Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion 6yo trying to find meaning of life

My DGS6 has gone from questions about infinity (do numbers end?) to eternity (do our souls really live forever?) to nothingness in the last three months.

Just so as not to offend, I will let you know up front that we are a strong protestant family and that is DGS's frame of reference for these questions. That said, I have always given my children the freedom to explore and ask about their spirituality and only one of them has the same beliefs my DH and I have, and that's after being Buddhist for a while.

So, I was a little slow on the uptake yesterday in putting it all together. The conversation started by his asking me why God is invisible. (Pretty typical 6yo question, right?) Then he asked me Wednesday what would happen if God had never existed. Before I could answer, he said he thinks it would have been empty and dark and nothing. Wow. Blew me away. We talked a little about what I believe, but he went skipping to the playground at the park saying to himself, there would be nothing and I wouldn't be here - he was almost singing.

Yesterday he informs me that life is about getting things wrong everyday. (He is being evaluated for anxiety and depression.) So, last night late I suddenly realized that all of the above is one conversation to him. He is already trying to find the meaning of life and his place in it at 6! I know PG kids do this, but not kids the school says are "high average" and not gifted.

We have decided to have him evaluated at the Gifted Development Center in Denver. We have a phone consult in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for the time and I am glad that I can share my amazing DGS with others who "get" kids like him.

Yes he definitely sounds like a profoundly gifted child. Even when a school means well, the fact is that these type of children are just rare enough so that over the course of a teacher's career they probably just haven't encountered such a child.

Kids like that also, as well as just learning facts and things faster, move more quickly through the different stages of thinking than most other kids and it's typically out of sync with other aspects of their chronilogical age.

If you haven't done so already, you might want to 'go over' to the SENG website http://www.sengifted.org/ for the emotional aspects of giftedness (they have some good webinars also).

Stephanie Tolan has some good articles about giftedness as well.