Is Your Kid Gifted? Probably Not

[breguet]

jedamum:

breguet:

He read at 2 plus

I am not surprised that your boy may be quite advanced in the linguistics department cos I 'felt' (from your other postings in some threads) that you are pretty good in the English Department as well.

Whoa Jedamum! Don't get me started on my collar again!

[Fettuccine]

breguet:

...But then, where's the differentiation out there when everyone is so smart? Maybe therefore, being gifted doesn't quite matter ...


... Whatever method we use as a basis of interaction with our kids, so long as they are happy and well adjusted, they're better able to learn and to find their own passion in life.

I couldn't agree more. One thing for sure, my kids are just average school going kids. As long as they are happy, well brought up and continuously learning positively all the time (we all are), I'm quite content with it.

[Fettuccine]

It will be a surprise to all that gifted kids may not come from a stereotyped middleclass background. Let me site two examples:


Profile 1: an ex-classmate of mine, is gifted, top the school exams every year, her profile?
-Dad was murdered when she was a child
-Stays in a 3 room flat, leaving mum taking care of her and brother.
-She could still watch TV today and tomorrow pass exam with flying colors, as I remembered in our old school days.
-came from neighborhood school
-Superb memory
-She top every tests, and exams. All A1s.
-Brother is not gifted
-As I’ve lost contact with her, the last I heard is she is still single.
-A very happy go lucky friend as I remembered her in school days.

Profile 2: a Gifted old friend
-Gambler dad died of illness young
-Hawker mum brought up both brother and sister
-Sister is not gifted, on the contrary, slightly slow
-came from neighborhood school
- Since young the gifted brother loves to take things apart and then amazingly fix things back. Besides that, he love to do things "differently", eg very naughty, drawing on walls since young…etc…
-He is a President’s Scholar and no one knew until one of my other friend revealed.
-He is happily married and now a professor in NUS
-Both are very humble couple

Sorry if this is off topic…But I thought I should share…

[sleepy]

a relative of mine was never in any gifted programme

although he is always one of the top students in class & a fast learner

he suprised his peers when he graduated with 1st class honours from NTU
even got a scholarship to study Masters in UK

GEP didn’t pick him up.

[breguet]

Hi Fettuccine,

The word "rough" isn’t quite enough to describe the lives of these people when they were growing up. A lot of how they put the unhappiness (even murder!) behind them comes from being resilient. Really, if it doesn’t break you, it makes you. These must be quite exceptional people - I don’t mean their smarts, but how they deal with the cards that life handed out to them.

[mumwgals]

breguet:

He read at 2 plus - like the whole Richard Scarry Best Nursery Rhyme book first, and then it continued. When I taught him phonics, his reading just suddenly gapped up literally from one week to the next. Then it was road signs - he was quite crazy about it wherever we went.

Wow, reading at 2plus is very advance.

When my elder gal learned to read on her own, she would read the labels on packaging & the road sign too. Whenever we were at the super market, she would read all the labels. She even requested to be left alone at a pet shop and stood there to read all the labels on the packaging. She would come back & tell us what ingredient is good for what purpose. :roll:

[metz]

Both my kids started reading early as well. Bear with me the bragging.


Shortly after he turned 3, my ds told me if we take \"F\" away from Flunch (a restaurant), we'd have \"lunch\"!

Here's a short clip of my girl reading at 3yr 2mth old. She finished the entire book within a short time. If you are wondering how long she practiced reading this book, sorry, zilch practices. This is not a book that she has been practicing to read.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmOinU3KomI

We both think our kids are very smart (parents' pride) but not gifted.
*Wait a second, maybe they are? Anybody willing to sponsor them for gifted tests?

* This is only meant to be a jest. Please do not read too much into it. No hidden meaning intended.

[metz]

Fettuccine:

breguet:

...But then, where's the differentiation out there when everyone is so smart? Maybe therefore, being gifted doesn't quite matter ...


... Whatever method we use as a basis of interaction with our kids, so long as they are happy and well adjusted, they're better able to learn and to find their own passion in life.

I couldn't agree more. One thing for sure, my kids are just average school going kids. As long as they are happy, well brought up and continuously learning positively all the time (we all are), I'm quite content with it.

This can't be more true for us. Indeed, especially after my gal's recent encounter with Kawasaki Disease, I strongly believe that Health comes before anything. As long as they are healthy, happy kids and have a passion for life, there's nothing else more that I would ask for.

[breguet]

Hi Chamonix,


Wow! And on the Kawasaki Disease bit, so sorry to hear, but I'm glad she's fine now. I would have been so scared, as you must have been.

On this topic of helping our kids, this is an old video that is very inspiring to me. My boy isn't very artsy, but what an eye opener! It's quite old, so I hope not too many of you have seen it.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Enjoy!

[Shera]

Hi Chamonix,


Sorry to hear that your child got the Kawasaki Disease. To me, every child is very precious to us. As the cost of living is rising rapidly in Singapore, we are more prone to give birth lesser children as a result.

No matter if my baby is gifted or not, so long he is positive, healthy, alert and motivate to find out things around him will suffice for now.