Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums 2 yrs 8 mnths reading sentences should I encourage

Skylersmommy, that's a great story. My DS4 also likes making up stories and creating books. I got blank books for him originally at a local toy store, but wound up going with stapled folded paper afterwards to save money. It's a great activity.

I think my son's first one was called "Scary Snail" or something similar-- it began with a little boy getting eaten by a monster, then there was a picture of him in the monster's tummy next to a skeleton :D, then he busted out of there and roamed the landscape before sitting next to a rock to rest. Then the rock turned around and it was a SCARY SNAIL that tried to eat him! He escaped into a tepee, where he found his mommy and daddy and sat down to eat. (At that stage he wasn't handwriting very much at all, and asked me to write the words for him. I just think kids' stories are wonderful and couldn't resist sharing.)

OP, my son began reading in his late 2s, and about then made his first attempts to write as well. He would come to me and ask me to write something, then copy it on his little erasable drawing toy. He worked pretty hard to be able to write his name at first, then there was a long hiatus until he became interested in doing more. This past year he has been at a preschool where they have very specific notions about the right strokes to use, but they don't have the four-year-olds do much writing, so he has been pretty sloppy in his attempts this year. I figure that that is something he'll learn in school anyway, so I don't correct him most of the time, unless he notices he's doing something wrong and asks.

So cute, I love hearing about stories like these

Oh just you wait until she's 12 and cute and all the bee's start buzzing around your honey! If you are worried about her socializing with older kids now, you have many sleepless nights ahead of you I am afraid.

After reading the above posts I asked my dd to tell me a story ans this is how it goes.

Once upon a time me and my friends (names her classmates) went to a forest. We saw a big tiger and the tiger came to eat us but later we all ate chciken with the tiger ....

Hilarious !!

I already have sleepless nights thinking about that !:0

right now my dd likes to write on the easel. Her letters are big so she can't write a word like monkey in a book yet. slowly trying to make the letters smaller so she can write them on the paper.

Gargi, the easel is definitely recommended for early writers.

My older DS was writing words by the time he was 2 1/2. We hadn't learned the "easel" clue, but he did find it better to write on top of a 3 ring notebook that was turned to slope towards him.

My 26 month old isn't writing letters yet, butI will probably introduce them in the next month. His writing skills have really taken off in the past several weeks when we started giving him the Kumon tracing and mazes books to play with.

These are great skills, but I can't forget that there are also many critical skills for them to learn at this age that don't involve early academics. For example, my older one could write before anyone else, but he was always one of the slower ones to get his coat zippered in 3 year old preschool because it had never dawned on me for him to do it himself! Likewise, my 26month old is just about potty trained, but I keep forgetting to teach him how to pull his pants on and off by himself! It's funny how I get so focused on the big accomplishments and forget about some of those little ones that I need to show them!

Now I have a new puzzle to solve. The teachers and us parents think that she could be ambidextrous. When I search ambidextrous on the internet I come across things that say ambidextrous and brain damage are related . It kind of spooked me a little. anyone here has a ambidextrous older kid ? Can you please help me put some sense into this.

Our DD writes with both hands does crafts and evry other everyday activity with both hands. without knowing which hand is dominant how do I tell her to use one hand ? She seemed to be more and more lefty last year but now she is getting equally good with the other hand.

Both her teachers think she has extraordinary abilities with math and reading. she gets a 5 in practical life in her montessori. Should I be worried about the ambidextrous thing?

I never read or heard that, about brain damage possibly causing or being linked to ambidexterity, but it is certainly interesting. Wikipedia, source of all true information in the universe, says that 1% of people are naturally ambidextrous and does not mention brain damage. In any event I would still not encourage dominance in a certain side in order to destroy ambidexterity. Ambidexterity could be a useful trait, and I can't believe that destroying ambidexterity could somehow cure brain damage.

My DD was most definitely ambidextrous from an early age but at the same time we noticed she tend to favor her left hand. She is now 4 and can safely be called a lefty but this is with writing and eating. When she cuts, throws and even kicks she favors her right side. About 3.5 years ago I came across an article in a journal that talks about young children, especially babies, and their hand preference. What they discovered is with each major milestone a baby/child would switch their preference for a little while and then finally go back to the other hand. Take sitting up or crawling. Both a big milestones in a child's life and each time they accomplish it something in their brain is linked to it and causes the child to switch hands. I really wish I could provide the journal but I don't have access to all of that now.

I have often wondered why we in the gifted community pick up on the changes more than the average child's parents and I think it might do with the fact that our children are doing such advanced stuff at such an early age. BTW: I monitored my DD after reading that article and it was true. Every major milestone she completed she would switch hand preference. And my DD was writing before she was a year old so it was very noticeable when she made that switch.

As for brain damage ... I have actually heard that before but can't place why or what they are referring to. I'm going to have to research that one. But as cricket pointed out, your child is still kind of young to classify as left, right or ambidextrous. It is usually around age 4.