Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Behavioral Quirks

I am just being curious today.

What are some of your giftie’s behavioral quirks?

Stays up quite late. Whenever I say something he doesn't like, engages in theatrics ("Oh my GAWWWWWWD, Dad!"). Takes such long showers that he sometimes falls asleep on the floor of the shower, if we don't watch him. Extremely absent-minded about where he's put things, including his two-year-old brother. Zeros in on words he finds silly for one reason or another, and uses/abuses them terribly for quite some time (yesterday's was "mustachio", prompting him to declaim in the voice of a foreign ringmaster, "I have grown a mustachio on my midsection", etc., as he applied tape to various sections of his body and his brother's). Likes puns and goofy jokes. Zeros in on activities for extended periods, to the point he will forget that he's hungry. Very sensitive to noise. Likes doing things for himself, but also clever at pretending that he either doesn't hear or can't fulfill requests from parents, applying logic as necessary.

It is very difficult to get my 8yo boy's attention, especially when he is reading. I don't know if our voices are just not registering with him or if he is being deliberately aloof. He is a good boy overall and is interesting to talk to when he does acknowledge your existence.

My daughter is very sensitive to noise. I have the HARDEST time taking her to the dentist!!!! after about 4 years of looking I finally found a dentist that could work on her and she (the dentist) moved....!!

Ever since my DS5 was 2, he LOVES to be "quizzed" on trivia, math, spelling, logic questions, etc....this is our routine whenever we're in the car. My DD2 was feeling left out, so she insists on questions also. I run out of questions for her though...so I resort to body part identification.

DS5 needs to synthesize knew knowledge verbally, and wants to discuss new things he's learned often past my own mastery. Mort conversations end with an Internet search. Thank goodness for smart phones.

Both my kids are also very sensitive to loud noises.

DD has a really intense need for information about everything. If you take her to the dentist (previous post made me think of this) she is not afraid, per se, but the appointment takes a long time because she asks 5 million questions about every instrument and procedure.

She used to talk to herself nonstop. If I ever lost her in the house when she was a toddler, I could just follow the sound of her voice.

DS used to regale total strangers with random ocean facts, but has stopped doing that as much. They both recited entire books and many long poems from memory in their 2s and 3s. You know! I don't think DS is doing this anymore now that he can read. DD stopped doing it too around that time, although she still has an amazing ability to memorize. She learns everybody's lines when she is in plays.

Hanni wakes up in the middle of the night out of a dead sleep (we co-sleep), and in a perfectly awake voice informs me of something or asks a question, and instantly falls back asleep. Last night it was "What does 'definitely' mean?"

DS8 - strong sense of everything needing to be fair

DS5 - the need for everyone to see him rebelling publicly before capitulating to the request asked of him

DD13 hates to not be aware of the complete context and background of any and all conversation around her.

Mostly, her snarkiness and the things that she finds absurd, I guess, which is pretty much anything and everything.

Deep impatience at being treated like a performing circus animal. Once she masters something, she may well refuse to 'demonstrate' for anyone, and it can easily (ohhhhh so easily) devolve into a total power struggle, which she DELIGHTS in.

Stubbornness... oh-my-goodness. (No idea where she gets that from...)

Sense of self and innate 'reading' of others which is downright freaky. She'll overreact in typical teen fashion to some look/remark from one of us in one moment, and then shrug off a blatant snub or slight from a friend as "yeah, but ________, so {friend} needed to feel in control over something. Reacting to it would only have escalated things, and it wasn't worth it." She started doing things like that around 3-5yo. She has no "need to win" in social settings like that, which is a downright bizarre trait among human beings.

Her interest in and compassion for human beings in a "big-picture," and "social justice" kind of way. That's not necessarily a 'giftie' quirk, but a "DD" one. This, in combination with the stubbornness and perceptiveness/self-control noted above led her to be nicknamed "Little Ghandi" by a daycare provider when she was fourteen months old. It's hardwired.

She needs print materials. The way most people need air. She has never voluntarily left the house without a book since she was about three.

Insomnia; she's had problems with it, off and on, since she was about 3? She also never slept as much as age-mates, and still doesn't. At 13, she will sleep about nine hours if we let her, but most nights only 7-8 hours is plenty.

Oh lord yes! DD is just like this. I also have to explain all the New Yorker cartoons that she doesn't get. (Some of them really don't translate well for the 8yo brain.)

A quirk I've mentioned before is her ability to see letters and numbers and then county and state shapes in sticks, leaves, toast, shadows, etc. We were playing Pictionary the other day and I literally drew the beginning of the top of the state of Idaho and she shrieked "Idaho!" When she was 2 she had most of the countries and flags of the world memorized from a poster she had on her wall. I was such a clueless first-time parent that I had no idea how unusual this was. I really should have taken a video.