Characteristics of a gifted preschooler

[Chancewouldbefinething]

Please could you list the characteristics/personality traits of your kids at reception age. I'm not necessarily looking for academic indicators as in "he could recite his times tables etcbut inborn traits. Thanks!

Excuse the weird faces! Typing in transit!!

Just a normal 4 year old. Quiet and made friends with a few others in the class. If people had have just talked to her, she would have come across as a typical child, with nothing in her in particular to suggest she was anything out of the ordinary academically. She certainly did not have the usual traits which people connect with G&T.

Quiet, beautiful, sensitive. Exceptionally caring, right from being in the womb. When she was on the inside, if a child cried nearby or on television, she would kick up a fuss, and kick her Mamma! When old enough to take the lead in activities, she always tried to include the whole family. Did seem to suffer from depression.

Recognising some written words by nine months. Reading independently just after 2.4yrs. Very articulate, very early - used to scare people who spoke to her expecting a babyish gurgle but got a sensible answer instead. Could hold conversations with strangers at thirteen months.

My DS1 age 9 is gifted in the sense of 'top of his class' rather than 'genius'.

As a 4/5 year old I would describe him as: active, sensible, sensitive, good memory, kind.

Rigid, attentive, controlling, would not be told -she knew everything already! Very keen on rules

Wicked sense of humour, lots of imaginative play, chatty but blunt

Childminder said she had a low concentration span, always flitting from activity to activity
At home, if she was interested in something she would stick at it for hours

My Dad identified at 18months when she was sequencing numbers backwards, we laughed at him. She was inquisitive, chatty and engaging in reception. Was identified as really very bright in year 3. Year 5 CAT testing showed really gifted, but that she was not achieving her potential. Turned out she was dyslexia a year of really sustained helped has started the process of achieving potential, but a long way to go.

Very articulate from a young age, mature for age, great skewed sense of humour, resistance to change in routine ( though that was cracked through bombardment), sensitive

Similar to justrichmal except mine was an extrovert but only in the normal sense. Yes her ability was noticeable but only if it was relevant to the subject at hand. And to be honest I didn't really pay much attention at preschool age, if I considered it at all I just thought she'd either level out or that other children had less desire/ interest in whatever she was doing and they weren't. With hindsight I'd say her ability to 'just know' some things was the indicator rather than accomplishments, behavior or social interactions.

Ability to concentrate/persevere for an unusually long time (hours at a time from the age of 2 or 3 if it was something she was really interested in), constant asking questions (things I couldn't really answer eg 'how do people grow'), v v articulate and able to put into words some quite sophisticated emotions (eg when talking about other classmates and why some people might not always want to pay attention/be good/be kind/be sensible), V V V keen on rules from about a year old, otherwise pretty normal. Unusually crap at sports type activities, mainly due to having an over-developed perception of danger!

Smiled at 2 weeks old.. Spoke Early. Dry day and night at just over 18 months..(refused to wear nappies -would take them off and sit on toilet)

Could easily manipulate others around. Could guess another's thoughts and intentions easily.
High maintenance .. Non stop head-pecker
Deliberately awkward..didn't want to do things in only the way they were presented.
Would reverse detailed instructions/sequences and do a task that way (to find entertainment or get a rise from others as well I think)
Could memorise stuff easily.
Behaved and looked about 2-3 years older (still does at 12)
Bit of a despot at 3ish tbh

Potty trained by 18 months; could read and write before starting school; excellent vocabulary but speech not clear; hated leaving me; hated leaving the house; hated anything new/different; favourite word was 'why'; loved anything to do with dinosaurs, whales, sharks and dolphins; used to line all her toys up and read to them; everything was ordered and had its place; did not like socialising or new people.........now aged 17, her bedroom is a tip and she is always either out or has friends round

hated leaving me; hated leaving the house; hated anything new/different;

Oh yes, this.

And very sensitive to different materials etc. - hated wearing anything that was tight or didn't like the feel of, and used to take her clothes off and lie on a sheepskin rug! She is still funny about the 'feel' of things - I have to buy expensive Oxford paper for her school work as it is smooth and she doesn't like the feel of paper. I think I would describe her as quirky.

