Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Amazed at how different they can act...

DH and I have been talking for the last few weeks .

Normal for us here....it is so hard to remember that DD is only about to be 3. She is on par with 6-7 year olds on most things, and converses like an adult on many subjects....but someties she still acts 2....it is really hard to switch gears with her as a parent.

Makes complete sense. I have a DD2 and a DS5. I relate to this mostly with DS5 as he has always been so ahead on everything that we frequently have to remind ourselves that he is just a child. We LOVE when he just does little playful things, or he is innocent about something and says something silly. Mostly because it reminds us that he is 5. For example the other day he was trying to open his medicine (while we were standing there). We explained that it was child proof, he responded "how does it know that I am a child?" Priceless. And when he throws tantrums about little things, it again reminds us that he is 5. It is hard to remember sometimes based on his interests and verbal skills...but when I see him reading books to his little sister that he used to love to read and see how it still makes him happy to read, that makes me happy to see. He is still a kid, but different then others his age. I think about how hard that must be for him a lot, to be thinking differently all the time but stuck in a smaller body.

My DD2 is quite mature, but in a different way. She is more like a year or two older in her interests, but some are age appropriate. She loves Maggie and the Ferocious beast (although she also enjoys watching cyberchase with her brother). She loves princesses and going on shopping trips etc. It is definitely interesting.

We go through the same thing here. I am accustomed to the way my DD3.9 speaks etc. so it is normal for me, but people are constantly reminding me that this isn't what most three year olds are like. She acts very silly and can seem very immature in some ways so there is a huge discrepancy between her cognitive abilities and her emotional self control, but things have improved greatly over this last year in terms of emotions. I think I sometimes expect too much of her and think "how is it you don't understand such and such"? then realize it is light years beyond what other kids are doing at this age.