Wha does 'gifted' mean?

[BrittaPerry]

I'm pretty sure dd1 is clever, but not gifted. She surprises people with stuff she has remembered, but it just happens that she has remembered impressive stuff, ykwim - if she remembered all the football players or something it wouldn't surprise people so much. She is also a very fluent reader at 5, but tbh, give it a couple of years and most kids can read - I actually find it quite sad how the teacher is so excited at a child who can read without talking and understand what she has read. . She is definitely in the top 10% at school, but that is definitely where me and dh were, and we are right knackers!

But, I am curious. Please don't get competitive, but what is 'gifted'? Gcses at 6? Solo parts in orchestras at 10? That sort of thing?

There are loads of on-line definitions. The NAGC has definitions. Schools have definitions. Some definitions say an IQ over 130. There's mildly gifted, moderately gifted, highly gifted, gifted in only one area, twice exceptional which is gifted with a disabilty. There are gifted behaviours and characteristics. There are some lists that show the difference between being very bright and being gifted and when you look down the list, you would probably say that being very bright is actually preferable. I think that you are going to get lots of differing opinions on this.

OP your dd sounds very similiar to mine who is 5. She hit all the milestones really early, amazing memory, good reader, extensive vocab etc. I would agree that she is bright and has a lot of potential but I wouldn't use the term gifted for her.

I was very at the teacher saying she was excited to see what she would achieve. (she has the same teacher for Y1). The school have labelled her "more able" but I don't think the label really matters if the child is receiving challenging work.

At some point in the next couple of years we may get her tested not because we want to know her IQ but because we believe that she may possibly be dyslexic like myself. I don't think the school would test for this as she is not on the right side of the scale.

On paper she ticks a lot of boxes for being gifted as would your dd, but what does it really mean? My dd is my dd and I will still love her just the same and as long as she is happy, then I don't feel that any labels are neccessary.

I see potential and possibilities but at this age so much can change.

There was a child at my DD's nursery who clearly was gifted, it was never mentioned but you only had to speak to her to know you were talking to 3 y/o who was operating at a very high level.

What NiceWeather said. It's mostly context dependent.
In the Gifted fora universe there's much talk about "asynchronous development": which is a fancy phrase for "uneven" or even "inconsistent". Same child might do calculus whilst watching Peppa Pig, or write clever novels with much clever language and later have a meltdown about the wrong cutlery at tea time.

I personally think uneven is a quite normal thing, but I guess it seems odder when the disparities get so big.

Might be better to talk about what Giftedness doesn't mean. It doesn't mean always being top of the class. It doesn't mean excelling at everything. It doesn't mean having always going to top Uni or getting top jobs or earning most money. It doesn't guarantee great or terrible social skills. It doesn't mean lazy & no work ethic. There are a huge number of things it doesn't mean.

As niceweather said there are many differing definitions and characteristics. I did a google search and found the list which stated characteristics and was happy to find mine is talented I think.