How to tell if a child is gifted?

[Cathy Wu]

Early Reading can be a sign of giftedness…Reading is an essential skill for someone to master to be successful in school and in life.


IQ tests can also help determine if your kids are gifted.

[antebellum]

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[phankao]

antebellum:

If a child knows how to do a lot of things because he is taught by adults, then he is not really gifted. A gifted child should be able to learn independently..

Haha - yeah, this is so true. We didn't teach our boy to read, but he was given the tools that guided him, and so ended up reading early at 10mths. Other than that, I don't observe him to be gifted in any way. Just that he's been given earlier exposure to all these. And it happens that being able to read early also enables him to learn everything else much more easily than others, simply bc he might not need as much explaining to or guidance bc he instantly understands from the words shown.

[jtoh]

phankao:

antebellum:

If a child knows how to do a lot of things because he is taught by adults, then he is not really gifted. A gifted child should be able to learn independently..

Haha - yeah, this is so true. We didn't teach our boy to read, but he was given the tools that guided him, and so ended up reading early at 10mths. Other than that, I don't observe him to be gifted in any way. Just that he's been given earlier exposure to all these. And it happens that being able to read early also enables him to learn everything else much more easily than others, simply bc he might not need as much explaining to or guidance bc he instantly understands from the words shown.

Your son could read at 10 months! Wow! Some kids don't even speak at 10 months. Is this your 14 year old?

[phankao]

jtoh:

phankao:

[quote=\"antebellum\"]

If a child knows how to do a lot of things because he is taught by adults, then he is not really gifted. A gifted child should be able to learn independently..

Haha - yeah, this is so true. We didn't teach our boy to read, but he was given the tools that guided him, and so ended up reading early at 10mths. Other than that, I don't observe him to be gifted in any way. Just that he's been given earlier exposure to all these. And it happens that being able to read early also enables him to learn everything else much more easily than others, simply bc he might not need as much explaining to or guidance bc he instantly understands from the words shown.

Your son could read at 10 months! Wow! Some kids don't even speak at 10 months. Is this your 14 year old?[/quote]No, my 14yo(actually he's just turned 15) and my 12yo couldn't read until they were in P1.

The one that can read at 10mths old is now 3yo.

[2ppaamm]

antebellum:

As for personality flaws, I believe it is because parents do not put in efforts to develop good character, just because they think that the child is special, so they tolerate his bad behaviour. It has nothing to do with whether the child is gifted or not.

I cannot agree to generalize like this. Are we talking about children? Are we talking about gifted children?

Gifted children are gifted because they have heightened sensitivities. They are more sensitive to the environment and hence they learn faster. There are also many levels of giftedness. Commonly the top 2% are considered gifted. Though in Singapore, MOE classifies top 1% gifted.

Top 1% are considered moderately gifted or gifted. These children fit best into the school environment. The adapt well and learn fast.

Beyond this, there are those who are highly gifted, exceptionally gifted, and profoundly gifted. These children are known to have problems fitting in most school systems. Many classify them as behavioral issues. I'd rather say they are issues related to their sensitivities BECAUSE of their giftedness. Hence, highly gifted children are very hard to raise, they complain about things others don't see (sunlight too bright, too noisy, clothes too pricky, too dusty etc etc) They also hear things we don't, it's going to rain, daddy is coming home in 2 seconds (they can hear his car), why are talking behind me across the pool? You smell like your body oil, you just dropped two eye lashes.

They are a misunderstood lot. Many parents to highly gifted children do not know that their children are gifted until much later, to be able to spoil them thinking they are smart. In addition, look at the child's siblings and you will know the upbringing style. It is not fair to just conclude that all gifted children who behave differently are spoilt because their parents.

I remember watching this Cantonese movie when I was young, called 十兄弟, all of them have special skills. Being highly gifted is just like this, you see and hear things people don't and when a small gifted kid tells you, or cannot handle the overload, they act out. More reading will help you understand these folks more.

[2ppaamm]

antebellum:

A gifted child should be able to read newspapers by 5 years old, and probably have also taught himself addition/subtraction/multiplication.

A gifted child need not read newspapers by 5, if he/she is never exposed to the newspapers. So it is a matter of exposure. There are many very gifted children in third world countries who have never been seen newspapers, but they are far more gifted than many of our kids in the first world. I'd rather believe giftedness is the ability to pick up things faster than the rest of his cohort. And, to be gifted, he should learn faster than and know more than 99% of children his age, or is able to understand things about 1.3 times his age. So a gifted 5 year old should have the intelligence of an average 7 year old, a profoundly gifted child about the mental age of 10.

[antebellum]

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[antebellum]

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[jtoh]

phankao:

No, my 14yo(actually he's just turned 15) and my 12yo couldn't read until they were in P1.

The one that can read at 10mths old is now 3yo.

Just 3. It'll be interesting to watch how he develops.