in children and literally started crying when I read a site detailing early signs as well as challenges associated with gifted children. It sounded exactly like him!
Anyway, I am not interested in having an official label, and certainly at 3.5 it would be hard to say if he is truly gifted anyway. What I am interested in is moderating his frustration (which I really think is attributable to the asynchrony in development as well as his level of high intensity, in terms of emotions etc.) and tantrums . . . have any of you experienced this behavior with your children? I have read that it is a common behavior in young, gifted children so I thought I would try to find your opinions/experiences.
Thank you so much for any info!
