I'm not sure where to go from here...

[BabelFish]

I just read DD a book that I know she has not ever read before, ever seen or ever had read to her.

It's quite a simple book (Shhh, Little Mouse) and I read it to her twice.

Then she wanted it read again, so I said `well, why don't you read it to me?' and she did. Almost word for word. From memory.

I KNOW she is very bright and I KNOW that GATCA has told me that she is probably gifted and can have testing in 18 months when she is nearly four, but I don't know what to do from here.

They advised me to do things with her that she can handle - not necessarily things that are `age appropriate'. I said I didn't want to push her, but they also said we had to be careful not to hold her back because boredom is a killer for gifted kids.

But she's not even 2.5 years old. How do I know what she can manage and what she can't? Her memory is absolutely remarkable, so I guess I start with some memory games? She can read a little bit - just individual letters etc. She knows that her name starts with `P' and whenever she sees one she points it out, etc. I KNOW she is getting bored and I'm at a loss at the moment to think of new things to entertain her with.

What we do daily is normal kid stuff. We read HEAPS of books, we draw, we play with Playdoh, we do puzzles, we count, we sing, we dance. We cuddle, we go to parks, we go for walks, she plays with her little brother. We cook together and she is also starting make-believe on her own (going to the shops for groceries, baking food for me etc etc).

Her little brain is just surging forward, the things she is coming out with are constantly amazing me, as are her exploding vocabulary and sentence structures.

I have been invited by GATCA to a gifted children's playgroup that will start next year, so that's great. But what did you guys who had very VERY verbally advanced children do with your little ones? I just need some ideas.

Also - I want to stress that I'm not getting anxious about this. She will develop at her own pace and I've always let her do that. I just want to make sure that I am providing her what she needs.

[share a book]

It sounds like you are very in touch with her and are doing things at her pace. That's fantastic! One suggestion would be to find something she has an interest in and explore that with her, as much as she wants to explore it. My little girl's daycare mum has 2 gifted children, one's at university and the other is in primary school still. She also has another child who just finished Year 12 and got top marks for every single subject and did things like physics and the other harder subjects, but not gifted. With all her children, she followed their cues with everything, but particularly with her 2 gifted children she has gone above and beyond and taken them on journeys they wanted to go on to explore their fascinations, and she is now reaping the rewards with this. They have not been pushed into anything they didn't want to do, but they have also never been bored. They have tried to stay away from things they are likely to learn at school, or do more than simply touch on in the classroom, so they weren't doing it at home then re-doing it at school.

I say just follow her interests, do things at her pace, ignore the age on things.

[mummajugs]

im interested in hearing some opinions too.

My DD is 2 and a half and whilst i dont think she is 'gifted' she is just very intelligent when it come to memory and speech. She totally blows me away with the things she knows and says.

[BabelFish]

Well I rang my Mum who used to work for the gifted children's association here, many years ago. She is a teacher and has a special interest in gifted children. All three of us (my two brothers and myself) were in gifted programmes all the way through school, so she knows what she is doing. We've chatted a few times about it, obviously, but lately DD is going through a real mental leap so I wanted some more specific advice from Mum.

She told me she has worked with a lot of gifted children and seen a lot of things in 40 years of teaching but that she has not come across one like my DD. Even including my eldest brother who is the scariest person I know in terms of his brain and mind.

Thanks Mum - big help! :laughing:

[mim1]

It's scary isn't it?

My ds was similar at 2 and a half. My mum is a kindergarten teacher and she always said you can't tell a child is gifted til they are at least 4 ... then she watched my ds at age 2 and suddenly she realised that younger children can show gifted tendencies too. My ds's memory is extremely scary. At age 3 (and a tiny bit) he was going somewhere with my dh & my dh said "Remember, we went there at Christmas last year" and my ds said "Yes, and there was a waterslide there". Now, this event we went to only lasted a couple of hours and was not discussed afterwards at all and the fact that he remembered a year later (and he'd only been 23 months at the time of the last visit) was super scary.

At about 2.5 I got scared that I couldn't keep up with him either. But you start to realise that you can manage, it's just a new stage in toys/games and a big jump from 'normal' 2 year old stuff. For us, it meant getting more puzzles including number & letter ones, reading more and more, and generally just changing the way we talk. You'll do most of your stimulation for her in what you talk about. So, talk about colours ("what colours do you see in this picture?") or numbers ("how many grapes do you have in your bowl?") or shapes ("what shape is that ball/book/sandwich?).

My ds still can't get enough adult conversation. He is quite verbally advanced (takes after his Daddy who apparently was very similar at that age) and he loves to talk to adults. He can understand quite complex concepts so we really have to watch what we talk about in front of him. We also have to restrict his TV viewing to shows intended for pre-schoolers. He's a lot more sensitive than other children about scary scenes which is apparently part of being gifted (I suspect it's because he does actually realise what could happen and therefore gets really scared).

It is quite a rollercoaster to parent a gifted child and I found it quite daunting initially, but it's a fantastic journey. All the best!

[Tangarine Mummy Machine]

I have 2 very differant types of gifted. My ds is asd and he wants to follow the same patterns from when he was even 8 months. We went somewhere recently and i hadn't been there since he was 6 months and he said "this" and then "this " and then "this". It was strange. He also points out directions. "ds where did you go with nan. " "i ent this way, then this way, then this way, then this way, then this way, then this way" ect. He doesn't just say play cafe he says the whole directions to get there.

[the girls mum]

I am interested in this thread.

Munch is similar with memory - can have a book read too her a couple times and then recite it back - simple books - but still freaks me out.

Also grasps big words for a 28 month old such as appreciate, compromise, extraordinary etc and can use them in a sentence that makes sense - she also talks ALOT - and not in point form - full sentences and has been for a while.

Has recently started recognizing letters and the sounds they make ie a makes ahhhh, b makes bahhh etc - that freaked me out.

She is also scared easily by things on tv - even quite harmless shows - gets very upset if someone falls over or people are chasing someone etc.

But its her memory that freaks me out the most - I dont know if she is gifted but in terms of language and memory she seems to be advanced???

I dont do anything much with her though just play as normal and talk back and chat with her to her non stop questions haha