How to tell if a child is gifted?

[deardear07]

2ppaamm:

deardear07:

What ages did ur kids wear their own clothes/ correctly n button up?

I found this question especially interesting. Ok, here are my answers:
1. My oldest learn to wear his clothes at about 2 years old.
2. My #2 (being girl) took off her own pampers at 14 months old and declared that she did not need them anymore, and by then she could wear her own clothes.
3. I can't remember #3!?
4. #4 is our smartest and brightest. He is already 11 and still buttons his clothes wrongly - he does not pay attention.
5. #5? I think at about 3 years old? He is the slowest because I have little time, so I only bought clothes that had no buttons.

Haha!

Phankao asked me to tell how to nurture an artist. Ok. It is with a stackful of photocopy paper ($5) every month and lots of pencils. My son drew his way to university at 14, and is graduating soon at 17. So no, no art classes, or anything like that. Just let him draw. Hm... he also read early, at about 9 months, only in English, and only simple words. He read books later than other kids though he started reading earlier, my other son read story books at 3. My daughter read Chronicles of Narnia at 4. At about K1, he was drawing Buzz Lightyear to exact likeness without referring. He never loves colouring, but has to do it these days (school work), but only on the computer. I never thought he was gifted, and it never really mattered.

yeah, got u there. just curious abt fine motor skills...

i provided lots of paper and pencils for my 2kids too, but it was my son who took a stronger liking to drawing things. his quest for learning was almost to a point of irritating. oops! kept bugging us to draw him animals at 1yr+

if uni at 17 means not in SG? sorry I didn't follow the thread all the way...

Yeah, think after wat u said, i should just put aside that possible labelling... n focus on how to provide the best foundation for him.

[2ppaamm]

smurf:

er 2ppaamm, how did you manage to have 5 gifted kids ha?? hee...

:rotflmao: I don't even think I have 5 gifted kids. How did you come to that conclusion? I think I have 5 very normal kids which I hope will do extraordinary things one day.

\"Manage to have.\" Don't know leh, even the doctors found it mysterious how I manage to get myself pregnant... ha ha! But that's all I'm going to have, unless there is a miracle, then my doctor will lose his licence. :censored: I just believe if they are given to me, then I have to raise them lor. Never think so much. Otherwise going to have white hair...

[2ppaamm]

deardear07:

yeah, got u there. just curious abt fine motor skills...

i provided lots of paper and pencils for my 2kids too, but it was my son who took a stronger liking to drawing things. his quest for learning was almost to a point of irritating. oops! kept bugging us to draw him animals at 1yr+

if uni at 17 means not in SG? sorry I didn't follow the thread all the way...

Yeah, think after wat u said, i should just put aside that possible labelling... n focus on how to provide the best foundation for him.

My son was in Singapore for the first 3 years of his uni years, this year, I transferred him overseas because we moved here, to support my daughter.

[2ppaamm]

:censored:

[mashy]

Wow! So many of your kids can read chapter books at such a young age. My 5 going 6 ds isn’t keen in chapter books. He was interested in Geronimo Stilton for a while but he’s mostly reading science books. Anything about space, human body and machines will interest him. Sucks in maths I think altho his teachers say he catches on quickly in his maths. Very knowledgeable through reading on his own. Maybe bright but don’t think gifted since he doesn’t even know multiplication tables this age and sucks at drawing. He is still drawing stickmen when he draws pictures of harvest with the harvesting machine and prefers to draw the universe filled with asteroids and dwarf planets and the human digestive system. He is not interested in animals or the human being as a person. I think he views them like a machine and more interested in how it works. Wanted to knock his head when I try to teach him addition of two digit numbers. He still adds using fingers.


His fine motor skills is lousy and hates to write. Will avoid at all cost.

[phankao]

2ppaamm:

:censored:

LOL....I can remember things from when I was a baby, but I'm no advanced learner. HAHA! And certainly no genius.

[2ppaamm]

mashy:

Wow! So many of your kids can read chapter books at such a young age. My 5 going 6 ds isn't keen in chapter books. He was interested in Geronimo Stilton for a while but he's mostly reading science books. Anything about space, human body and machines will interest him.

Actually, not all my kids read early. My last one can't read at all or add when he entered P1 last year. I am not sure why, maybe because I have no time to read anything to him, or maybe because I sent him to a cheap childcare centre. Having said that, other kids at the same childcare can read much earlier than my smallest one.

