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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 6,145
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 6,145 |
LOL! Love that! The nutty kid! Though as my father often says about me, just because that instance doesn't show you to be crazy doesn't mean that you aren't!  
Kriston
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Joined: May 2007
Posts: 982
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Joined: May 2007
Posts: 982 |
For my son, age 10:
First started sounding out/reading words around 2. By 2 1/2 I could spell words for him and he could name the words. He also liked to spell words for me.
Read his first easy reader book at 2 1/2 and Magic Tree House books at 3 1/2.
He was able to read paragraphs from Alice in Wonderland at 4 1/2 but only with a finger underneath the words and for short periods of time before his eyes got tired but he could continue naming the words if I spelled the words out for him while he looked away. Vision therapy several years later helped with this.
Age at which he could count a group of up to 10 objects and draw a line to the corresponding digit was around 3 when we bought him a Kindergarten workbook, but he preferred doing First Grade Reader Rabbit at that age because he had some visual motor integration problems.
I don't know when he first started doing addition in his head, but I think it was before he turned four.
He could do some multiplication before he turned 5.
He could only write his name before he turned 5 and his handwriting was sloppy and he wouldn't color in the lines. He has motor dyspraxia which makes these things more difficult for him. He could spell really well but his handwriting was very slow and he couldn't write for very long before his hands got tired. For this reason and the fact that he has a May birthday, the Kindergarten teacher wanted to hold him back in a transitional first grade and we had no real choice but to homeschool.
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Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 47
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Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 47 |
The problem I see with the seng pamphlet and pretty much anything else written is that it can be interpreted so broadly as to have every child be gifted. Who's going to think their own child isn't curious? Every child is curious, just in different ways. Unless you redefine some of those terms, I think it just does a disservice.
Now a pamphlet written more like the developmental disabilities ones would be what I'd like. "Does your child seem different" Do you feel exhausted just having a conversation?
Just flimsy examples, and I don't know a bunch of gifted people like y'all do, but from looking on this board, it seems parents tend to have self doubts and struggle with parenting and wonder about their child and characteristics that aren't matching up to the parenting books. I don't know if it's a common factor, or if parents of typically developing feel the same way, but I do know that most parents in our preschool didn't agonize over kindergarten choices like I did. They chose based on price, reputation, etc. Whether their child could manage there was much lower on the list.
Milestones can be misleading too. If your child doesn't meet really early milestones in every area, you can be lulled deeper into denial. My dd isn't particularly logical or mathematical, so I was able to ignore the early reading and the flowerful language, and strong emotions, reassuring myself that she is normal. Despite the public school teachers of my older ds telling me I should do something about it. I just latched onto any evidence of normalcy (and still do).
Anyway, that's just my biased thoughts. I work in the field of developmental disabilities and see all the work that goes into reaching and supporting the parents through all means, including literature. They've put a lot of research into attracting the kids they really want to catch for their programs, addressing denial as well as overidentification. But then the pamphlets are made for programs that actually exist!
Mostly, I just wish that I had some guidance with this child of mine. Not so much academically, but I felt on my own to research and discover on the internet some of the different characteristics like intensity. It's not something you can ask professionals (teachers, doctors) about without feeling self conscious and labelled. And there's so much misinformation on the internet too and you don't know who to trust when you are just starting out researching. So many people trying to get rich by making your kid gifted. Ahh I ramble, but hopefully you can see where I'm whining from. This is my current experience. Word for word. As for milestones, anything non-physical is way advanced, anything physical? Not so much. My hulking child didn't walk until 18 months. Good times. Graham is currently 2y9m and counts to 1,000 and sight identifies bigger numbers. He can one to one count and has been able to do so for about 8 months. He's starting to add and subtract things with sums less than 10. He can pattern numbers. For example the other night, for the first time, I asked him complete the pattern 2...4...6 and off he went. I don't think he understands even and odd numbers, but he can complete patterns in puzzles, etc. Knew his letters and the sounds they made by 2y3m and read his first words by sight (cat, dog, bat,etc) at 2y5m. He's currently reading Biscuit, Mudge, Spot (what's with the early reader dogs?) and other Level 1 readers from the library. His vocabulary is very advanced and his favorite things in the world to do are to thumb through phone books (lots of numbers and words) and do his "websites" (Starfall, etc). To summarize our life with him....he's a great kid who acts like a kid, but on a daily basis he does or says something that makes my husband and I look at each other, and with a bit of panic in our eyes, laugh a bit nervously. 
