Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Does your tween *act* gifted?

FWIW, I'm passing along the youtube cupcake link to my youngest dd - she and her group of very intelligent bright young girlfriends are all about cupcakes

And I hesitate to mention it... but.. has anyone here heard of "Miranda Sings"?

If you haven't, I don't quite know how to describe it, except that it drives my dh and I nuts, my teen dd and all of her friends love it, my teen ds thinks doesn't like it yet finds it hysterical that his sister likes it and it drives her parents nuts... and I run screaming from the room at just the thought of her turning it on. It's definitely on the cutting edge of breaking the old "high IQ" personality stereotypes lol!

polarbear, who loves fun skirts. Just because.

DD9 (almost 10) is the same, she tested 99.9th percentile for GAI on the WISC but if she had her way she would just watch stupid videos on YouTube all day long. I was reading about the new DYS criteria and I don't know if DD "deserves" that title even though she has the test score. She doesn't act "gifted" at all, but then she'll do something that astounds me, like whip together a 100 pc. jigsaw puzzle in 30 min without looking at the box cover, pulling 1 piece out of the box at a time rather than spreading them all face up.

DS8 comes across as more stereotypically gifted because he'll randomly start talking about something like fractals out of the blue, or 64 bit processors, or how World War I started. He is curious about a wide variety of topics, whereas DD has a few strong interests at a time, but acts bored by everything else. Maybe it's a "tween" things, or maybe it's just how it is with some kids who test as gifted.

DD10 was first placed OOD in a spec Ed school for third grade. As part of her program she was placed with the 8th graders for reading comprehension and given the opportunity to choose any topics she wanted for enrichment projects. She was so happy to actually have the opportunity she just said "I want to learn everything about everything!" and couldn't choose a topic but decided she would focus on history. Her teacher didn't know what to make of her - she knew she was sincere and had never had a kid SO enthusiastic about learning. It took most of the year for DD to acknowledge that the 8th grade group "moved painfully slowly." For 4th grade they moved her to 1-1 high school literature. We're hoping she has actual high schoolers to work with this year for the purposes of discussing the literature. She is really giving the teacher a run for her money working 1:1.

While all this was going on at school home time focused on an endless number of youtube videos all about fairies - building fairy houses, fairy traps, catching fairies, etc. Oh and dragons. She just can't understand why she can't have a dragon for a pet. (The risk of burning the house down was countered with research on ice dragons...)

So when it comes to literature and history very much a gifty. When it comes to fantasy and an imaginary world very much a little girl. Most of her friends are also gifted and it's the same with them. Sparkling brilliance in certain areas and "Really???" in others.

Ds8 too. He is watching some minecraft utube thing right now. I listen in with oneear. But he doesn't talk about it obsessively and he doesn't watch tv so i think it is cultural capital for school along with playing sports.

This is taking me back to the period when the same child was reading holocaust historical fiction and...Rainbow Fairies!

And, more recently, alternately reading Quo Vadis ("I love this book!") and obsessively playing Sims, making bead bracelets, etc.

Oh, no. The crafty stuff on YouTube is the redeeming part!

Oh, no. IHasCupquake is her username, but she's not about cupcakes. She plays Minecraft and other games. Very occasionally, she bakes cookies.

The tests which you mention were administered at a young age. If you decide to test again, the detailed subtest results may provide helpful information about any possible concerns you may have for potential learning differences or executive function issues.

Meanwhile enjoy your budding artist. She may just have a mild, mellow personality.

As far as the question of exposing her to more, this may be limited by time, money, and interests. Are there specific subjects, destinations, sports, or experiences which might be of interest to her and/or to your family, or extended family?

When considering whether school may have caused her to lose curiosity and drive, do you have reason to believe she may be underachieving? Has she discussed her school experiences with you? Does she have friends and intellectual peers in school and/or outside of school? Does she have great ideas but need adult guidance in how to use these ideas to establish goals and make a step-by-step plan to achieve them? Are there art classes, shows, and/or competitions she might enjoy participating in? Is she generally happy and healthy?

Gifted kids may not necessarily be farther along the traditional path, each may have their own path. This may both invite comparison and also make it difficult to compare/contrast with other kids the same age.

You ask if you've done something wrong as a parent, LOL, everyone has. Few, if any, lives are optimal, however kids and parents can be resilient and keep learning. For encouragement and reassurance in raising a gifted child, many find the book A Parent's Guide to Gifted Children helpful.

Sounds just like my HG+ DD10. She is perfectly happy spending the entire day multi-tasking watching you tube videos about the games she likes on her tablet while playing the games themselves on the desktop. Sometimes I worry about it until I watch her navigate her minecraft building like some kind of professional and realize she is learning valuable 21st century skills. Then at bed time she'll say something like that she wants to study philosophy because she wants to think about questions that have no answers! I think,honestly, that game life is more appealing to these kids because they have less limitations than real life, she can build much better things in minecraft than she can with her limited amount of Legos, for instance.

HG dS10. Gets bored if not constantly stimulated. Books and more books. But he is at a point where I have to help him find books. But those rubber band bracelets you make...he loves, legos he loves, instrument is a New love.

But if I would let him. Stupid Disney shows, nick shows and video games would be his steady diet until his head exploded. And you tube videoes about video gAmes. And he is definately ten years old in the whining department and bickering about nothing with his brother. If you just saw the things in this paragraph (and the crafts and legos) you would think I was crazy all worried about his schooling. But he has time to fit all of it in a 24 hour period with time left over. That is his super power. Fast processing.