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[quote=oneisenough]How old was your child when you suspected that might be gifted?

How old was your child when you knew for sure, and what tipped you off?

How old was your child when, and if, you had them tested?

Just some questions out of interest! Hope you are all have a good week so far! [/quote

First clues: 26 months old when he taught himself to recognize numbers 1-5 while staying at a five story hotel for 3 days and riding the elevator each day! Then shortly after that he was able to identify specific VHS tapes from the same series just by looking at the label on a black tape cartridge. He apparently was discriminating the font of the individual titles even though the rest of the label was all the same. It was a great "parlor trick" that fascinated friends and family - especially when he would play games with it and pretend to not know which was which tape. He also could recognize his favorite shows' title on the on-screen TV program guide and would tell us to stop the remote and choose a certain show!

Knew for sure: when we had him tested at 4 yrs 11 months and were told that he had already finished the kindergarten curriculum. That was the first time someone called him highly gifted.

Had him tested: 4y 11m (achievement tests); 5y 2m (ability test and out of level testing); 7y 5m (ability testing - repeated the SB5).

We knew DD13 was gifted since she was a baby. She was born alert and just had very intelligent eyes. We knew for sure when she started talking. She would give us directions in the car, count backwards from 20 etc. Her pediatrician also told us. She was tested at age 9 after we moved to FL (where we lived in NY state there was no gifted program). It turns out she's highly gifted in verbal and she's a talented dancer.

Now DS7 is a different story. We had no clue that he was especially smart. His K teacher told us and we didn't really believe it at first! His first grade teacher noticed after a month of school. So we asked the school to test him and after some "discussion" they did it. He is all around HG+. I started my research on gifted last year when he was having problems in school. We had never had those probs with daughter so it took some investigating to figure out that it was related to his giftedness.

DS5 hasn't been tested yet. But we're sure that he is gifted. I will ask that he be tested this year or next. So far he's happy and learning.

DS7: Suspected?

I knew pretty early that DS7 was GT, but I figured he was MG.

At 8 months, when he couldn't say much more than "no" and "truck," he very scientifically figured out the rules for playing with Hot Wheels cars in the house by trial-and-error: he banged one on the wall with his right hand, I said "no" and he stopped immediately; he changed hands and banged on the wall again, I said "no" and he stopped again; etc. It was very clearly *not* a case of testing limits or ignoring me; he was trying to understand precisely what I was saying "no" to. Once he figured out the rule, he NEVER broke it. NEVER! The idea that an 8-month-old could be that logical, that precise in his understanding and compliance at a time when most BABIES (since he was still really just a baby!) don't even get the concept of rules and following them made his GTness pretty obvious to me. It was the first time I thought to myself, "Huh. I don't think he's like most kids."

He has always showed remarkable persistence and patience. At around that same 8-mo. mark, he was trying to spin those Fisher Price stacking rings (the kind that look like fat plastic donuts). DH and I used to spin them to keep ourselves entertained while DS played, and he took it as a personal challenge to learn how to do it, too, apparently. He spent HOURS each day working on it, though naturally we tried to find something else for him to do, since there was no way he had the coordination to do it. (Not yet, anyway...Give him time!) It was amazing to watch his focus! Surprisingly, after a couple of weeks of practice, he figured out a way to spin the rings that actually worked better than the way that DH and I did it. DS's spins lasted longer.

That has been the hallmark of his brand of intelligence: he has an engineer's mind, so he doesn't necessarily do things faster, but he does them better and earlier than he should. He's a problem-solver for sure. His solutions tend to be brilliant in their simplicity. I can imagine his inventing something that people adore and can't imagine how they lived without, yet so cunningly simple that they all say "Now, why didn't I think of that?" It's how DS thinks.

He also learned all his letters and numbers by age 16 months (knowing many of them long before that) because of an obsessive focus on wooden letter and number puzzles. He was reading "real books" by 3.5yo. Still, I always thought he was MG. It wasn't until the testing that I realized I was off the mark on the LOG...

DS7: Tested?

He was tested (using the CogAT and the WJ-III) and IDd as GT by the public school with no effort on my part thanks to a WONDERFUL K teacher. I was just happy he was IDd; after all, I was still thinking he was MG. So I didn't even see his scores until he was in 1st grade (with a NOT wonderful teacher...) and having behavior trouble--something that was utterly unlike him! I finally saw his WJ scores and freaked out! Not MG! He looked like a candidate for DYS. Things changed all of a sudden!

