How to tell if a child is gifted?
-
mashy:
Yup. We have also seen how early intervention can help and what difference it makes if the parents play an active role or take a back seat. Sad to say, in every batch of kids that come through us, we see at least 2-3 special needs cases. Some parents confide in us their concerns and we monitor and if diagnose we work hand in hand with their therapists. These groups usually fare the best. Some, we are the ones who raise the flags. Of these, there are parents who dig in their heels and seek help and then there are those whose parents make 1 excuse after another until come K2 and they suddenly start panicking and eventually blame the teachers for not preparing their kids well enough. These same parents do sometimes come back and express regret for not heeding our advise. Others treat us like we are the ones who inflict this condition on their child.
If the parents don't want to get him assessed, there's nothing outsiders can do. The very least they can do is to send him for speech therapy or try some ways to help bring him out of his shell. I can only say that many special needs children's development are largely dependent on what the parents do. If they are not proactive, the kid will just fall into a gap. Now that he is still young, there are ways to help him. The older he gets, the harder it becomes. I myself also didn't get my child assessed until recently. But before that we did speech therapy, occupational therapy and tried a lot of different mtds to help him. I am happy that my younger dd is an extrovert and she plays a huge part in getting him out of his world.Funz:
Mashy, 2ppaamm,
We suspect that there is something different about this boy but just could not put a finger to it. We have suggested many times for the parents to send him for some assessments the parents did not want to. My teachers are at a lost. They feel bad that this child is not making progress in their class and does not seem to find any joy in any of their activities. They have been trying ways and means to engage him but his response is still one of disinterest. A teacher bought him a puzzle for his birthday and asked his parents if he liked the gift. The mum told the teacher, he did not open it at all. :faint: We probed the parents further asking them what peaks their son's interest, what activities do they do with him at home. Answer is, iPad. :slapshead:
Self denial won't help my kid, that's my belief.
Agreed that there is nothing much an outsider can do if parents do not want to do anything. But it is frustrating especially when we have seen how much a little intervention can help a kid. -
2ppaamm:
Selective mutism?Wait a minute. If he is not interested in everything, how is it that he is unable to converse yet at that age but able to do puzzles, count, recognize numbers and letters and even add and subtract? And to pick those up way ahead of his peers. He must be VERY INTERESTED in those things. Something does not tally here, right?
So he is interested in something, but sitting there doing nothing seems to be something he has accustomed to doing, a pattern he has learn and something he feels most secure/adapted to. I have no idea why he has learned to look so bored in everything, but I will be curious to know why... His parents also said he is different at home or with familiar people. They are probably telling the truth. Hm... -
Hi Funz,
just chanced upon this thread and your post. Your description of the child sounds like my boy when he was younger. He is able to recognize words, count and do simple maths at very young age before he started to talk. When he was about 3 years old, his childcare teacher told me he wasn’t interested in anything other then the alphabet blocks and puzzles. They noticed him trying to form 3-5 letters words using the alphabet blocks, while his normal peers who talked well were still trying to learn alphabets. In order to get him interested in other things, they kept the puzzles and alphabet blocks away from him but it didn’t go too well for him…
I think I can understand why the parent doesn’t want to get him diagnose. I remembered when we sent our boy for assessment at KKH, I felt my world collapsed when the doctor announced the term ‘autism’. I was already crying when the doctor continue to do her ‘due diligence’ in reciting her standard speech on "what is autism blah blah… and he will likely be mentally retarded!" At the end of assessment, we were totally lost, because they only tell us the problem but never advise on what to do, except to push us to the next room for the nurse to arrange for registration at EPIC.
It was only when we started him on series of therapies when he show improvement in behavior and speech, then we started to feel better. He is now in primary 1. He is still lacking behind in term of language and communication, and we are facing some challenges with his behavior in school, but we will still continue to work with his school and therapists to help him to cope. In fact, now moving into 2nd month of the new school year, he is showing sign that he is adapting. He is more willing to sit down in class to do assignments and even score full marks for his recent surprise math tests.
Anyway, the point is, perhaps you can suggest the kids parent to consider going for special needs class/therapy sessions, if they don’t want assessment. Whether there is really an underlying problem or not, having these therapy sessions will still benefit the child. -
Problem is with this boy, have have not seen him attempting anything at all. We did pass the parents a list of possible therapists but they did not do anything. The teachers keep coming to me about his case and there really is nothing we can do except try to engage him and continue giving the parents feedback.
