honest question; if you have a GT child....

[LaBoheme]

what were they like as babies? did they pass all their developmental milestones sooner than expected? Did they show any signs of being "bright" or super aware when tiny..
I am genuinely curious....x

Both assessed as gifted at primary school:

DS - extremely alert easily bored baby, walked at 1, fluent talker by 18 months, started reading at 2, completely fluent reader when he went to school. Loved maths/mental arithmetic from the age of 3. Reluctant to write until he could spell all the words properly.

DD - like kammy's DS DD was average on physical development (apart from fine muscle control which was very late) - but wouldn't do anything until she could do it properly. Got very frustrated because she couldn't do things as well as older brother. Early reader/speller (before she was 3), but refused to write at primary school until she could write properly. Writing continued to be an issue as having avoided it for so long she never developed any real desire to do more than she absolutely had to (she even chose her GCSEs on the basis of those with the least coursework/essays!).

boo64

I'm not a great believer in IQ as a test of 'intelligence' - there's a bigger question here altogether of what is the definition of being 'bright' - its much easier to know what isn't than what is iykwim...especially in adults....I knew some not-so-bright pupils in my sixth form who managed striaght a's but certainly wouldn't have managed to do so in Science A levels etc etc - also knew some fairly orindary intelligence wise uni friends who managed 1sts in less demanding degree subjects...its so difficult to judge someone's intelligence purely on the basis of test results...I guess I'm just too long in the tooth to be easily impressed now.....also its not always a blessing as this thread points out -

ds was rather scarily alert, in a "give me more information about the world now" way, from about two weeks - people used to remark on it - and when I had a reunion of the pre-natal group (6 week old babies) his intensity of gaze & alertness was quite different from the others. He was reaching out for stuff at 10 weeks (wobblily, obviously, but with real determination).

But that intensity of interest was actually foreshadowing (I think) a bit of a fundamental filtering problem - in that he continues (he's now 8) to be intensely interested in everything, all the time, and can't prioritise - so school, with all its potential distractions, has been pretty difficult.

It's an intriguing problem.

Bink - that's exactly what my eldest ds was like as a baby - and still is at 10

It was actually quite spooky as a baby as he just wasn't reacting in the same way as any of the other babies his age. He was diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome at 4 and to be honest it was almost a relief as we'd always known there was something different and it helped to be able to put a name on it. Part of the problem with TS is that it's like his brain is missing a filter, so that everything going in has the same priority and he doesn't have the usual inhibitions on what comes out ... so school can be very tricky at times.

He's also scarily bright - he had his IQ tested a while back as there seemed to be a mismatch between his performance and how he spoke/thought - the results put him in the top 0.2% of the population, but for him to reach his potential academically will be very hard I suspect.

My dd who's 4 is also very bright, but in a much more 'normal' way - so I wouldn't say she was G&T, just likely to be top of her class - but that's absolutely fine as exceptional intelligence is a bit of a double-edged sword

I have 2 kids who are bright, but the younger one is definitely the one who is G and T. The older one is bright, but she has to work at things, the younger one does absolutely no work and gets As in everything (she is 12).

She started talking when she was 8 months old. Physically she was a bit behind the older one, as she didn't walk until she was about 13 - 14 months. She slept nearly all the time too, so I don't think a wakeful child means anything. She was useless at potty training and was still in nappies at night at 4 years old.

She knew colours and shapes very young and had really good understanding of what we said to her. Much more than my older one. She spoke in sentences too at a very young age. I wrote down all the words and sentences she could say when she was 14 months for her baby book - I still have it somewhere - I will have to look it out. I can remember being surprised by her when she was a baby and not liking to talk about it to friends because it was embarassing.

Persistence is what she also has - if something wasn't quite right, she would try over and over again until it she had mastered it - like putting a block into a hole with clumsy little fingers.

Ds1 has not been labelled as G&T (to my knowledge - but our school does not make a point of telling us) but he sat year 2 SATS back in Feb when he was still 5 and in yr 1.

He was a doddle as a baby - entertained himself all the time, barely cried, slept like a dream. Nightmare, fussy eater though.

He walked at 9 months but apart from that, he didn't do anything particularly early. In fact, he probably started to talk later than others in our NCT group.

He didn't read before he went to school or anything like that - but he was always quite obviously 'bright', 'switched on' if you like.

By half way through reception he was on books geared at year 2 children.

To me he's just bright - I don't think he is a genius or anything.