We tested with the SB5, but had a bad test day thanks to not nearly enough sleep and an illness developing (and probably a bad test fit to boot). He tested as HG+ according to the expert tester, but he couldn't say where DS fell on or above that HG line. The tester recommended re-testing on the WISC, or honestly, we'd have dropped the whole thing. We really didn't want to spend the money or chase a score. It's not like us. But after getting LOTS of help and advice from this forum, we chose to retest on the WISC, and DS7 was ID'd for DYS. I'm very glad we chose to re-test, and I think I would have even if he hadn't gotten DYS-level scores. Testing gave me a much better sense of what I am dealing with.

So his first testing was at age 5y8mos (I think?), and his final testing on the WISC (with no plans for further testing) was at 6y7mos., I think.

*****

DS4 has not yet been IDd or tested. I do now suspect he is GT--more so lately, as his math interest is booming! The boy loves math! (He's adding and subtracting every chance he gets, and he's even been learning the times tables along with his big brother. Hard to miss how unusual that is, right? Even with GT denial in full swing! ) But I have no idea what LOG he is. For now, I'd guess MG, but it could be higher than that as there are some complications to his ID...

DS4 has some recently IDd "visual immaturity" issues that have possibly been masking his GTness. He just got glasses, and we're watching him closely.

I plan to ask the school to test DS4 in K next year. And with child #2, I'll ask to see the scores right away (!!!). We'll figure out what to do from there.

He doesn't present as obviously GT as his big brother. But the math thing is hard to ignore...

I'll get back to you!

How old was your child when you suspected that might be gifted?

Later than most... DS was born with an APGAR score of 0- we were told he would probably be behind for a long long time but that he'd probably catch up around school time. He was on medication that made him dizzy and drowsy until he was 5 mo old. He was either sleeping or screaming his head off to that point. He had maybe 2 words at his 1st birthday. Then he spoke in complete, clear, long sentences at 14 months. People stared at us.


How old was your child when you knew for sure, and what tipped you off?

We looked for daycare at 15 months and two places wouldn't take him. We ended up putting him in a K readiness program at 15 months... that was the big tip off- he could hold his own with 3 and 4 year olds. When she closed, we moved him to a center. He insisted on potty training himself at 2 years 4 months to "get out of the baby room and where the computers are".

How old was your child when, and if, you had them tested?
5 years, 5 months. He tested HG. We expected he'd score a little higher but it could have been ceiling issues.

How old was your child when you suspected that might be gifted?

18 months w/ #1, 12 months w #2, and 12 months w #3 (you just see the signs and believe once you've been around the block).

How old was your child when you knew for sure, and what tipped you off?

almost four w/ #1... I knew nothing of kids. Never spent much time with any before having my own... but when #1 started reading chapter books and everything pointed to kindergarten being a place to sure up your alphabet knowledge, I knew we were hosed. I just thought knowing her abcs, counting one-to-one, recognizing all colors etc at 18 months was cute.

but when #2 recited almost all the lines from mulan at 2.5 after watching twice and then started writting her intials in the driveway with chalk at the same age... well... you just start wondering were in the range of gt you might be headed.

How old was your child when, and if, you had them tested?

5.4, 4.1, and with the summer birthday I can't see why we would with #3 until 5.

If it weren't for issues with schooling... I'd be happy not to officially "know" - it seemed to add some layer of over thinking - some debate on my own choices when before I didn't second guess - added some pressure which I've become more comfortable with now.

How old was your child when you suspected that might be gifted?

We were pretty much clueless; DS 6 seemed bright but nothing different. One early clue may have been when he was 3. My wife and I were doing a slider picture puzzle on the computer, it took me wife about 20min (She�s more verbal) and it took me about 5 min (I�m more visual). DS3 played and did it in less than 30 seconds. We thought to be just luck, he never repeated it, but was able to solve in less than 5 minutes a few more times. We thought he was just good at puzzles, no big deal. It�s funny how your idea of what is average is.

How old was your child when you knew for sure, and what tipped you off?

DS6 had a speech issue, at around 4 we had the local school evaluate him on this, (We thought he would out grow it) they evaluated him and pointed out that he had a lateral lisp, and that he was hg. They suggested a private school that was a bit of a way from us. We called the school and asked if there was a closer school. They recommended the one he is attending now.

How old was your child when, and if, you had them tested?

In order to go to the private school they required testing, one requires an evaluation company to test using a wide array of testing (fine, and gross motor skills, speech, logic, etc...) The other needed a stanford-binet LM. Both done around when ds was 4.4. From that point on we investigated this new world. We where actually not teaching him about reading or math, we had a fear that if he went to school he would not have anything to learn. The psychologist that did the SB-LM, suggested that we start teaching him now, because he is teaching himself, and if he learns something wrong it would be more difficult to correct it latter. She also suggested that we push effort over product with him.

I think the reason it was hard to see at fist was the lisp, and the lack of references. Also DS6 tends to go with the flow. We also did a lot of enrichment at home while he was it Pre-K and public K. It wasn�t until he had friends in K that we could see the contrast.

