Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Big Heads?

Both my kids Ds6 (PG) Ds 4 (not tested) have always had huge heads. Hard to get shirts on and off. They are off the charts as far as height, but even so, their heads look big on them. Especially the younger one.

In a news release by Elaine Schmidt titled "International team uncovers new genes that shape brain size, intelligence" published online at the UCLA newsroom, April 15 2012:
However brain size is different than observable skull size. Early scientific attempts at studying skull size as a proxy for brain size and seeing whether that correlated with intelligence have since been debunked.

Respecting the broad diversity among human beings, caution must be used to avoid stereotyping people by their physical characteristics.

One would-be debunker has since been debunked.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/science/14skull.html?_r=2&ref=intelligence&

Typical people waste 90% of their brains. My brain is double the size of a typical one, but I waste 95% of it, so it all evens out in the end.

When my DH walked into the room our paediatrician lost all interest in my infant DD (who was ill, it was not a well visit) to say "OMG LOOK AT YOUR HEAD". Yes, he actually said that out loud, and would not let us leave without measuring my DH's head (4cm off the chart for an adult male).... He then cheerfully told us "Well, you've clearly made it to adulthood fairly functional, so no need to worry the children have some-condition-I-have-forgotten-the-name-of when we note that they have abnormally large heads."

DH is gifted, he's not PG, by a long shot. Unsurprisingly my children do all have large heads. One is HG+, one MG-ish/2E and one is likely HG. I don't think it's to do with headsize...

Dd has a small head. She is a preemie and her head has always measured in 10-25th percentile. I was worried when she was little because she looked more like a doll than a baby but the doctor assured me that abnormally big heads were more of a concern than a small head. I have no idea how gifted dd is but at this point I will be surprised if she not gifted. Glad that a small skull has not yet hindered the ability of her brain to flourish.

First kid 10% percentile head,second kid 95% percentile, third kid 40% percentile. Two older ones have been tested, FSIQ > 130. Third has not been tested, but suspect similar IQ.

I don't think there is any correlation between head size and IQ.

In the article referenced, it is simply clarified that Morton was not attempting to correlate skull size with intelligence. While Gould was mistaken about Morton's work, Lewis revealing Gould's error does not indicate that skull size correlates with intelligence.

While exploring differences among individuals may lead to interesting conversations, some would say that to anticipate greater intelligence in children with larger heads and to set higher expectations for them academically and intellectually would not be a sound practice.

Ha ha!

Thanks for all the funny comments! My kids are the bobble head type -- fairly tall and slim for height, but giant head -- but I don't think it's that noticeable when you look at them. The "good for film" comment especially struck me because I do sometimes wonder if I'm doing my kids a disservice by living where we live rather than moving to Hollywood. But every parent thinks their child is stunning...

One time at the ped, I asked "What's up with the big head?" and she shrugged and said, "Who in your family has a big head?"

I replied that I didn't know what she was talking about and only months later realized that standard-sized hats NEVER fit me. haha.