Sorry this might be rambling, but I just need to write it out to get my mind around it.
DD is 2.5 and so of course hasn't been tested yet.
I have been told by her pediatrician, well 2 different ones actually, that she is gifted.....but sometimes I just wonder or fear I guess that maybe she isn't. What if I think she is and then one day find out shes not? It's hard I guess for me becuase she is so verbal, talkative, and different at home and when I compare her to children her age when we are in groups with them, yes she is different then them, well the child she is at home is different from the other kids. But in groups she is so reserved and quite, and couldn't those children be just the same as her but not shine in a group too. Maybe alone and at home they are all like DD?....
I mean I know her language is advanced, she has been talking in sentences since she was 15 months, at 2 she was speaking over 550 words and in up to 10 word sentences, at 2.5 2500+ words and complex sentences up to 20 words.
But I guess I wonder does language make her gifted?....yes she knows a lot more then most kids her age, but couldn't it just be that I introduce concepts to her and their parents don't? Yes she knows all shapes including quarterfoil and ellipse, but wouldn't other kids if there parents told them what they were, and same with colors, her ped kept being amazed by the list of colors she knows including fushia and periwinkle, but again, wouldn't other 2.5 year old's if their parents told them? Or would they not. What constitutes a parent sharing knowledge with their child and what constitutes gifted? She does pick up concepts very quickly, I usually have to just tell her something once for her to grasp and remember, and she learned her alphabet and the sounds the letters make within 5 days....is that what makes gifted? Is it the speed of learning?
Or is it that she can apply information she has heard in a book to different parts of life? I read to her about planets and know she plays using that knowledge, and today she sat in for a few minutes in our homeschool astronemy class for 6-7 year olds and a little boy said "pluto is the smallest planet" and DD said "pluto's not a planet anymore" Is it this ability to apply knowledge?
I guess I am just wondering how do you know? Without testing how do you not doubt yourself?..... I know it really doesn't matter, I mean she is who she is, and she is a wonderful, loving, funny child, and the only difference it really akes is in education, but it is hard not to doubt myself and wonder if she is advanced because of what I teach/show her and not because she is advanced.
Okay, sorry for the long ramble. This is just the only place I feel like anyone would know what I was talking about LOL.
