Come on then... what can your 5 year old (Year 1) do?

[scotchmeg]

As above really. People are always telling me mine's advanced but the teachers haven't said anything..

It's more maths then english.

She can say her 2 and 3 times tables but can answer adhoc questions about 2 times tables. she can tell you 1, 2, 3 & 4 more than or 1, 2 & 3 less than.

Her vocabulary is pretty good. She says things like, "not necessarily" and "I'm quite certain that" and generall yspeaks like an adult.

No indication from teachers about where she is in terms of others at her age.

he spoils it by saying "blistering barnacles" which is a bit of a giveaway really

ds1 called my mum a 'busted boiler' at 4.
thanks, thomas.

My own experience has taught me that hyperlexia, mathematical ability and mimicry often go together with an ASD....... gifted or not, I'd concentrate on helping a budding genius to learn how to make friends; it's a better life skill in the long run :)

Being gifted is about more than vocabulary and maths facts.

How quickly does your dd learn, does she make unusual and complex connections rapidly? Does she amaze you with the knowledge she has soaked up without your knowing it?

Does she understand complex mathematical theories and work things out for herself with no input for you?

Does she sleep less than other kids? Does she have odd obsessions?

Does she have huge amounts of energy and wear you out to the point of despair in your part.

Is she truly insatiable in her quest for knowledge and thirst for learning?

Does she skip stages in her learning and master concepts seemingly instantly?

Does she leave you behind?

Do people constantly comment on her and ask her to perform? Does she stick out like a sore thumb?

Do you worry how you will keep up and get her educated?

Do you try to slow her down, to no avail?

That is gifted.

Tick
Maybe its lazy parenting but I am so happy with the school I do not worry!

I suppose it depends which definition of "Gifted" you use, OP.
I can tell you now that being on the G&T register means bugger all.
In terms of being "advanced", which most MNers seem to prefer to call "bright", it's easy enough to just ask your DC's teachers if they are ahead of average or what kind of NC level they are working at (and compare that with target guidelines).

I was thinking today how unreasonable I find these comparisons (at this age) because of the luck of dates when a child is born; DD has autumn birthday, DS has summer birthday. If I just compare them by age, DS is almost doing better (academically) than DD. But DS is immature in his year group, and doesn't look as clever compared to the kids with autumn birthdays (like DD).

lljkk that maths is fab. (though looking back at your posts dd has got til about may to compare age wise

will let you know about the cartwheels and ds in 2 years time. he is quite good at standing on his head and doing the splits in the air and he is extremely gifted and talented in resisting "arrest" the best at hooking his toes in the bannister rails and grabbing onto the architrave with the adhesive powers of a limpet. goodness knows how he goes so limp and heavy whilst becoming impossible to get hold of and pick up. physicists really ought to investigate this ability to change mass.

dd loves adding and taking away when in the mood. but can't do one more than when not in the mood. grr. once tricked her into adding and subtracting one or two more with numbers up to 100 when playing schools and being a particularly thick pupil. she's not that bright then. (though when we ventured past 100 she did say she was not falling for that one)

lljkk dd would be "amazing" [big head emotion] if she was just a month younger and entering reception. it is best that she is not though. I would be insufferable. do feel for your ds as he is nearly a year "behind" so it doesn't compare favourably as he is always playing catch up. (eg just turned 5 reading chapter books inthe autumn term in reception would be impressive, but not so much at just turned 5(in august say) now they are in year one even though they are the same age. grrr. )

dd quite likes counting back past 0 (not far mind) after asking what 5-6 was. we were nearly late for school. don't think the letter of explanation would have gone down too well.

"dear mr head teacher, dd was late for school today as we were exploring counting back past 0 and got distracted."

(dd seems to have mastered the trick already, not a sign of testicles at all)

think I will pass on the time machine trip. i have been told off by a 3 year old in nursery for making a dinosaur roar when it was a plant eater! i would be a liability.

My yr 2 DS
good at most stuff at school. (especially maths)
He is G&T because he can make a great cheese sandwich, makes a fantastic sponge cake and empties the dishwasher without being asked. To me that's stuff to be proud of...he is also very funny and does accents very well.
Bless.....:o

Oh....... can he teach DH the dishwasher trick.

At a price iggly2 :)

My 5yo dd surprised me on holiday when she got on the stage and hoolahooped for ages and won the competition

Can she be G & T for that please (pretty please as I know academics don't count!)

