This is a fabulous summary of the gifted preschooler at various ages. We know at Grayson that gifted PreK children are tremendously hungry to learn, and that research shows that 3- and 4-year-old gifted children get tremendous social-emotional and intellectual benefits from learning together from trained teachers. This is why we include preschoolers in our programming — yet we are one of only a few institutions in the country that do so.
We often jokingly remark that perhaps the best place to find gifted preschoolers is the grocery store — they are the ones reading all the signs, or talking about prices and money, or asking why the strawberries come from Colombia (and where is Colombia, anyway? and how do they get here? and do they have to go to the airport like we do? and does that mean that the strawberries speak Spanish? etc.).
I already was labeled long ago as being about like Tolan's Jason, and I was already pretty sure my daughter's about like RJ, but it hurts to read this and see that it describes my daughter and describes me even more.
(It's especially frustrating that MY OWN PARENTS complain she's spoiled and I'm pushing her when they got the same complaints, ye gods. She's not even as advanced as I was so how can they claim I'm pushing her? I go with her flow and occasionally even underestimate her, though I clocked her as "like RJ" over a year ago so I can't honestly say I'm "running to keep up" like most parents of level 4s stereotypically do.)
I don't find her intense or difficult whatsoever (guess I must be even more intense). And I understand her thought processes. My husband (typical original-CTYer) does find her intense. It bugs me to see my parents get upset at her emotional outbursts, makes me wonder how they reacted to mine. (I either comfort her or just ignore them, seems to work well. I feel like I lucked out and got an "easy child"!)
My mom did say that these days watching her makes her miss her own toddler girl. :)
Hang in there. My old dad (he’s 100) showed me he can learn new things, but some things I had to accept. He loves the pretty little girl and woman I’ve always been. Deep conversations, seeing me as worthy of not being skipped over in the family in favor of my brothers, or trust in most of my knowledge, not so much. Where I finally got through to him was in getting him to absorb and see that he’s unusually smart. It finally sank in for him. Now he feels bad that he didn’t do more with his life. I told him he was a good man and he did the best he could. For my own kids, he’s never understood one of them. That forty-something has always known it. It’s just the way dad is. So we limited any expectations of too much interaction between the two of them. Whew! Hang in there!
Not recent results. It's not exactly that easy to figure out because high intelligence, for example, can do anything they want, so there will be highly intelligent people in all kinds of workplaces. There are minimum IQs for many professional roles, too, and one can usually intuit what those might be. For example, an IQ in the 120s can become a medical doctor; however, it takes a higher IQ to turn it into becoming a brain surgeon or a cancer researcher from among the medical professionals. And there are no guarantees the brain power means you should do something that only extremely intelligent people can do. The creativity and great intellectual leaps will show up anywhere from those who have the brains for it.
An you pleas do an extensive piece like this on middle schoolers and high schoolers, particularly because the identifications are not at the top of mind these days and many kids of color and kids who act out are gifted and not being noticed for that.
It’s not possible to do the same kind of identification as the gifted children get older. There are many reasons for this. I can try to write a clear piece on why this is so. Thanks for the suggestion (request).
This is a fabulous summary of the gifted preschooler at various ages. We know at Grayson that gifted PreK children are tremendously hungry to learn, and that research shows that 3- and 4-year-old gifted children get tremendous social-emotional and intellectual benefits from learning together from trained teachers. This is why we include preschoolers in our programming — yet we are one of only a few institutions in the country that do so.
We often jokingly remark that perhaps the best place to find gifted preschoolers is the grocery store — they are the ones reading all the signs, or talking about prices and money, or asking why the strawberries come from Colombia (and where is Colombia, anyway? and how do they get here? and do they have to go to the airport like we do? and does that mean that the strawberries speak Spanish? etc.).
I already was labeled long ago as being about like Tolan's Jason, and I was already pretty sure my daughter's about like RJ, but it hurts to read this and see that it describes my daughter and describes me even more.
(It's especially frustrating that MY OWN PARENTS complain she's spoiled and I'm pushing her when they got the same complaints, ye gods. She's not even as advanced as I was so how can they claim I'm pushing her? I go with her flow and occasionally even underestimate her, though I clocked her as "like RJ" over a year ago so I can't honestly say I'm "running to keep up" like most parents of level 4s stereotypically do.)
I don't find her intense or difficult whatsoever (guess I must be even more intense). And I understand her thought processes. My husband (typical original-CTYer) does find her intense. It bugs me to see my parents get upset at her emotional outbursts, makes me wonder how they reacted to mine. (I either comfort her or just ignore them, seems to work well. I feel like I lucked out and got an "easy child"!)
My mom did say that these days watching her makes her miss her own toddler girl. :)
Hang in there. My old dad (he’s 100) showed me he can learn new things, but some things I had to accept. He loves the pretty little girl and woman I’ve always been. Deep conversations, seeing me as worthy of not being skipped over in the family in favor of my brothers, or trust in most of my knowledge, not so much. Where I finally got through to him was in getting him to absorb and see that he’s unusually smart. It finally sank in for him. Now he feels bad that he didn’t do more with his life. I told him he was a good man and he did the best he could. For my own kids, he’s never understood one of them. That forty-something has always known it. It’s just the way dad is. So we limited any expectations of too much interaction between the two of them. Whew! Hang in there!
Great info! Thanks. Is there any data on which professions have the highest IQ?
Not recent results. It's not exactly that easy to figure out because high intelligence, for example, can do anything they want, so there will be highly intelligent people in all kinds of workplaces. There are minimum IQs for many professional roles, too, and one can usually intuit what those might be. For example, an IQ in the 120s can become a medical doctor; however, it takes a higher IQ to turn it into becoming a brain surgeon or a cancer researcher from among the medical professionals. And there are no guarantees the brain power means you should do something that only extremely intelligent people can do. The creativity and great intellectual leaps will show up anywhere from those who have the brains for it.
An you pleas do an extensive piece like this on middle schoolers and high schoolers, particularly because the identifications are not at the top of mind these days and many kids of color and kids who act out are gifted and not being noticed for that.
It’s not possible to do the same kind of identification as the gifted children get older. There are many reasons for this. I can try to write a clear piece on why this is so. Thanks for the suggestion (request).