Gifted children . Any parents on here with gifted kids ? DD is gifted, advice needed
so my DD who will be 3 in august , is gifted . i had an appt today with the pead and he went over a few things and came up with Gifted . now its no surpise to me and im just gald to hear it from a professional . but what do i do now ?? who can i go to /talk to . we have a bit of info on it and a referral to a child psycologist to help us . also we got some advice on schools aswell . pead said at 4 he can test her , but pulled up a scale of IQ and rattled off info , which makes perfect sense now . its great to know DD is gifted ... but im also very scared/confused about what is ahead .
I would love to hear from parents on here who have gifted kids ... i need to relate to someone as i dont know anyone in our situation .
My boy is gifted but is of the Asperger species too.
It is a challenge. BUt they can be fun too. You are in complete amazement when they tell you stuff which you had no idea about.
He sometimes tells me off for not knowing stuff. He can be a bit condescending too.
He skipped a year at school. They need challenges all the time.
If you need any info let me know.
xxoo
Yep, my DS is gifted. I'm reasonably new to it as well, in that we've only just had the test "confirming" it. But I guess always knew he was different. I'm currently trying to find out more about what there is in Oz as far as this goes, especially for preschoolers, so I can't help you much with local knowledge.
Here in NZ we go to a group for gifted preschoolers which has been awesome, it gives them interesting topics to learn and explore in depth that they wouldn't get elsewhere. He goes to a regular preschool but it doesn't quite click for him and he is always saying he's bored there (they don't recognise where he is at mentally at all).
He is very different to parent compared to most of our friends kids. Like you say, it's nice if you can find people to relate to! There are Oz parent forums but I haven't worked out yet which ones might be good, they don't seem to be that active. When you see the psychologist they will give you extra advice and contacts probably
I assume you mean intellectually gifted? There are different domains/ areas of giftedness. For some reading/info try looking for your state association (I can't see where you're from) Links to Associations
GERRIC at the University of NSW also run programs for parents
Yes we found out 3 days before Christmas last year that Lachlan was gifted. We got referred to a child psychologist as well, who can do further testing and help us cope but it is so expensive. We simply can't afford it. We were looking at over $2000 for 12 sessions, which is how many the paed said we'd need, plus there are none in our area we'd have to go to the city which is over an hour round trip all the time. The paed also recommended him being moved up to grade 3, but with his older brother in Grade 3 it just wouldn't work for us.
I spoke to his school and they generally haven't been that helpful, but I know his teacher was given a survey to fill out about him. He is in a composite 2/3 class where he is a grade 2, so that helps cause it is easy for his teacher to give him harder work. Every year now I will put in a request for him to be in a composition class with him being in the younger grade. I know with his reading, he is the 3rd highest when it comes to levels, well last time I looked he was. Like I said half of his class are grade 3, so he is surpassing all of them as well.
It has it's frustrating side, cause he is bored a lot at home so acts out on that but doesn't really have the patience level yet to sit and do something for more than 5 mins at a time, unless it is on the computer.
I was selected as a gifted and talented child also, was reading by 3 years, could write competently before starting kindy and then when I was in year 9 was pushed as a gifted child. I hated it! I was often taken out of class to do more advanced classes one on one, my mum pushed me with heaps of extra curricular activities etc. I rebelled against it, I just wanted to be a normal kid. I have never pursued anything much because I was so over being pushed!
I hope you find a fantastic school that will complement and encourage your child
I had a similar thread may be early last year, and i was all about academics, getting him into the best schools, taking him to extracurricular science classes etc.. and the Onyx commented that the he as a whole needed to be nurtured, socially and academically. I thought "blah, blah, blah". He had no friends at school, none of his school friends came to his birthdays etc.. He would cry when he got his report card if there were any Bs. It was eating us up alive. I was raising a bright hermit. He now goes to a public school and yes, i care about his grades, but i am more concerned about his socialising skills, which he has gained so much of this year, that he has had 10 kids turn up to his 9th birthday. What is so special about raising a possible rocket scientist, when he may be all alone when he is 35?
Yes, they may read at the age of 3, or know the alphabet at 2, but let them be kids too.
Well said TD. Its important that you dont concentrate on one particular aspect of their learning....
I have no intentions of doing anything other than encouraging my little boy....
In time Im sure others will notice but its not Who he is , just a part... IYKWIM
My little man still loves to play in the dirt and sandpit too ,I just wish he would stay small forever ...lol
FWIW, I was a "gifted" child, according to my mother and some of my teachers (according to my mother they thought I was highly gifted, but that's her words). Reading at age 2, multiplication age 5, writing fully punctuated stories age 7. (OK, so an over-fondness of the semicolon now I read them back; that never died down!)
All my mother did was tell me to be more like my social butterfly sister. I now have social skills, however I generally hate socialising as it was forced upon me then I was told how crap I am at it. I went into teaching partly so I could talk about what interests me and not be told I was dull and uninteresting for it. I also don't want my mother in my life very much. I was never pushed academically - if anything I was pulled back, as I was denied private school (after passing the exam to get in) and was never academically encouraged. I bombed out of school, hating every minute of the lack of social graces I had and also being told at home I was dull, stupid, lazy.
This from a girl who at 14 taught herself about quantum physics and Schroedinger's paradox. From the girl who taught herself to read music and play the piano age 6 (I wasn't much good at the piano age 6, mind, but I was determined to learn!). OK quantum physics is pointless for your school exams when it wasn't taught at that point lower than university level, but I still read up about it and had a good grasp of it. And I got to go to CERN a couple of years back - one childhood dream achieved! (I don't think I'll achieve the dream I had when I was nine, which was becoming a polyglot: that year I tried to learn French and Greek from books and couldn't quite manage it, although I do still try to learn more languages.)
My point is - by all means see your child as a child, as a whole, and treat them as a child. But intellectually - push them. Encourage them. And when you have to teach life skills other children can grasp inately, such as socialising - don't ever tell them they are stupid and slow for not being able to do this of their own accord. Everyone is gifted in some ways and slow in others - gifted academically doesn't mean success in everything else. Just as you'd encourage a gifted athlete and help them with academic work without the put-downs.
My son is bright, but not academically gifted. He'll do well, but it won't be easy for him. He is, however, very gifted socially. Good for him. That's not the same as me and I can't keep up with his social life, but he's enjoying it. That's all I want for him. And I do not plan on berating him for learning his letters age 4 rather than age 1 like his Mamma. (FWIW, I know many people who didn't learn letters until they went to school - we read the same books now. Gifted is great, but at some point it levels out a bit and it's good if there are some coping skills learnt too.)
Gifted children . Any parents on here with gifted kids ? DD is gifted, advice needed
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He is learning to read....
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