Great question, it's nice to see how others discoverd their child was gifted.

How old was your child when you suspected that might be gifted?

I didn't have the word "gifted" in our vocabulary yet, but I suspected he was different when he hit milestones faster than the other kids in our early childhood classes, and I stopped talking about new milestones so I didn't make anyone feel bad. I had "What to Expect In the First Year" as a resource, and it said some kids just hit milestones earlier than others, and the others catch up eventually. I couldn't hide when DS started talking at 9 or 10 months. Since DS wasn't as physical as some kids (e.g., he didn't jump until he was 3 or 3.5), I just figured he was concentrating on thinking stuff first, and other kids would catch up, just like he would eventually catch up with physical. Silly me. DS was reading all signs at 2.5, and reading starter books soon after, and quickly progressing, without instruction.

How old was your child when you knew for sure, and what tipped you off?

So, basically, we knew he was different, but didn't think "gifted" until we read an article in the newspaper discussing gifted kids, with a list of ruf's signs of giftedness in preschoolers. I think DS had just turned 3. I then got Ruf's Losing Our Minds, and started thinking he fit into the level 3 pretty well. Then I looked at the kindy curriculum and started worrying, since DS seemed to know it all already at 3. We also started realizing, Hey, we were gifted too (even though DH and I discovered we were both in gifted programs in grade school, "giftedness" was not really discussed in our families, so we didn't think we were really different from other people. Turns out of course all our friends are gifted too.)


How old was your child when, and if, you had them tested?

DS was 4.1 when we had him tested on SB-V, to see if he would be a candidate for early kindergarten. DH was against early kindy due to his bad experience being youngest kid in class (for sports really), I was for early kindy because I was completely bored in school. I still remember sitting in the waiting room while DS was tested, thinking "maybe i'm wrong! maybe he's just a quick learner but not gifted!" We were very surprised to find he was HG+. He did not do math in his head, or act like other HG+ kids i've read/heard about. But we've since learned of all the different flavors of gifted. I cried when I got the report in the mail saying that DS would most likely not find an intellectual peer if we stayed in our smallish city for school, and that he would always need some type of acceleration. But now we try to look at the whole thing as an adventure! (Oh - the recommendation, based on our kid's personality, was don't do early kindergarten, let him play another year. That was quite a relief - one more year of not having to worry too much yet.)

How old was your child when you suspected that might be gifted?

DS5.5 was around 3 years old when I started to get that idea that he may be GT. We knew he was very verbal (sentences by a year old) but he had a gross motor delay that seemed to overshadow his verbal abilities.

I do remember one occasion in particular when DS5.5 was around 22 months old. He reminding me about the time almost 10 months prior that he had fallen off my bed and bumped his head. It was remarkable! He has always had a great memory.

How old was your child when you knew for sure, and what tipped you off?

When DS5.5 started reading without instruction at age 4. I couldn't believe how quickly he went from being a non-reader to reading anything. It happened in less than 6 months time. He also never really did phonics to learn to read. His ability to manipulate numbers was also a sure sign. He learned all about negative numbers with no instruction at the age of 4. He can figure out complex patterns and is a great at computation.


How old was your child when, and if, you had them tested?

DS5.5 was 4 years 9 months when he tested HG+ on the SB-5. He was tested on the WJ-III at age 5 years 1 month to qualify for the DYS.

I also have 2 younger children--DD4 and DS2. Both are already showing signs even though they are soooo different than their older brother. DD4 draws amazing pictures and DS2 can already assemble difficult puzzles. I don't plan to test either one until they are at least 5 or 6 and we need to have testing done.

How old was your child when you suspected that might be gifted?
DS6- I think part of me always assumed I would have smart kids, DH is smart, I'm smart, so it seemed logical. When people started commenting on DS6 when he was 6 months old, I thought they were being polite- DH and I both remember being told how smart we were as kids, it just seemed like the thing people say when they don't want to say your kid is cute, lol. Really though it was a non-issue for us, he was so intense and frustrated so easily that we figured we had bigger problems than him being smart. His preschool teachers all tried to tell us that he was really smart. We smiled and nodded, thinking that "Yeah, but what good is smart when he throws hour long tantrums because he doesn't want to have to pick up his toys?" It never occurred to us that the two went hand in hand.

DS4- I actually thought he was a bit slow because he did everything so much later than DS6. He didn't say a word until he was 2 and then he just started talking in full sentences. I realized afterward that when he started talking, he was speaking exactly like DS6 did at 2, the difference was DS6 had started practicing at 6 months, DS4 *never* practiced. I didn't even realize how much he had going on when we took him for speech evaluation at 3 (his vocabulary was amazing, but he was almost completely unintelligible). The school district starts with a global evaluation and the evaluator told me he was completing tasks they didn't expect 6 year olds to be able to understand. I smiled and nodded, thinking "oh, good, he's not slow then". At 3.5 he was completing 150+ puzzle pieces, that made me really sit up and take notice.

