Confused!

[BlimeyCrikey]

My child is bright, she's always been bright. That's how she's often described by teachers, friends etc. 

She's in primary school and is doing well, but as my first child I have absolutely no idea where she really sits on the intelligence scale. 

We have 'fun' with her overexciteabilities, which is more common in gifted children but not exclusive to them. 

Her reading is 1-2 years above her age, I'd say her maths is average to her class. She struggles with basic times tables but loves to challenge herself with higher numbers, 1000 X 24 for example. So I don't think she's spectacular with maths? Just likes to play with high numbers. Otherwise she would excel at the lower, standard ones, right? 

She basically focuses when she is interested which to be fair is most things that are new her. She likes discovery. Then she can do very well. She likes writing, she's a fantastic story-teller as her imagination is vivid and she's good with words. 

Being good with reading and words doesn't make a child gifted, right? 

I'm confused! 

[user789653241]

How old is she?

[ChalkHearts]

Are you confused because she's on the G&T register? Being on the register doesn't mean you're gifted. It means she's one of the brighter children in her class in one or more subjects.

And it's comparative to her class - not to the whole population.

[Mistigri]

How old is she?

Giftedness can only really be assessed with standardised testing (where a child is compared on non-schoolwork type tasks against a general population).

Most children identified as G&T at school are simply in the top 5-10% of their school in a particular subject. But because children develop at different rates and have different strong/ weak points, this can be a bit of a moving target.

My DD was always good but not excellent at primary school maths - adept at problem solving, not so good at routine arithmetic tasks. Once things got more abstract she took off. She's at senior high school now and is very good at maths (among the most able mathematicians out of about 600 students in her year).

[mouldycheesefan]

As you say she sounds bright in terms of reading and making up stories but not gifted. Reading 1-2 years above age is very normal, that would be above average rather than gifted. Lovely that she has a good imagination and enjoys school.
In terms of knowing her intelligence for comparison with rest of her age group, is there any value to that? You would need to see an educational psychologist and thee would b a cost attached. What would you then do with the information? What if she was above average but not gifted, or even average where numeracy is concerned, how will you feel about that?
Try to relax and support your daughter, focus on the maths skills but don't worry about her intelligence level as such,

[mouldycheesefan]

And re the trait of being overexcited, is that really a trait of gifted people? I don't see that reflected in my children's classes at school. The over excited ones are not necessarily the brighter ones. I don't believe though that there are any gifted children in my dcs classes at school, there are bright ones but not gifted. There are some gifted children in th school but that is related to sports.

[BlimeyCrikey]

No I don't even know about a register at her school. She is 7.

I am relaxed, I just wanted to ask, because I can I guess thanks to the Internet! It's after a few teacher and doctor comments such as "oh she's highly intelligent, isn't she?", that kind of thing. Nothing that has been made a fuss over, and during conversations about other things.

This is information related to overexcitabilities, sengifted.org/archives/articles/overexcitability-and-the-gifted. I've read a few threads on here about it so thought it may have been already understood, apologies for the assumption.

[BlimeyCrikey]

I have to say, she's surrounded by clever children in her class, they're all fantastic! There's only one class per year so that's not anything selective, in case you wonder.

[BlimeyCrikey]

I wouldn't do anything with the information, other than encourage and support her natural love of the areas she enjoys. No, I'm not going to seek out tests etc, I was just curious.

[mouldycheesefan]

I do think it's unusual for doctors and teachers to remark that a child is highly intelligent, they usually use words like 'bright' etc without commenting on intelligence level. So if they are telling you that your daughter is highly intelligent just enjoy the positive feedback!