I had this boy once, he was only 2 1/2yrs old when he came to our centre. And he could read. But his parents told us to keep him away from books and anything to do with words. That is when he gets obsessive and shuts himself off from everything and everyone else. It was a challenge as every classroom will definitely have word charts and all. We saw for ourselves how obsessive he could become. If, when he enters a room & he does not see any books or words, he shows interest in other stuff. But the moment he notices any books, he zooms in on them and if you try to remove it from him, he goes into major tantrums.
We see all kinds of kids and parents. We also understand why some parents do not like the idea of sending their kids for assessments. And the doctors do get it wrong sometimes. We had a kid whose development was causing some concerns. His parents noticed it too and sent him for some assessments. 2 sessions and the doctor put a stamp saying he is autistic. We disagreed, we told the parents to seek a 2nd opinion. He may have some issues but we were confident enough to tell the parents autism is not it. The parents went for 2 other opinions and the end result, the kid had hearing issues. Not that he is deaf but he could not hear certain tones and pitch as such he does not respond and his speech development is delayed. Once speech is delayed, chances are behavioural issues will surface as the child cannot be understood. The moment the mum went with that diagnosis and intervention was done base on that, the boy flourished.
And then there are also the other types of parents who keep suspecting that their kids though normal could be ADD or ADHD or autistic. I find that a lot of parents think their kids are hyperactive but in reality, they are just kids being kids. It’s the parents who cannot keep up and that makes the kids appear overly active. -
Funz
That means he is interested in something - words and books. Maybe a hyperlexia. A pity that instead of grooming him, they decided to take his interest away from him. There are always branches of interest that we can develop from a source. Like temple grandin was interested in cattle and it evolved to farming and now she’s designing machines for them. Imagine how much knowledge he could have acquired if he was given the chance to read. -
mashy:
Just to point out. This is a different boy from the one who shows no interest in anything.Funz
That means he is interested in something - words and books. Maybe a hyperlexia. A pity that instead of grooming him, they decided to take his interest away from him. There are always branches of interest that we can develop from a source. Like temple grandin was interested in cattle and it evolved to farming and now she's designing machines for them. Imagine how much knowledge he could have acquired if he was given the chance to read.
For particular boy, it is not just interested in books. He is obsessed. They have consulted and been working with some therapists since the boy turned 1. It was the doctors suggestion to put the boy in a childcare to provide him some opportunity to socialise with others aside from his family members. At home it is just him and grandparents as parents are off to work. And grandparents will give him all the books he wants. In the end, the boy does not talk, does not play and will not even eat if not fed. The parents used to cart books along wherever they go as books keep the kid out of trouble and ensures zero tantrums but eventually they realise something was not right and if they do not intervene, this boy will not be able to survive the normal world. They are not removing books totally but they are very selective about what he gets access to. And since the objective of putting him in a childcare is to get him to interact with others and engage in other things aside from books, they highlighted his condition to us and made some requests. -
My 6 yr old just drew a diagram of atoms complete with electrons and nucleus etc for hydrogen, carbon, oxygen etc and another molecule of a combination of these atoms that had merged or whatever you call that. I have already returned all my chemistry back to teacher.
He is definitely talented in Science. Now I’m just wondering how best I can nurture his gift and love for Science other than giving him books to read. He learned all about the periodic table and the atoms/molecules, chemical bonding from books by himself.
Can anyone share with me what else I can do? Any suggestions or things that you have done with your kids? I can’t teach him because I would then have to read ahead of him and I can’t catch up!
The normal sch environment will not be giving him more than the usual stuff since he is only P1 now. -
Chemistry is my weakest subject. So, books and more books are what I get for my kids.
You can try Real Science-4-kids. I am using this series (Pre-Level & Level I) with my 6-year-old to build her foundation in Science.
Another alternative is to enrol him for online courses. -
Ask http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com.au/ I think he is in the best position to help you, because he has a very bright boy in chemistry, probably one of the best in the world. Leave him a note and he normally replies.
His son, Ainan managed to pass 'O' level chemistry when he was P1. -
Funz:
And then there are also the other types of parents who keep suspecting that their kids though normal could be ADD or ADHD or autistic. I find that a lot of parents think their kids are hyperactive but in reality, they are just kids being kids. It's the parents who cannot keep up and that makes the kids appear overly active.
Hi Funz, my ds was diagnose with mild ADHD. So long he don't get over stimulated he will be fine. So I always worry not to let him 'move' too much. How to judge what level of 'hyperactivity' is normal for a P3 boy.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login