How to tell if a child is gifted?
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sleepy:
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.
Homeschool is feasible for pre-schoolers. Without the age group constraint, parents can cater to the child's capabilities.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.
Since your friend went through some form of training, she's probably the best candidate to teach. -
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 -
karmeleon:
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.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.
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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
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lambchop1976:
I agree that the interest and creativity may be eroded. Recently I read some comments that if kids use algebra to solve maths problems, before they have been taught algebra in school, they may be marked wrong even if their answer is perfectly correct. That really sends chills down my spine. It is not about the marks, by marking his solution wrong, is like telling him that algebra is wrong, which is the most ridiculous thing that I have heard.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
For your son, my advise is as above, let him have access to a wide variety of books and encourage him to learn on his own. -
lambchop1976:
my son is 10 yrs old now. At about 18 mths, he was able to recite a to z and a for apple, b for boy till z for zoo... at that time I found him a bit gifted and was anxious looking for a pre pre school at the age of 3 but could not find one which is suitable... when he was in k1 and k2 his teachers gave good comments on him and at the age of 5 he was playing chinese chess with his grandpa.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
Well when he started his primary school education, somehow, he was busy with ca1,ca2, sa1 and sa2... So regarding the issue about letting your gifted child to have advance education even before p4 ( wherebly there is this gep) .. well what I feel is probably let the gifted kids enjoy their lower primary years. If they are able to pass the screening test which is held in later part of p3, they will be qualified to take up gifted education programme in p4 where the subjects are taught more in depth and in faster phase. and this program is not very easy to most gep students as they will need to do projects and etc which the mainstream students will only experience it in secondary school.
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My 1st time trawling this forum to learn how to teach my kid to read. Great information ladies!
But on the giftedness part, maybe coz i'm a guy and hence i'm from Mars, i'm quite surprise ppl think their kids maybe gifted? By the definition of giftedness, it is very rare to have someone gifted. You'll know for sure if yours is gifted. No need to check IQ one
And i do know that kids pick up a lot v. fast esp. if we repeat the task to them. while my boy cant read at 4yrs old, he can beat me at some computer games (which tells me he've been playing it non-stop when i'm away working :(...... ) -
Idono:
... By the definition of giftedness, it is very rare to have someone gifted. You'll know for sure if yours is gifted. No need to check IQ one
...
Bingo. Makes you wonder why the powers-to-be think it necessary to declare that 1% of our children every year MUST be gifted and therefore MUST be identified through English and Maths tests so that they can be hived off and trained in more esoteric ways. -
I feel that parents should trust their instinct. If you have a child who learns effortlessly, for example, she can add 2 digit numbers by the age of 4, and you cannot remember how you taught her. Or she could recognize all 26 letters by 16 months old, and you don't know how she learned them. Or he can read on his own, and you don't remember teaching him how to read.
Gifted kids have an amazing ability to learn. If we want to identify them, we should test their ability to learn new things(new language, new skill, etc), and not test them on what they already know.
I also believe that gifted kids can learn best before the age of 6, because they have less distractions. And that does not mean that they are sacrificing their childhood. Remember that gifted kids are able to learn effortlessly. They may spend less than 30 mins a day learning, and the rest of the time playing. They can still be far more advance than other kids. -
[quote]Bingo. Makes you wonder why the powers-to-be think it necessary to declare that 1% of our children every year MUST be gifted and therefore MUST be identified through English and Maths tests so that they can be hived off and trained in more esoteric ways.[/quote]
Wouldnt it be interesting to see, if the powers-to-be at last decided to scrap the need to identify? I do wonder, who will scream foul the loudest.
1) The ones that splurge a one time $2K on GEP training OR
2) The hardworking ones aka parents of hot house kids (no GEP training but so many enrichment & countless of hours at home mentoring) OR
3) Parents of a naturally gifted kids
Does anybody want to make a guess? Oooooppppsss....am I being flame? -
EN:
[quote]Bingo. Makes you wonder why the powers-to-be think it necessary to declare that 1% of our children every year MUST be gifted and therefore MUST be identified through English and Maths tests so that they can be hived off and trained in more esoteric ways.
Wouldnt it be interesting to see, if the powers-to-be at last decided to scrap the need to identify? I do wonder, who will scream foul the loudest.
1) The ones that splurge a one time $2K on GEP training OR
2) The hardworking ones aka parents of hot house kids (no GEP training but so many enrichment & countless of hours at home mentoring) OR
3) Parents of a naturally gifted kids
Does anybody want to make a guess? Oooooppppsss....am I being flame?[/quote]1. I thought it was $6k? oops! Certainly this group cos the pocket says 'Ouch!!!\"
2. If a parent quit job to play this role, then yes, it is another \"Ouch and Ouch\" because single income, alot of sacrifice
3. My sympathies for this group because if they truly have one to groom, scraping it would really leave them no institution to turn to... but all is not lost, for giftedness usually has a certain skew. Then just go to the professionals in that area to further develop the talent. eg. Maths....there are enough institutions to groom such children.
So my ranking is 2,1,3, just for fun discussion.
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