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,917
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,917 |
I didn't really look closely at the Seng gifted pamphlet until after reading through your comments. Perhaps what's needed is a "Is your child highly gifted" pamphlet, because the kids who are not HG (and the parents of those kids) don't have quite the same issues.
I'd add something like "Did your child begin reading without any apparent instruction?" to traits noted by others.
Last edited by st pauli girl; 05/21/08 11:15 AM. Reason: added stuff
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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 353
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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 353 |
LOL, it is a wonderful idea, but I have to admit, I stopped writing down when DS did most of this because it frankly scared me:). My husband actually took all the What to Expect books away from me before DS was a year old because I couldn't figure out why they didn't work for our child. I figured that I was misinterpreting what the book meant by saying 1 or 2 words by X months. Nothing made sense as I started to read too much into them and got stressed out trying to make them work for our child.
I do remember at his first B'day, one of his aunts said we needed to write a list of all of his "words" so we'd remember. DH and I started it and stopped after we filled up several pages and still hadn't run out of his words and phrases. That same morning, I remember DS sorting his Cheerios into piles of equal numbers and eating the ones that didn't fit into a pile evenly. I think he did it by 2,3,4 and 5 asking for more cheerios when he needed them. My sister brought it to our attention. DH and I were so used to it we didn't think anything about it since he had always done that with goldfish and Cheerios. Was he really doing math before he was 1? I'll stick my head in the sand and say no but the interest was there.
I don't think DH and I realized how proficient a reader DS was until we took him to the Smithsonian around 4 years. He was fascinated with reading all the displays especially in the early Life and Early Sea life rooms. Hearing him sound out and understand and discuss those displays sort of opened our eyes. Somehow the fact that he was reading Magic Treehouse books at 3 didn't have the same impact since everyone on both sides of family had been early readers:)
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Joined: May 2007
Posts: 1,783
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Joined: May 2007
Posts: 1,783 |
According to my mom, I didn't say anything but Mama until I was three when I said, "Can I have a drink of water?"
My IQ would place me in the HG category. I guess what I'm saying is that not meeting particular milestones doesn't mean that the child is not HG.
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 3,299 Likes: 2
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 3,299 Likes: 2 |
Thanks for all the replies. I'll put something together soon. Elh0706, you can PM the data to me if you want and I'll include it.
I think of this as a little experiment to see if we can come up with something useful. As I said, I expect it will morph over time as everyone looks at it and thinks of ways to improve it.
Val
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 3,299 Likes: 2
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 3,299 Likes: 2 |
Hi Everyone, I've collated the developmental milestone data I received. I created four MS Excel graphs for four questions: 1. Age at reading first word 2. Age at first reading a simple chapter book 3. Age at first doing simple addition (sum </= 5) 4. Age at first deliberately writing a letter. I got the most responses to these questions. More responses would be great! BIG CAVEATS: *The data is only useful as a description of the kids included in the survey. *It isn't linked to IQ *It's self-reported *There are a small number of data points Obviously, this data isn't generalizable in any way. Although I did a few simple statistical calculations, they're only meaningful in the context of the group (and barely so at this point). More data would make them better. That said, I think this is a worthwhile project that could provide interesting information if more people participate. The current little idea could morph into something more interesting and more statistically reliable, too. In the meantime, the graphs are certainly interesting for us. They could also be useful for showing to school administrators, given that they paint a (little) picture of (a small group of) gifted kids. The approach I'm using here is a little different from what I've seen in other sources (Ruf, etc). If anyone has found something similar to this, I'd be happy to see it. I created a Google page so that everyone can view the files: Survey results #1 If anyone else would like to participate, please answer the following questions here or in a PM to me: 1. Age at which your child first read/sounded out a word.
2. Age at which your child first read a chapter book (Cam Jansen, etc).
3. Age at which your child could do simple addition (sum less than five) in his head.
4. Age at which your child first deliberately wrote a letter.
5. Age at which your child starting writing words (mispelled or not), not including his/her name.
New:
6. Age when child first wrote his/her name.If interest continues, and if my time permits, I can continue this project. Cheers, Val
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Joined: May 2007
Posts: 1,783
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Joined: May 2007
Posts: 1,783 |
Cool, Val! I like the charts.
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