How to tell if a child is gifted?

[PiggyLalala]

For children who have not shown clear indication of their passion or calling, what can the parents do? What is the most essential skills that the children must have in order to ensure a successful career and be happy in the future? Fully agree with you that a GPA 4.0 does not put them in a better advantage in the future workforce, what then should we train our children now since it is no longer so much about academics excellence. TIA

[jtoh]

2ppaamm:

jedamum:

2ppaamm,

you have such amazing children. you shouldn't have stop at 5. :evil:

Heh, err... if I have number 6, my doctor will lose his job. :evil:

Why would he lose his job? He can write a book about how HE brought these 6 wonderful kids into the world when they've all become successful and leaders of the world.

[Happy Mama]

jtoh:

2ppaamm:

Heh, err... if I have number 6, my doctor will lose his job. :evil:

Why would he lose his job? He can write a book about how HE brought these 6 wonderful kids into the world when they've all become successful and leaders of the world.

2ppaamm, I know what you mean... :evil:

[Kabby]

jtoh:

Why would he lose his job? He can write a book about how HE brought these 6 wonderful kids into the world when they've all become successful and leaders of the world.

Think she means her doc is responsible for her not to have more kids?

[2ppaamm]

Hehe... keep guessing... :boogie:

[verykiasu2010]

2ppm


i think your kids are really 2ppm, as in zero defect manufacturing, 2 parts per million… 2 persons per million, in giftedness … lol

[lovekin]

Hi,


I have been reading this thread and am delighted at the wealth of info and experiences shared here

I need some advice here, as i am not sure if my girl is gifted or just bright. She is testing my patience!!!! :?:

I have a girl and she is 5 yo this year. Since middle of last year she has been developing undesirable habits and behaviour that I thought perhaps, it was just that age where kids start to test out their parents. E.g: Competitive, impatient, dictate play - and will exclaimed that her peers dont understand her and she dont understand her peers, rude, wants her way, messy, poor sleeping habit - sleep late...etc. So, like most parents would do, I reprimand, discipline, using soft approach and hard one too! Sometime it works but often shortlived before she goes back to her old habits. Sometime end of last year, she started questioning why she cannot do this or that? She will counter-suggest an alternative and a trade-off, but as a tired mother, you just want her to comply and do as you want! She was upset, angry and started to throw thamtrum.

She is a perfectionsit and get upset when she sisnt get it right or not the top in her class. E.g: She attends abacus just before she turns 4. Lately, her abacus teachers quiz the class and she didnt turn up first. After her lesson, she became whinning and frustrated with her performances. I tried to counsel her telling her...\"its okay, try harder the next time and be less careless lor\". She replied: \" I'm not going to be the best ever again and the next time is going to take so long to come!!!!\" She simply refused to pacified and sulked all the way home. There were a few occasions, she burst into tears when she reached home and my mother started to nag and said I have given her so much stress at such a tender age. I suggested to my DD to maybe stop abacus but she insisted that she wants to continue...then I told her, \"if thats the case, dont behave like that!\"...she nodded but still sulking. The next week, her same old patterns appears again! I got so upset with her.....because I was told by her Kindergarten teacher that she is quite mature and if I try to reason out things with her, she will understand and accomodate. So when I try very hard to pacify and counsel her many times over her poor performance issue... ensuring her its okay as long you have tried your best and we love you anyway.... it doesn't work on her, a frustrated me :frustrated: vent my frustration at her :stompfeet: and then gave a cold shoulder. She is very sensitive, and realised in an instance my non-verbal que. Both mother and daughter sank into cold war and poor DH had to come in to mediate. My girl complained to DH that mummy no longer love her and dont understand her! I complained to DH that I don't know how to raise and nurture this girl anymore......I cried buckets wondering :scratchhead: what have gone wrong with my parenting.