Ooh and she has drawn a good likeness of Peppa Pig freehand which she coloured in very neatly .......can that count????

Not sure if my experience counts as DD is 5 years old but not in Y1 - she's in Year 2 of her Bachelor degree at Oxford studying theoretical physics.

They don't really stretch her there unfortunately, but she needed a change and some time out from her career as an international concert pianist.

Now now this is a bragging thread so please don't down play your dcs talents

confidence has a point though. this is what people expect of "gifted" children at 5. something amazing and out of the ordinary. presumably, without doing research [lazy] the difference between an average, bright and gifted child at 5 would be smaller than the difference between them at 7 or 11 or 13 for example.

Worth remembering too that some gifted children just dont conform or feel the need to prove themselves to others.
I have first hand experience of one of these children ,dd also puts up a real barrier against anything that does not interest her(dd rarely comes across anything in school that interests her),not easy to deal with at all.

Harder to say blackeyedsusan:the difference between an average, bright and gifted child at 5 would be smaller than the difference between them at 7 or 11 or 13 for example.

In theory yes but things like reading earlier (which may or maynot be due to giftedness) is an obvious difference.

people can be so dismissive of early reading. ("it all evens out in the end") and small differences can be ignored early on (and may then never develop through lack of encouragement/teaching/disaffection (sp?) ) I think I am a bit cynical because nursery were dismissive about dd's early early-reading at 3 and the reception teacher resolutely ignored it. i wonder how much less progress she would have made if I had relied on the 2 schools for support.

Yeah... it all evens out in the end, precisely because so many schools ignore the brightest kids and they slow down unless their parents take the reins.

completely agree confidence

My dd taught herself to read easy phonetic words at 3, by putting together the letter sounds they'd mentioned in passing at preschool (e.g. "This week's letter is F and it makes the sound ffff") which I know a fair few children do, but she was the only one in her year. Everyone said it would even out, which it probably will during late primary when most of them have learned to read fluently, but at the moment the gap is widening because now in Y1 she can read anything she wants to (this week: Mouse Trouble, Esio Trot, The Enormous Crocodile, The Aardvark Who Wasn't Sure, and Connie & Rollo, as well as various bits out of the newspaper) Some of her friends are still struggling with blending, so there's a bigger range than there was this time last year. Although the reading thing's probably not the best example because most of them learn to do it well in the end, as a teacher I more commonly see the ability gap widen over time. During teacher training, we were told to expect a 7 year spread of ability in a KS2 class, which in many cases isn't far wrong. In my first post, I had a couple of Year 6 kids working 2-3 years ahead, and one of them working at a low Year 1 level, so in that particular instance the gap was even bigger.

By 5 my DS was GCSE Maths and A'level chemistry. Read to an age of 13 years but couldn't write very well or throw a ball. He was a walking dictionary on all things scientific but had no common sense and was unsure where he fitted in the world.

My point is that there will be always someone smarter but no one cares except their mother!

Colleger - very true, but sometimes it's good to compare how your child is doing, especially if you're worried your child is a big fish in a small pond. It's also helpful to know how far/if your kid is ahead so you can help them get the provision they need!

ScotchMeg- you may get more indication of your Dds potential, at least for the gift list, now she's in yr1, that was the first time we got proper information (and they started getting invites to Saturday inter school gifted classes). Have been told dd is doing very well at maths & literacy & also on gift list for humanities. As an indicator she's @ level 8 ORT, (so in my opinion doing very well, but not exceptional).

IMO vocab used is related to what you hear on a regular basis. My DD was the first at nursery to say B**ks and F*k, but also at the age of 2 years 10 months told another child 'I would prefer not to play with you'. She has one parent who works in a very tough male dominated industry and from whose mouth expletives fall with nearly every third word and another who rarely ever swears and is very particular about language.

It is only since coming on mumsnet that I've realised that my DS is a bit different to the norm.............

Lizcat - I agree, it all depends on what words are used around them. We are particularly interested in British wildlife shows and going out to see things - our eldest was talking about how "hedgehogs really are more crepuscular than nocturnal" in year 1 - their teacher said she had to look it up!! But alas, no more G&T than any other of her friends..... (I am a bit pleased though as most of the G&T crew seem to be "loners" with a high opinion of their own worth.)