Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Growing up gifted

Well...Not necessarily. GT adults tend to have GT denial about themselves, too, not just about their kids. We tend to think of ourselves as more average/less GT than we are. In fact, that can be one of the reasons we don't realize just how bright our kids are: "He's like me, and I was probably MG, so he must be MG, too." But if Mom is NOT MG, but is actually HG+, then the whole train of logic is off.

I wouldn't toss out the idea that there's some genetic component of GTness just yet...

My DW intially said that she is not GT.

I questioned her closely about her education.

Turns out she skipped 1st grade. She could not recall her first grade teacher, but could recall all the others. She was the top child in her 8th grade class and won some district wide awards. She has nearly total recall of anything she hears.

I think she has some sort of deficiency when it comes to reading. She is smoking fast on excel, etc, and can usually learn and max out on a videogame in one night, but she reads 1 page every 5 minutes. She does not have total recall for what she reads, but can look at a page of numbers and pick out the discrepancies AND can tell you if something changed if she has seen that page before.

Austin, I'm the opposite of your wife, numbers vs. words. I have good visual discrepency for picures and words, not numbers. I also can max out a videogame in one night, though.



In hindsight, probably most people in my family are gifted on some level or another. The culture in my family was to downplay any talent so as not to appear "superior".

My whole family is gifted denial. My sister seems to be coming around, though.

Whether or not you are gifted doesn't really matter, though, in terms of taking care of a gifted child. Nurturing their talents is one in the same as nurturing them as a whole. It's just a part of who they are, and you love all of it!

Neato

Whether or not you are gifted doesn't really matter, though, in terms of taking care of a gifted child. Nurturing their talents is one in the same as nurturing them as a whole. It's just a part of who they are, and you love all of it!

So true! I often say that my ds has developed and nurtured his talents despite me! We had an extremely rough time until two years ago when we got our own home. Before that we moved around every six months in rented accomodation. I was actually living in a womens refuge whilst expecting him and then had to return to full time work at four months. His early life was very unsettled and I spent way too little time with him as I was working all hours.

So thats nature and nurture both discounted. I love him dearly and do my best, but I really don't know where he gets it from.

I too wish I could keep up with my ds. He goes at a hundred miles an hour and sleeps, if I am lucky for maybe six hours. He too runs rings round me and I wish I was way smarter than I am, just to keep one step ahead.

I advise others to underestimate him at their peril. Once when he was between three and four he had been very naughty. I had gone upstairs after taking some beloved lego away. Less than five minutes later the door bell rang. Its the postwoman. "Go and look in your window" she said. Sellotaped to the window was a note he had written. "Help me. My mummy has broken my heart"

Good job she knows him

He actually becomes aggressive if I can't answer his questions quickly enough or in enough depth, and he asks lots of stuff that is out of my depth. He is just not emotionally ready to deal with the answers yet, especially with death and disease.

But I tell myself that you get what you're given and I have to learn to deal with it. I cannot believe that there is so little help from the state to accomplish this.

It is so unfair to ignore a group of children with special needs to such a degree.

These issues are just as difficult if you are a gifted parent. It's just part of the package.