How to tell if a child is gifted?

[Jona]

Tamarind,


That’s a nice one. The boy pounced … is a very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

Cheers!

[soup]

Hi all. Just read in today's supplement newspaper (the bilingual one) about a toddler in UK who was assessed to have IQ of 160 and became a Mensa member. He's only 2 years plus.


Wondering if there is any recognised institution which can assess the IQ of very young children in Singapore.

It seems quite common to do so overseas. My friend was in the States for 3 years. Her son, who was almost 5 years old, was noted by his preschool teacher to be possibly gifted and she recommended my friend to send him for testing. It turned out that the preschool teacher was right! As a result, her son was given special, accelerated education at his preschool and he benefited from it. My friend also benefited because she started to read up and attended courses on how to handle such children.

I now wonder:

1. Are our preschool teachers trained to spot a child who is possibly gifted?

2. And if they do, where and how can the child be tested?

3. And if the result shows that the child is gifted, is there any preschool in Singapore which can cater to such children, i.e. have specially trained teachers and a different curriculum?

Of course I'm not advocating to bring forward the nation-wide GEP screening to preschool years. There is a rationale for doing it at 9 years old. But perhaps more children (and their parents) in Singapore could benefit in the same way that my friend and her son had, if there were more awareness about this issue amongst preschools here? I also do not advocate hot-housing children. I just think that highly gifted children are like special needs children and they would benefit from early recognition and appropriate management.

Any thoughts on this?

[sleepy]

soup:

I now wonder:


1. Are our preschool teachers trained to spot a child who is possibly gifted?

I think not even primary school teachers are trained to identify such kids. Of course with so many kids to attend to, it's not fair to expect them to, due to limited resources.
My personal observation, children who are more advanced are generally more talkative in class. They are viewed as disruption to the class instead

soup:

3. And if the result shows that the child is gifted, is there any preschool in Singapore which can cater to such children, i.e. have specially trained teachers and a different curriculum?

Not that I know of.
MMI allowed grade skipping. Not a different curriculum though, just learning together with older children at a slightly higher grade

You need to speak to the center managers to find out whether they hold the same belief as you before enrolling your child

[tamarind]

Pre-schools in Singapore certainly do not cater to gifted children.


Like what sleepy wrote, some pre-schools do allow kids to skip grades. I have heard of a child who has been in the K2 class every year since 4 years old !

However, some gifted kids may be able to read like an adult before the age of 5, so putting these kids in K2 is not really helpful for them.

Gifted kids have the potential to learn extremely fast, and with very little effort. I feel that they will benefit when given a special education. Sadly, I have not heard of any preschools in Singapore which cater specially to these children.

[soup]

Thanks sleepy and tamarind, for your feedback.


No wonder my friend, who came back to Singapore recently, is considering home-schooling!

Do you know of any good preschool or lower primary school private tutors who have experience with such children?

Thank you.

[sleepy]

soup:

Thanks sleepy and tamarind, for your feedback.


No wonder my friend, who came back to Singapore recently, is considering home-schooling!

Do you know of any good preschool or lower primary school private tutors who have experience with such children?

Thank you.

Homeschool is feasible for pre-schoolers. Without the age group constraint, parents can cater to the child's capabilities.

Since your friend went through some form of training, she's probably the best candidate to teach.

[karmeleon]

tamarind:

However, some gifted kids may be able to read like an adult before the age of 5, so putting these kids in K2 is not really helpful for them.
.

So for such kids who can read v well by age 3 or 4, are there any kindergartens suitable? Montessori? Any other suggestions... I'm a bit suaku abt different prog avail.

I don't really want to homeschool.

[soup]

sleepy:

soup:

Thanks sleepy and tamarind, for your feedback.


No wonder my friend, who came back to Singapore recently, is considering home-schooling!

Do you know of any good preschool or lower primary school private tutors who have experience with such children?

Thank you.

Homeschool is feasible for pre-schoolers. Without the age group constraint, parents can cater to the child's capabilities.

Since your friend went through some form of training, she's probably the best candidate to teach.

Thanks. But she is returning to a hectic full-time job. Would help if there is any good tutor to share the teaching load with her.

[lambchop1976]

Its true the local preschools do not cater to those kids who r more advance. N even whn they r in pri lvl they onli get tested for GEP whn they are in upper pri. Well i thk by then, interest creativity intelligences…etc much will be eroded by our "stick to the mud" syst. Those testing for dyslexia or IQ test can only be done whn child is much older.


my eldest son going to turn 5 this dec can read well before he was 4. He was reading newspaper and encylcopedia. well of course with adult jargon/ voca/ proverbs which he cant comprehen yet. His sch tchr only commented "Oh ya he can read very well." n she keeps asking him to read for the class. I really do not know what i shd do next to help him advance. Can anyone advise? Thanks

[tamarind]

karmeleon:

tamarind:

However, some gifted kids may be able to read like an adult before the age of 5, so putting these kids in K2 is not really helpful for them.
.

So for such kids who can read v well by age 3 or 4, are there any kindergartens suitable? Montessori? Any other suggestions... I'm a bit suaku abt different prog avail.

I don't really want to homeschool.

I do not think that there are any kindergarten suitable for kids who can read Charlotte's Web and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory before 5 years old.

From my personal experience of teaching my kids to read, it is actually possible for kids who are of average ability to read very well before the age of 5, if we use effective methods. My boy is able to read Roald Dahl books before the age of 5. But he is not gifted, because he needs many repetitions to learn something new.

Once a gifted child has been taught to read, she will be able to read anything and learn anything on her own. As parents, all we have to do is to make sure that she has access to any books she wants. The best resource is the library. She will naturally know how to spell and write stories without the need to be taught at all.

I have even heard of parents claiming that their kids can learn to read on their own without the need to be taught. I have not personally encountered any such kids in real life, so I find it hard to believe. Since English is not a phonetic language, there are many words which are pronounced in ways that do not make any sense, and kids must be taught how to read these words, unless they can remember things from their past life I believe that the parent must have been reading regularly to her gifted kid. The parent does not think that she is \"teaching\" her kid, but since the kid has superb memory, he can remember everything that she says. So actually in a way the parent is \"teaching\".

In summary, I believe that for gifted kids, all we have to do is to teach him/her how to read. Then let him/her go to the library as often as he/she likes. For parents who are keen to teach their kids at home, checkout my blog http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/. My blog is not about gifted kids, it is about how to teach kids of all abilities to read.

Remember that a gifted child is a child who has exceptionally high ability to learn on his/her own. Although it is helpful to find a pre-school that can cater to this ability, sadly such schools do not exist in Singapore, simply because every pre-school aims to make profits by enrolling as many students as possible. They cannot make profits out of gifted kids because truly gifted kids are very rare. Instead, we have lots of schools who claim to be able to turn average kids to geniuses, easier to earn money this way