People commenting within child's hearing

[JennyBlueWren]

DS is 4 and clearly able and vocal so people do notice.

I have repeatedly had people talking about his abilities within his hearing. I don't mind them saying "oh you can read that?" or similar but friends repeatedly refer to him as a genius and loudly talk about how he is so intelligent right next to him.

How should I respond? Am I being unfair to not want them to talk like this, especially within his hearing? He takes everything in but hasn't asked about it yet. I want to act like everything's normal but he is quite noticable sometimes.

Unfortunately this happens to all types of children, very beautiful children will get compliments, babies with bright blue eyes, kids who can run fast or are good at football, and the opposite as well - DS had a speech delay and some of the comments said in his face were quite mean and hurtful. I have a friend whose daughter has one blue eye and one brown eyes and the girl is very beautiful and people comment about her every day - mum is worried about the impact on her daughter. It comes with the parcel, but the comments that will have the most impact are coming from you and family so encourage and praise effort, hard work, solution finding, creativity, and not ‘cleverness’.

Thanks for replying. Good point about how people will always comment on something and often that can be something negative.