DD is a very sensitive girl. There are many occasions when she ask why are we talikng to her in a manner as if we are shouting or ordering her around. But it reallt doesnt occur to us that out tonality was meant to be such. One day, she told me \" Mummy, Issac (her classmates) said he dont like people with moles on thier face (yes....my girl has a mole on her cheek). I am very upset when he said that, how can he said such a nasty thing!!!\"

Then one day, it dawns upon me that maybe DD is gifted and that gifted kids function quite differently from the normal kids, thats why my relationship with her has turn for the worst! My suspicion comes about because DD started regonizing aplhabets and words at a few months of age. She knows her alphabets by 9 mths though not able to vocalize but able to identify by pointing. At 10 mths old, showed her two words e.g: car and cat, she can point to the correct one the adult verbalized the word to her, recognize colours and numbers 1 to 10. She walked at 13 months, so that's like quite normal i supposed. At 15 mths she can match the picture of the 12 horoscope to their names. She can do simple addition, and do one-step problem sums at age of 2.5 yo. She can recite poems at age 2.5 yo and read books that contains 200- 250 words at ease. Today, her favourite reader in Roald dahl! She just started her piano lessons beginning this year and three months after her first lesson, her teacher suggested that she move on to grade one! The above are just some of her milestones i noted which i believe should be quite ahead of her peers in the same age group.

The problem i am facing now is whether my DD is gifted and hence, I need to change my nuturing style towards her and understand her from and her behavious as being a girl with special needs (p/s: Grandparent, uncle who is staying with us and myself have been taking turns scolding DH, without each of us realising it, until one day DH pointed it out to me!!!! Dont think that very healthy for her emotionally and psycologically) or is she just bright and the undersirable habits is something that I need to thumb her down at this young age before it get worse?

Apologies for such a long post...thought would be good to give a more detailed account, so you guys can provide me with your invaluable advice.

Many thx!!!!

[2ppaamm]

lovekin, wow, something sounds very familiar. Good thing is, I think I've been through a lot of it. The behaviorial can kill. I have a problem with one of my kids, and your child sounds almost the same as him. The difference is, I have never had to send him to any enrichment classes, so those problems only arise when I sent him to formal school.


The good thing is, the problems are surfacing early since she is so young, so seek help early. Go to a psychologist for help if you find that it is almost impossible to deal with her without tearing yourself apart. The second good news is that she is a girl. Girls normally learn to adapt a lot faster than boys.

I am no expert as a behavioural expert, and I've never seen your child. She could be a HSC (highly sensitive child) or a child suffering from high anxiety along with her giftedness. It may be good to check those out. All these does not mean any label, just read up and handle appropriately. High anxiety or HSC can cripple a child completely from performing her best.

Hope this helps.

There are heaps of resources available online. Try this one as well. http://www.hsperson.com/pages/test_child.htm

[lovekin]

Hi 2ppaamm,


Thanks for directing me to the source on HSC. Indeed, the write up in this website had shed instances of HSC that are parallel to my DD. Gosh…, feel enlighten but at the same time overwhelmed. Enlighten because know I know she is most probably a HSC hence explain for all these anxieties and tension. Overwhlem because the amount of empathy and firmness that I as a parent need to provide for DD is going to be very frequent and these are new parenting skills that I need to master soon…goin to be a steep learning curve for me!!!

[2ppaamm]

If you do enough research, you will chance upon the fact that most gifted children are highly sensitive. You need to be highly sensitive to be able to ‘catch’ and understand things faster than your peers around you. Unfortunately, this high sensitivity also brings uncommon problems. We just need to deal with those before they get out of hand.


The gifted part really is easy. Just leave her alone. Perhaps less enrichment and more reading just social stories and sports to strengthen her self-esteem. She will blossom. Help the kid to understand things from others’ perspective and learn to be a little less sensitive. She will then find friends and blend into the crowd.

Just sharing my experiences. Of course, there will be others who will believe in pumping the kids with all sorts of classes, which I do not advocate. But make sure she is not bored with whatever she is pursuing. It is fun and tiring raising sensitive kids, but it is also rewarding as they will shower you with a lot of love and understanding. Enjoy!