He came across as more 'bright' than ds2 - or has until now because ds2 is reading now and he's not started reception yet. That is all lead by him too - he has totally taken me by surprise by suddenly sounding out and reading words, recognising numbers up to 100 and some hundred numbers, doing simple sums. Compared to ds1 at the same age, he is capable of more.

I don't know. As long as mine are happy kids that are keen to go to school and have a varied life - that's all that really matters.

Ds3 has brilliant language for his age. For quite a while now he has been able to dress himself, put his own shoes on etc. Again, he comes across as being really bright and people do comment on it. He's only 2 so it will be interesting to see how he gets on!

Don't know what the label means. Don't know how useful the label is once you have "achieved" it.

You know, every single ultra ultra clever person I have ever met has been barking. Without any exaggeration or exception. So I have concluded that being a genius is not an especially desirable state of being.

If G and T just means bright in old money - like in the top five or ten percent in IQ terms - then that's not a cross to bear. Mine are I think in that sort of bracket. They got to all their developmental milestones up to the age of 3 precisely on time. Not late but never more than a month or so early.

As a parent I only see flashes of their alleged cleverness mixed in with some staggeringly silly behaviour. The other day I went through simultaneous equations with DD (9) and she got them first time. I did this because she asked me what they were and for no other reason, I hasten to add. DS is very quick to pick up on minor inferences and explores them with me. He finds links that I miss very regularly and sees patterns more clearly.

Ds1 is very bright. He was very articulate at 2 and could read at 3. I remember a girl stacking shelves in the supermarket doing a double take when he pointed at a box of household wipes and said "T-E-S-C-O, Tesco!" Paradoxically he has ADD and finds classroom situations overwhelming, he is hypersensitive to sound and touch but oddly enough has no difficulty concentrating on maths and computers!
DS2 has dypraxia which delayed his speech but he is excellent at mental arithmetic.
Ds3 is more co-ordinated than either of the other 2, and is better at 2 at using cutlery than ds2 is at 8. He has also figured out how to get out of the buggy, carsear and cot. Not sure how bright he is yet, but he's definitely trouble!

Ds was a late walker and sitter but a very early and fluent talker.
Did not learn to read until he started proper school, or write.
We are in the early stages of the G & T process, initiated by the school.
I am not entirely sure ds fits many of the super-aware/super-sensitive criteria associated with G & T tbh. I think he's more of just a brainy child IYSWIM.

I love Quattro's 'staggeringly silly behaviour' My DD2 was obviously bright from an early age, fluent talker - her first sentence was at 12 months 'Daddy's plate empty. Daddy eat all!' could write her name at just 2, and early reader. She was also pulling herself to stand at 5 months but I don't really see that as an indicator of brightness as my other bright daughter didn't stand till she was 14 months (she was prem though.) Super-aware, cunning, slept little, very active, great sense of humour etc - all those things were there too from babyhood.

It was obvious that DD2 was unusually bright just from her conversations and ability with puzzles etc, and that's been consistent (for those who are interested as to whether these early indications are likely to be a flash in the pan, her GCSE results were 10 A* even in the subjects she hated and didn't work at and included two letters of being among the top 5 marks in the country - AS levels in Maths and Sciences nigh-on full marks) - she's now got a place at Oxford to study Biology this year. But she's no genius - just a very bright girl - and she can STILL be 'staggeringly silly' at times!

Oh and in case this sounds boastful (arrrgh) it's not all good news - she has been a difficult child to raise.... driven me mad, bless her... and is not nearly as socially able and confident as many girls her age (17.) No idea if this is to do with the brightness, which leads to extra self-consciousness and imaginative fears, or whether it's just her personality in general (a mixture of the two, I suspect.) Sometimes I think both she and I would have had an easier life had she been less clever, and more placid, and that's the truth.

Hmm interesting, I suspect there is an 'optimal' level of intelligence Oenophile - one where you are intelligent enough to do well at school but not so much that you feel or are made to feel alienated from other kids because of it.

I would have been termed G&T if such a term had existed in my day and I definitely did analyse friendships (and everything really) rather too much so yes maybe it is that with your dd? Still do to be honest. What helps is that as you get older I think you have more opportunity to meet and choose like-minded friends so you might find she blossoms socially at university.

She sounds super-bright - e.g. it's pretty amazing that she came out with that sentence at so early an age - it must have been great to get an insight into such a young child's thoughts.