Ds1: shy, warm-hearted, exceptionally emotionally intelligent, trusting, strong sense of right and wrong, making lots of pertinent observations about the world generally and human behaviour, loved routine, tended to be obsessed with something for months and then suddenly discard it (e.g. dinosaurs), easygoing.

DS2: competitive, independent, socially confident, brave, determined

Actually they are still quite like this.

Why do you ask?

One thing I forgot was she went through eating habits that in a very rough way resembled asd, eg days/weeks of eating only one kind of food, before suddenly swopping to the next food fad, and about how food was arranged. Obviously not like asd in anyway because her reaction was entirely different, just the actual eating habit iyswim. And maybe a red herring because loads of under fives go through that phase, but she did carry it out to a greater extent of obsession than her peers did

My girls probably class as able rather than truly G&T (i.e they make the G&T list at school by dint of being in the top 10%) and the difference between them and their peers was always their ability to concentrate on something. At a time when their peers would only focus on one thing for 5 mins my girls would spend 20-30 mins doing that same activity.

I don't think there is a typical personality of a gifted child, children just have personalities and varying levels of ability.

5 yo DS is strong willed, determined, often single minded. He asks questions that just show he is thinking sideways as well as learning e.g he was asking about angles this weekend so we talked about right angles, acute angles and obtuse angles his next question was "what is a left angle?"

Ds had first words at seven months, two or three words together by nine months exceptionally articulate by 15 months. Remember taking him to the gp at 15 months who said he had never heard anything like it before.
He had a long attention span and an incredible memory he could name makes and models of cars, flags of the world, every motorway and lots of the B roads on a map, every country on a globe.
He was very independent really early on,wanted to do everything himself and was determined enough to persevere until he had mastered whatever it was he wanted to do.
He was very kind and very well behaved probably because he wasn't ever really frustrated and he had a wicked sense of humour, a really lovely boy.

Mine was very late to speak and had speech therapy before school.
Never shut up after this, was constantly talking.
Could repeat the exact tone of any noise she heard, train, car, etc and sing back to birdsong.
She would attempt anything but would usually hang about at the end of the queue.
Inconsolable when there was something she couldn't do, which in future years has seen the anger and frustration change to determination and drive to improve.
very competitive and expects a lot from herself. A perfectionist.
Bright academically when she can be bothered but doesn't see the importance of this as she knows what she wants to do and school work doesn't really factor into this.

insanity you could be describing my DS. Spookily could also name car makes/models early on. Has been obsessed with geography the last two years, mainly countries/capitals but also motorways etc.

Shakey I remember his Reception year teacher coming out laughing one day. The class had been on the school trip the day previously and they had been talking about what they had enjoyed the most about the day. Ds told her he'd enjoyed seeing junction 30 of the M1 the most.
He loved maps and was forever drawing them or studying them, they fascinated him, no idea what sparked his interest though.

No words before 2.5, first sentence well over 3 years old. But happy, independent, curious, cheeky and very settled toddler, with some strange repetitive behaviour and specific interests. Late bloomer in communications but early understanding of complex maths concepts. G and t in maths and in top set in reading and writing. He knows the top speed of so many cars, can talk about engines, weird compression or injection engines, etc. he knows loads about jet engines and wants to invent new environmentally friendly engines for airplanes... So a bit odd and strange!

DD1was perfectly ' normal ' child ,if sometimes intense,though spoke at 9 months and was very articulate with good vocabulary by the time she started school .Learnt to read quickly .Always hugely interested in everything .Was told by Yr 2teacher she was exceptionally bright .Took a double First at Cambridge and got a distinction in her Masters .Wants to save the world .Not always too empathetic to individuals.Finds small talk boring !

Shackey and Insanity DS is also obsessed with maps, he likes to discuss what route people have taken to get to our house and when we are in the car he likes to have the sat nav on as well as several phone apps open so here can not only see the route we take but also try to work out better routes, he is cross checking each of the phone apps- google maps vs waze vs Apple maps vs tomtom. It is exhausting for everyone else in the car, not least the driver

Blip and Insanity that's weird eh? We were told that whilst not autistic, DH has a "gift" (not over keen on the word) for absorbing data. We went on a 7hr drive and he was happy as Larry sat with his maps mentally marking off the junctions. We're overrun with well thumbed maps at home.