Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment anecdoctal evidence

I was reading the posts for the DYS application and I would like to ask for types of anecdoctal evidence. I am not applying to DYS, as DD is only 3 but Hunter said the application is heavily considered. I know many parents just answers the questions, but it is parental observation and anecdotes are big.

I told DH we have to start keeping a log, something we have not done. But I would appreciate any ideas so that we can try and remember some of the things early on, since we knew she was smart and more verbal but we were not thinking to use this info in applications for kindergarten.

Thanks, have a good holiday weekend everyone.

Ren

Some things I have written down - don't know if they are good or not but it's things that made me go "hhhmmmm" lol. Knew sounds of all letters by 20months, spontaneously started doing simple addition at 2yrs (0+1, 1+2, 5-2, 3+2), read first book at 2yrs4mths, at 2.5 made a hexagon out of parallelogram, trapezoid and triangle and made a trapezoid as well and said (look it's a trapezoid!). At preK, teachers remarked how he was the only one to befriend a little boy on the autism spectrum and really brought him out of his shell. At 4.5 he said "if 60min are in 1hr, then 30min are in a half hour b/c 30 is half of 60). Recently at 5 he asked "if you need people to have babies, and you need babies to have people, how did people get here?", also he has now begun arguing semantics with me and twice he has been right lol.

For my older, at 4yrs old he made some really neat 3D structures out of M&D blocks that several people thought were striking. I took pictures and dated. The one that was really exceptional, i can't find a photo of.

I don't know if these things are what they are looking for but it's what I have written down.

One thing that makes me believe that DD is 'EG' rather than 'MG' (as her scores and academic achievement point now) is the fact the she started to separate fiction from reality at 2yr 2m. She told me 'you konw, real cats don't wear cloths or talk and sing'.

She as well started at the time to make remarks about 'Sint Nicolas' (Dutch version of Santa). She said that 'Sint is the time when Papa and Mama have hidden presents in the cabinet under the stairs'...

Thanks. I hope DH has better recall, as I was so sleep deprived for so long, the things that struck us are somewhat hazy. So it is good to get reminders that trigger ideas.

Ren

One that I included:

One of KG's daily routines is to keep track of what time we�re supposed to be home, and exactly how late or early we are. For example, he�ll expect his step-father home at 5:00. When he walks through the door at 4:47, KG will glance at our digital clock and say, without missing a beat, �You�re 13 minutes early!� Conversely, to a parent who is meant to be home at 5:30 but arrives at 5:56, KG will accusatorily point out, �Mama, you�re 26 minutes late.�

Here is one from my DS5 application:

I have to add another one of my favorites from our application:

Crisc - both my sons did the same thing. For my oldest, about 4yrs old, I think he figured it out from looking at a thermometer and talking about temps below zero. For my youngest son also at 4yrs old, I'm not sure how he picked it up - perhaps listening to older brother and I talk or something. Amazing isn't it?

I think my son learned about negative numbers right before he turned 5 from older kids in his acting class. The older kids would sometimes bring their homework to work on during breaks.
He could do double digit subtraction with negative numbers in his head at five and this was one of the things I included in our application to DYS. We had to submit a portfolio with WIAT scores because that was all we had and they asked us to send a writing sample in his own handwriting so we gave up on trying for a while. As a 2E child with motor dyspraxia he would have trouble with this so we decided to wait until he can take the Explore or ACT to see if he scores high enough to qualify, but that requires the ability to "color in the lines" quickly since you have to fill in the bubbles and that is something else that a lot of kids with motor dyspraxia are not so good at. I wish they had online versions of the Explore and ACT tests for 2E kids like mine.

I forget, Lori: is your DS already a DYS or not?

If not, you might consider video instead of the handwritten math to show his work. Film yourself rolling a die to create the problems to show that he didn't just memorize the list or something, and then film him figuring the answers.

I'd bet that seeing him doing the math is probably even better than having the math done in his handwriting (which always seemed a bit odd to me, since he could just as easily have copied your answers...).

Just a thought...