DD2- I'm still in the "suspect" stage with her. She is so different than the boys that it's hard for me to tell. She can use a screw driver to take things apart. When DS4 was learning the sounds the different letters make a few months ago, she was picking it up with him. She wakes me up in the middle of the night to show me new things she can do. At 15mo, when she wasn't really talking during the day even in single words, she woke me up to have a conversation with me. DH told me I dreamed it until she did the same thing the next night and woke him up talking. She woke me up at 17mo to count to 5 for me, then a few weeks later, again to count to 11. I think it's because it was the only time she could get a word in edge wise between her older brothers, lol.

How old was your child when you knew for sure, and what tipped you off?
DS6- I didn't realize just how different he was until he started Kindergarten and the curriculum seemed crazy. The school he was at was supposed to be one of the best and really advanced for a public school, but he knew how to do every single thing for the whole year and had been able to for years. But, even then really, I thought he just needed 1st grade work. When we decided to homeschool him because regular school made him so miserable, that's when I really, really got scared. I went looking for curriculum materials and realized that except for math calculation he was easily working at a 3rd grade level.

DS4- I've just in the last few months really realized just how advanced he is. It occurred to me that he keeps up with DS6, easily. He understands DS6's insanely complicated games, he makes up his own, he discusses things with DS6 and understands the explanations. He listens to my conversations with DS6 and gets what we're talking about, adds his own thoughts, just actively participating in topics that are crazy to be discussing with a 6 year old and doubly so for a 4yo to follow. But, the thing with DS4 is that he's quiet about it. If you aren't paying attention to him, you would totally miss that he's saying anything. He won't talk unless he has your undivided attention and with DS6 demanding all the attention, it's really easy to overlook DS4. It's actually the ways that he's different than DS6 that really highlight to me how advanced he is. DS6 is the kid who asks "why?", DS4 asks "why not?". DS6 will explain in great detail why something isn't possible, DS4 will tell you all the ways you could make it work. I absolutely love the dynamic between the two of them. Add in DD2 with her constant drive to try new things and her fearlessness and the 3 of them will never be bored, lol.

How old was your child when, and if, you had them tested? So far, only DS6 has been tested. He had achievement testing about 3 months ago. We're going to have the boys IQ tested soon, we're just debating on whether to do group testing through a local gifted charter school or to pay for it privately.

That is familiar.

Instead of what age did you suspect your child was gifted, I'll report instances of: "Ummmm, that was really weird."

As an infant strangers stopped, a lot, to engage her and talk to her. I heard a lot of comments about her eyes and much about how alert she was.

At six months obsessed with phone. Always seemed to get a hold of it and seemed to be trying to figure it out. By two she always had someone's phone(real- a toy would not do) and was having imaginary conversations with her "friend", actually pausing at points to laugh and say things like, Oh, I know. If you didn't know better you might have thought someone was actually on the phone.

Nine months would sit and watch an entire Disney movie without stirring and would laugh at the exact same parts every time-This from a colicky baby who spent her first six months screaming bloody murder all the time!

Okay, I'll add this one cause I think it's typical. Used to sneak over to the receiver for the stereo and turn volume all the way up. Then laugh when I turned on the T.V. and almost deafened both of us.

At 10 months she seemed to be communicating with her stuffed animals, hard to explain, you had to be there.

Shortly after and I can't remember(could be up to 14 months) the exact age because I had convinced myself I imagined it, she sight read a word from plain text, no give-away pictures.

Maybe around 15 or 18 months she was counting but not just counting. She was counting backwards and doing other little game like things, clearly playing with them.

More, but dare I bore you.......I will say these events always caused me to have a very "unreal" sensation.

DD6 seemed more "normal", thought she would be the class clown, the "athlete".

At maybe 9 weeks literally spent two days laying on her blanket grunting and turning red and eventually just flipped over from her back to her stomach, or the other way around I can't remember!

I always sang a certain lullaby to her(each girl had their own special one) and she started humming it repetetively at 8 or 9 months.

Started running at 10 months old.

Other than that, she pretty much blended. Except for when she pretended she was a dog for a few weeks at around 2.
We had company from out of town at one point. On old buddy from investment days past and family. She remained in character. That was.....awkward.

DD8 was referred by ped for gifted testing around three. Tested again at age 7.

DD6 was tested right before 5. Test scores were a little lower than sister, but psyd expert opinion, she is the same, bad test day. FWIW- 2nd DD doesn't *look* anything like big sis. Sad to say, I might not have believed it without proof. But that's only because I am an idiot.