Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Asking "Why" - What Was Your 3 Year Old Like?

My DD is about 4 months older than yours and her why why why why why why why stage started just about a week ago. She does it on purpose to irritate me.

Prior to that, she asked why all time time but she used it sarcastically then I realized she was mocking me since I tend to do that.

I don't know if that why stage is a language developmental milestone. It could simply that it's not in her personality to be asking why all the time. If that is the case, then lucky you.

My youngest has the most questions, and she still asks a lot of questions...annoying at times. I don't know that any of my three really ever just asked "Why?", but rather questions.

Maybe around six years old, the questions were at their height, with things like, "Can babies contract communicable diseases prior to birth?". I typically just tell the kid to Google it, but that probably doesn't work so well at age three.

And then just weird observations...such as middle kid, at 6:30am, on the way to a sports tournament - "Did you realize that if you spell out numbers from 1 to 999, there isn't an 'a' in any of them?" Not really what I was thinking about at that hour, more like "Where is my coffee?"

I wouldn't worry if your three year old doesn't ask "Why?" much - I know my eldest didn't and she is doing just fine in college.

Mine (6 and 4) don't do why much either. Ds6 will sometimes share his theories with me which are fun but sometimes he was obviously missing a critical piece of information. When I give him the missing piece he comes up with a new theory. Really they have never needed to ask pointless questions to keep the conversation going.

my Ds did not ask why ... my DD does... kids are different... I find it annoying when I don't know the answer..

My DD never really went through a "why" phase... she just quietly studied and observed and figured things out. My DS was the persistent questioner, and still continues to grill me to this day (he's 9). He's the mouth piece for both of them I think. His questioning has always been obscure and detailed in addition to being persistent, and very sort of sciencey and physics oriented... and often times ones I couldn't answer.

Anyway... yeah, DS is my questioner, but not DD. They're all different I think.

I know. I've Googled A LOT. In fact, I went as far as to create a "questions and answers" binder for notes and printouts.

When DD hammered me with a question barrage, it was, "What's that?" There's nothing like a hardware store for overstimulating a curious 2yo. I couldn't even begin to formulate one answer before she'd moved on to something else.

When she was 3, her questions weren't disproportionately "why" questions; a lot of them were information seeking. "What happens to food when you eat it?" "Tell me some more about jail." "What are these pictures showing?"

"Why" could always be expected to show up when DD was being told to do something she didn't want to (or told not to do something she did want to). "Why do I have to wear pants outside the house?" "Why do I have to hold your hand in the parking lot?" "Why can't I have more candy?"

LOL

"Tell me some more about jail."

Oh, the questions like this... I always cringed a little inside when DD would look contemplative, and then draw a deep breath while we were somewhere public.

A gifted / highly gifted child, when the gifts are early speech / early reading is nothing like an average IQ child. I experienced it myself from my early years. I heard the stories of parents and grandparents, but it hits you the most when you witness it in a very young child, such as your own. You cannot use the information that is written / orally passed down about the average IQ person. It does not apply. You have to go on-line and read about the high IQ people. If I ever am able to catch up on all of the reading available in English I will get translation dictionaries and start decoding writings in other languages. You cannot compare your child to theirs. I still remember a young classmate of mine in first grade asking, why does this student seem to know everything already? Good Luck if the teachers ever even actually hear the question let alone are able to answer it. Just breath and do the math to make you feel better. I remember when Lily Tomlin was 'Looking for signs of intelligent life' in her one person show. Say there are 8 billion people in our world. Apply the percentage you want (1% to 5%), the product is very large number, but you have to find those people. I am starting to understand why the super highly intelligent people flock to ivy league schools; it is probably in the hopes of finding the other super intelligent humans. Side note about Starbucks: Seems to have partnered with a San Francisco pastry shop, yum!

DD is older but yesterday asked me to describe all the ways a person can die, and the exact mechanism involved. For instance, if someone has their head chopped off, their brain can no longer control their heart beating. She seemed a little bit too enthusiastic about the topic and finally I asked if we can please talk about something else. I was glad it was at home, and not in public.