I felt so bad, I started reading to him (only for a few months though) and gave him extra help when he entered P1. To my surprise, he has now managed an interesting vocab and can do math at about P4 or P5. I'd say a late bloomer is not necessarily a failure.

I have never read a single book in my life! I mean story books. I love journals, newspapers, I love researching and reading the most non-fiction stuff. I'd like to think I ended up ok?! So I think your kid should be ok. I think my kids read so much because there are so many books in the house. The last count was about to 5000. And I don't really like to give them away, or sell them. From picture books, to management books, to science books, to history books, to old newspapers, journals, magazines, Harvard business reviews etc. My #4 read everything by the time he was about to enter school. I recently checked his reading speed, bought 180 books for my 11 year old boy. He has read 100 books (from sci fi to management books, to history books, to puzzles) in 1 month. So I guess the kids just keep reading - anything. If we provide a conducive environment, I guess the kids pick the habit up easily. It also helps that my husband is a big reader, he is like a little child when he enters the library or bookstore, picking and introducing all sorts of books to the kids, even suggesting to the kids which writers they can emulate. Quite a bookworm.

To me, reading anything is fine, even comics, as long as they pique the child's interests and capture his attention. But I do have stuff I won't give them: porn, immoral, illegal stuff, which are available on the Internet these days. I honestly have some difficulty keeping track with what they read these days from the www. The world has changed. But that's another story and a challenge of the new era.

[2ppaamm]

phankao:

2ppaamm:

:censored:

LOL....I can remember things from when I was a baby, but I'm no advanced learner. HAHA! And certainly no genius.

It is just like me to make hypothesis and then try and test on them. Just that my sample is too small, I only have 5 kids.

In any case, this is just one of my 'act smart' hypothesis to explain things, so yes, I can be totally wrong. But, someone reminded me that I could be reversely right. Meaning, it is those who are smart who can remember from very young days, not the other way around.

Who knows, you could well be a hidden genius! I think so. :imcool:

[mashy]

2ppaamm:

mashy:

Wow! So many of your kids can read chapter books at such a young age. My 5 going 6 ds isn't keen in chapter books. He was interested in Geronimo Stilton for a while but he's mostly reading science books. Anything about space, human body and machines will interest him.

Actually, not all my kids read early. My last one can't read at all or add when he entered P1 last year. I am not sure why, maybe because I have no time to read anything to him, or maybe because I sent him to a cheap childcare centre. Having said that, other kids at the same childcare can read much earlier than my smallest one.

I felt so bad, I started reading to him (only for a few months though) and gave him extra help when he entered P1. To my surprise, he has now managed an interesting vocab and can do math at about P4 or P5. I'd say a late bloomer is not necessarily a failure.
I have never read a single book in my life! I mean story books. I love journals, newspapers, I love researching and reading the most non-fiction stuff. I'd like to think I ended up ok?! So I think your kid should be ok. I think my kids read so much because there are so many books in the house. The last count was about to 5000. And I don't really like to give them away, or sell them. From picture books, to management books, to science books, to history books, to old newspapers, journals, magazines, Harvard business reviews etc. My #4 read everything by the time he was about to enter school. I recently checked his reading speed, bought 180 books for my 11 year old boy. He has read 100 books (from sci fi to management books, to history books, to puzzles) in 1 month. So I guess the kids just keep reading - anything. If we provide a conducive environment, I guess the kids pick the habit up easily. It also helps that my husband is a big reader, he is like a little child when he enters the library or bookstore, picking and introducing all sorts of books to the kids, even suggesting to the kids which writers they can emulate. Quite a bookworm.

To me, reading anything is fine, even comics, as long as they pique the child's interests and capture his attention. But I do have stuff I won't give them: porn, immoral, illegal stuff, which are available on the Internet these days. I honestly have some difficulty keeping track with what they read
these days from the www. The world has changed. But that's another story and a challenge of the new era.

Hi! Realize that one of your boys is gifted and has high functioning autism. I also just confirmed that of my boy. He has a splinter score for his IQ test. How does your boy cope in sch? What interventions did u do to help him?

[sleepyqueen]

deardear07:

my child's teacher once told me that children who can draw quite well tend to have higher IQs. how true is that? as in...can see that they have advanced development in terms of drawing and not simply doodling lines.


I know itz norm for children aged 3 to be able to recognize the alphabet and count (not rote count, but meaningfully) but i know itz not norm for them to write clear letters and numbers. im referring to all these for children who have not received formal 'training' but more of through observation of teachers and minimal teaching.

any comments on these?

Oops, mine until today still does not draw well even though he is in P3.